A compact contact-exchange format created by NTT DoCoMo (MECARD:N:name;TEL:...;;) that encodes business-card data in fewer characters than vCard, popular for simple contact QR codes.
MeCard is a lightweight contact data format developed by NTT DoCoMo for encoding business-card information in QR codes and NFC tags. Where vCard is a full IETF standard with dozens of properties and multiple versions, MeCard is deliberately minimal: a single-line, semicolon-delimited structure that captures the fields people actually put on contact QR codes — name, phone numbers, email, address, URL, and a short note — in as few characters as possible.
Format anatomy
A MeCard payload is one logical line beginning with the literal MECARD: and ending with a double semicolon. Fields are tagged with short uppercase identifiers:
MECARD:N:Doe,John;TEL:+12025551234;TEL:+12025555678;EMAIL:john@example.com;URL:https://example.com;ADR:;;123 Main St;Springfield;IL;62701;USA;;
The defined fields are N (name, surname-first with a comma), TEL (repeatable for multiple numbers), EMAIL, URL, ADR (with empty components preserved by consecutive semicolons), BDAY, NICKNAME, and NOTE. There is no versioning, no character-set negotiation, and no photo support — the format trades vCard's expressiveness for brevity, which directly translates into a smaller, more scannable QR symbol.
MeCard versus vCard
The practical difference is payload size. A minimal contact (name, one phone, one email) runs roughly 60–80 characters in MeCard versus 100–140 in vCard 3.0 — enough to drop a QR version or two at the same error correction level. vCard counters with universality: it is the IETF standard, supports organizations, titles, multiple structured addresses, and imports cleanly into every major contacts app and email client. MeCard counters with simplicity: easier to generate by hand, easier to parse, and natively recognized by both iOS and Android camera apps for the core fields.
Reader support reality
Both iOS Camera and Android's QR handling recognize MECARD payloads and offer to create a contact, covering name, phone, email, URL, and address for the overwhelmingly common cases. Edge fields (BDAY, NICKNAME, NOTE) have spottier support — some parsers import them, others silently drop them. If your contact card needs organization, job title, or multiple labeled phone numbers (work vs. mobile vs. fax), vCard is the safer choice; parsers treat unrecognized MeCard extensions inconsistently.
When to choose MeCard
Choose MeCard for the simplest contact QR codes: a personal card with name, phone, email, and website, where every character saved keeps the symbol sparse. Event badges, stickers, and engraved plates — anywhere the printed code is small — benefit from MeCard's compactness. Choose vCard when the contact is a full business identity with company, title, and structured addresses, or when the codes feed into enterprise systems that expect the standard format. Either way, encode in byte mode with UTF-8 for non-Latin names, and test the scan-to-contact flow on both iOS and Android before printing.
Diagram description: Annotated MeCard payload with each field tag labeled, beside a vCard encoding of the same contact, with character counts and resulting QR versions compared.