The present application provides a barcode-based communication method, including: rendering first transmission information into a first barcode, and displaying the first barcode for scanning by a peer device; and scanning a second barcode displayed by the peer device, to obtain second transmission information included in the second barcode, where the second transmission information is obtained by the peer device based on a processing result of the first transmission information. According to the technical solutions of the present application, two communication parties can perform bidirectional information transmission by using barcodes, to alleviate information asymmetry caused by unidirectional communication and improve service integrity and security.