Barcode Scanners
Hyvä POS is in closed beta
Hyvä POS is currently in a closed beta (pilot phase) with a small group of merchants. It is not yet generally available: the App Store release follows the pilot, and features and configuration may still change - possibly in backwards-incompatible ways - before the general release. Want to take part? Sign up at hyva.io/pos.
Scanning is the fastest way to sell: a scan adds the line to the cart instantly, and the same scanners drive stock intake. Support comes in the same tiers as printers: tested, supported-but-untested, and the universal HID fallback.
What to Order
Prefer Socket Mobile or Zebra. Both have native driver support in the app, which is a noticeably smoother experience than keyboard emulation: in-app pairing, reliable reconnects, battery status. Socket Mobile was the most reliable in our testing.
A generic Bluetooth HID scanner works too and is trivial to set up; it is the easy fallback rather than the recommendation.
Tested by Hyvä
| Scanner | Connection | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Socket Mobile S720 | Bluetooth LE (native) or HID | Best overall in our testing |
| Zebra DS2278 | Bluetooth LE (native) | Reliable native support |
| Datalogic QuickScan QBT2101 | Bluetooth HID only | Works as a keyboard; no native integration |
Supported by the Drivers (Not Yet Tested by Us)
- Socket Mobile: the CaptureSDK range beyond the S720 (support is per protocol, not per model)
- Zebra: CS6080, RFD8500, RFD90
- Generic HID: any Bluetooth scanner with keyboard-emulation mode
Not supported: Zebra LI4278, RS5100 and CS4070 (these lack the iOS accessory approval their siblings have).
The iPad Camera
The camera scans 1D and 2D barcodes with nothing to pair, so a register works before any hardware arrives. Fine for incidental scanning; a hardware scanner is faster for all-day use.
Presentation Scanning and 2D Codes
Counter-top presentation scanners (always on, hold the product in front) work in HID mode. QR and DataMatrix codes scan like any 1D barcode, on hardware scanners and the camera alike.
One Thing to Know About HID Mode
A scanner in HID mode is a keyboard to iOS: while it is connected, the on-screen keyboard may hide. Natively supported scanners (Socket Mobile, Zebra) avoid this entirely, which is a big part of why we recommend them. For HID scanners, the app keeps text fields usable, and most models have a keyboard-toggle barcode in their manual.
Scanner Settings in the App
Three settings cover the quirks real scanners ship with. Strip prefix / suffix removes characters a scanner adds at firmware level to every code. Auto-add to cart decides whether a scan lands in the cart immediately or waits for confirmation. And for HID scanners, a scanner speed slider (80-500 ms) tunes the burst detector that tells a scan apart from someone typing.
Setup Barcodes Are Built into the App
The app's built-in help contains the vendor configuration barcodes for Socket Mobile, Zebra, Honeywell and Datalogic scanners - factory reset, iOS/HID mode, SDK mode and unpair - so a scanner that arrives in the wrong mode is fixed at the counter by scanning a code from the screen, no vendor utility needed. Honeywell cordless scanners connect through HID keyboard emulation only (no vendor-SDK integration), so they work like any HID scanner.