Most people in the UK will have seen recent Christmas stamps with a barcode, which were part of a trial.

Royal Mail have now announced that all their standard definitive stamps (that’s the plain, non-commemorative ones) and Christmas stamps will now have a barcode. Like so …

The idea is that we scan the barcodes using the Royal Mail app and we’ll eventually be able to watch videos, information about services, or birthday messages and other greetings from senders. Currently the only available video has been created for Royal Mail by animation studio Aardman, and features Shaun the Sheep. Further videos are planned to be released during 2022.

Beware: non-barcoded definitive and Christmas stamps will remain valid only until January 2023. Although there will be a scheme to trade them in for new models.

But, Oh dear! I foresee a whole new genre on Tik-Tok, Instagram and doubtless elsewhere. Be afraid; be very afraid!