Twitter has added QR codes but people aren't sure why

Twitter has added QR codes to its iOS and Android apps as the company struggles to convince investors that it's on the right path.

The new feature - designed to make it easier to follow people - was announced on Twitter by Brittany Forks, who is a designer at the social network.

But people are criticising the feature on the company's own platform, saying it's cumbersome and not what the struggling company needs right now.

You use them to add people, but it's not the most straight forward procedure. You'll need to open up your profile, tap the gear icon, tap "QR code", tap the scan button, and then scan the QR code of the person you want to follow. Meanwhile, the person you want to follow will also have to navigate to their own profile and bring up a QR code for you to scan.

The San Francisco tech company's share price has been falling gradually over the last few years and the company was forced to lay off 9% of its staff in October.

In Twitter's defence, the QR code feature, which can also be found on Snapchat, is unlikely to have taken its engineers too long to develop.