# Microsoft Tag
> Source: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/microsoft-tag
> research date 2026-06-03 · extracted at 2026-10-06
> Publisher: Barcoder — encyclopedia of QR, barcode and payment-code standards
Specifications:
- [High Capacity Color Barcode — Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Capacity_Color_Barcode)
- [Microsoft Gives Up On Its Tag Barcode Service — TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/19/microsoft-gives-up-on-its-tag-barcode-service-schedules-it-for-shutdown-in-2015/)
## Overview
**Microsoft Tag** was a mobile-tagging (barcode-scanning) service operated by Microsoft and built on the [HCCB](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/hccb) (High Capacity Color Barcode) symbology [1][1]. A Tag was a small grid of coloured triangles — Microsoft's proprietary alternative to the QR Code — that, when scanned with the Microsoft Tag reader app, acted as a "machine readable web link": the app sent the scanned code to a Microsoft server, which returned the publisher's intended URL or content [1][1]. The service was offered free of charge and was aimed primarily at print advertising and magazine campaigns [1][1][3][3].
## History
Microsoft Tag launched in **2009** as the consumer deployment of [HCCB](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/hccb), the colour-triangle barcode developed by Gavin Jancke at Microsoft Research [1][1]. It was provided as a **free** service, with code generation and scan analytics available to commercial and noncommercial users at no cost [1][1]. On **19 August 2013**, Microsoft announced it would wind the service down, scheduling termination for exactly two years later, on **19 August 2015** [1][1][2][2]. Microsoft selected **Scanbuy** and its **ScanLife** platform to support Microsoft Tag technology and offer existing customers a migration path toward standard QR codes, with that support beginning **18 September 2013** [1][1][2][2][4][4]. Basic transition was offered free, with premium migration packages priced from $69 per month [3][3].
## Technical specification
- **Symbology.** Microsoft Tag is a deployment of [HCCB](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/hccb); a Tag is rendered as **4 colours arranged in a 5 × 10 grid** of triangular symbols, and also works in a monochrome (black-and-white) form [1][1].
- **Cloud resolution (indirection).** Unlike a QR Code, which can encode a URL directly, a Microsoft Tag did not itself carry the destination. The reader app sent the scanned HCCB data to a **Microsoft server, which looked up the Tag ID and returned the publisher's intended URL**, so all Tags depended on Microsoft's online service to resolve [1][1].
- **Customisation.** Because the payload was an opaque ID resolved server-side, publishers could restyle Tags with custom colours and images while keeping them scannable [2][2][3][3].
## Use cases
Microsoft Tag was marketed for **print and advertising** — magazines, posters and product packaging — where a reader could scan the Tag to reach a campaign landing page, promotion or media information [1][1][3][3]. As a layer over [HCCB](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/hccb), it inherited HCCB's intended association with audiovisual works (films and games) and the ISAN identifier ecosystem [1][1].
## Implementations
There were **no public, open Microsoft Tag implementations**. Generating and resolving Tags required Microsoft's hosted service and the proprietary reader app; the symbology ([HCCB](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/hccb)) was never released as an open library or freely implementable specification [1][1]. After shutdown, continuity was provided only through Scanbuy's commercial ScanLife platform, not an open codebase [2][2][4][4].
## Comparison
Microsoft Tag competed directly with the open **QR Code**. Its advantage was the colour density of the underlying [HCCB](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/hccb) symbology and brand-customisable code art [1][1][3][3]. Its decisive disadvantages were that it required a **proprietary reader** and a **cloud lookup** to resolve every scan, whereas a QR Code is an open ISO standard that encodes its URL directly and needs no vendor server [1][1][2][2]. Commentators attributed the failure to weak adoption: QR codes themselves had limited consumer uptake, and a proprietary alternative had even less chance [2][2][4][4]. In the open-colour-2D lineage, the successor analogue is the unlicensed, ISO-standardised [JAB Code](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/jab-code), which delivers colour-boosted capacity without any server dependency [5][5].
## Fun facts
- A Microsoft Tag carried no destination data of its own — scanning one was useless without Microsoft's resolution server, which is precisely why every Tag stopped working when the service closed in 2015 [1][1].
- Microsoft gave a two-year notice (announced 2013, closing 2015) and outsourced the afterlife of its own format to a QR-code company, ScanLife/Scanbuy [2][2][4][4].
## Status
**Discontinued.** The Microsoft Tag service was announced for closure on 19 August 2013 and shut down on **19 August 2015**, after which existing Tags ceased to resolve; users were directed to migrate to Scanbuy's ScanLife QR-code platform [1][1][2][2][4][4].
## Sources
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Capacity_Color_Barcode
[2]: https://www.engadget.com/2013-08-19-microsoft-kills-tag.html
[3]: https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/19/microsoft-gives-up-on-its-tag-barcode-service-schedules-it-for-shutdown-in-2015/
[4]: https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-to-shut-down-the-microsoft-tag-service-in-two-years/
[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAB_Code
1. [High Capacity Color Barcode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Capacity_Color_Barcode) — Wikipedia, accessed 2026
2. [Microsoft Tag closing on August 19th 2015](https://www.engadget.com/2013-08-19-microsoft-kills-tag.html) — Engadget, 2013
3. [Microsoft Gives Up On Its Tag Barcode Service, Schedules It For Shutdown In 2015](https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/19/microsoft-gives-up-on-its-tag-barcode-service-schedules-it-for-shutdown-in-2015/) — TechCrunch, 2013
4. [Microsoft To Shut Down The Microsoft Tag Service In Two Years](https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-to-shut-down-the-microsoft-tag-service-in-two-years/) — MSPoweruser, 2013
5. [JAB Code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAB_Code) — Wikipedia, accessed 2026
## Deployments
_No country reports mention this standard by name._
## Regions / aggregations not mapped to a single country
- Universal