Embodiments of the present invention provide time-varying barcodes in an active display for information exchange. Specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for communicating information between electronic devices via a barcode image sequence. In a typical embodiment, a barcode image sequence is displayed on the display screen of a first electronic device. A second electronic device reads and decodes the barcode image sequence. The second electronic device displays an acknowledgement on the display screen of the second electronic device. The acknowledgement is read by the first electronic device.