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Two things can happen when someone scans a QR code, and one setting decides which:
  • Direct Mode — the scan goes straight to a single Destination. No page, no tap. The visitor lands in the vendor’s system.
  • Page Mode — the scan opens the Item’s Page, where the visitor picks from the Destinations you put there.
You can switch between them at any time without reprinting. The printed code encodes the Link, never the Destination, so changing mode changes behavior on codes already stuck to equipment.

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Where each is set

The Collection sets the default. In the Collection’s settings, the Scan behavior tab has one toggle, Show a profile page: on means new Items start in Page Mode, off means they start in Direct Mode. Turning it on also reveals the Collection’s page tab and the Page Editor; turning it off surfaces a Default destination builder instead, because a pass-through Item needs somewhere to send the scan. The Item can override it. Open an Item, go to its Destination tab, and pick one of two radio buttons:
  • Destination Link — redirect to a URL when scanned. This is Direct Mode.
  • Landing Page — show the Item’s page. This is Page Mode.
(The radio is labeled “Landing Page” in the current app. The canonical name for the thing it produces is a Page.)

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The inheritance rule

An Item’s own explicit choice always wins. An Item that has never made one inherits the Collection’s default. That second half is the part that surprises people. Items created by CSV import, or created before you last flipped the Collection toggle, may carry no explicit choice at all — so flipping the Collection default changes how those existing Items resolve, not just new ones. Items that have been saved through the Item form do carry an explicit choice, and they will not move.

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Conditional Destination rules force a redirect

One exception is worth knowing because it looks like a bug. If an Item carries active conditional Destination rules, it always redirects — even when its mode resolves to Page Mode. The rules are evaluated and the scan is routed; the Page is not rendered. So if you added routing rules to an Item and its page stopped appearing, that is why. Clear the rules to get the Page back, or move the branching into the Page itself by putting conditions on individual sections. See What Is a Destination?.

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Choosing between them

Direct Mode is right when a scan has exactly one sensible outcome — a product page, one asset record, one form. It is the fastest possible path for the person scanning, and it is what most single-purpose codes want. Page Mode is right when one code has to serve more than one purpose or more than one audience: the inspection app for the operator, the manual for the technician, a support form for the customer. One code, several Destinations, no second sticker. A Direct-Mode Item with no resolvable Destination does not fall back to a Page. It shows a “this link isn’t ready yet” screen instead, which tells a signed-in owner how to fix it and tells everyone else nothing useful — so leaving the Destination blank is not a way to get a Page.