Digital business card: what it is and how to share it

What a digital business card is

A paper card carries a name, a job, a number and an email. A digital one carries the same, plus whatever a phone can do with it: a photo, a tap to call or email, a map for your address, your social profiles and a few links, such as a booking page or a portfolio.

It also fixes the old problem with paper. Someone takes your card, puts it in a pocket and never types it in. With a digital card they can save you to their contacts there and then, while you’re still talking.

How people save your details

There are three ways in, and Business Card offers all of them.

1. Save contact. The main button on your card downloads a contact file (a .vcf, the vCard format every contacts app reads) made from the card itself, photo included. On an iPhone it opens as a contact to add; on Android, open the download and choose your contacts app; on a computer it’s a file for Outlook, Apple Contacts or Google Contacts.
2. The QR code. Someone points their phone camera at it, your card opens, and they tap Save contact. The QR code opens a version of the card without its pictures, so the code stays easy to scan.
3. The contact QR. Here the QR code holds your contact itself rather than a link. Any phone camera offers to add the contact straight away, with no web page and no internet. It leaves out the photo and links, as a picture is far too big for a QR code. If your card’s link gets too long for a QR code people could scan, the app switches to this one for you.

There’s also an optional Send me your details form under the card. The other person types their name, number and email, and their own email or messages app opens with a note to you, ready to send. Nothing passes through Yuzool.

Ways to share it

• A link. Copy it or use the share sheet, and send it by message or email, or put it in your social profiles.
• The QR code at an event. Show the QR code fills the screen with it, bright and big, so someone can scan it across a table. You can also save it as a picture.
• Your email signature. Add the card’s link as a line under your name. Business Card can also start an Email Signature from your card’s details, so the two match.
• On paper. Print cards makes a PDF of ten cards to a sheet, your details on the front and the QR code on the back. The QR code turns paper back into a digital card.

Make yours

1. Open Business Card. There’s nothing to sign up for. If you already have a Link in Bio page on the same device, you can start from it.
2. Add your photo, name, job and company, then your numbers, email, website and address. Leave out anything you’d rather not share.
3. Add your social profiles and any links that matter: a booking page, a menu, a portfolio.
4. Choose a design (Classic, Split and Minimal are free) and any accent colour.
5. Tap Share to copy the link, show the QR code or print.

Where your card is kept

Many card apps keep your details on their servers and charge a monthly fee to keep them online. Business Card works the other way: your card travels inside its own link. The details sit after the # in the address, a part that browsers don’t send to any server, so there’s no account and no copy of your card on Yuzool. Your edits stay on your device.

The catch is that a link holds the card as it was when you shared it. Change your number and you share again. With Business Card Pro ($1.99, once) you can have a short link, yuzool.com/card/your-name. Yuzool then keeps a copy so the same address shows your latest card, with counts of views and saves. That’s the only time your card is stored.

Sources

• Dawson, F. and Howes, T. (1998). RFC 2426: vCard MIME Directory Profile (vCard 3.0). IETF.
• Scan a QR code with iPhone, iPhone User Guide, Apple Support.