The findings indicate that acoustic data transmission has unique advantages in facilitating information sharing and interaction between co-located users. Specifically, users expressed frustration with Bluetooth due to device selection issues, and with QR for the physical coordination required to scan codes. Perceived transaction time, physical effort, and connectivity issues. Participants also provided feedback on their user experience via surveys and semi-structured interviews. All QR code transactions were successful on the first attempt however, some acoustic (5.6%) and Bluetooth (16.7%) transactions required multiple attempts to successfully share a contact.

Overall, the results show that acoustic data transmission provides a rapid means of transferring data (mean transaction time of 2.4 s), in contrast to Bluetooth (8.3 s) and QR (6.3 s), whilst requiring minimal physical effort and user coordination. We present a user study comparing three wireless communication technologies (acoustic data transmission, QR codes and Bluetooth), when used for a common and familiar scenario: peer-to-peer sharing of contact information. In this work, we investigate the medium-specific properties of sound as a data exchange mechanism, and question how these contribute to the user experience of sharing data. A potential solution to these issues is the emerging technology of device-to-device acoustic data transmission. Yet despite the availability of various communication methods, data exchange between co-located devices is often complicated by technical and user experience barriers. Users of smart devices frequently need to exchange data with people nearby to them.

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