Microsoft has announced that it will soon shut down Microsoft Lens – PDF Scanner, a popular app used by millions of Android and iOS users worldwide for scanning images and converting them into PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files.
Previously known as Office Lens, Microsoft Lens has garnered more than 50 million downloads on the Google Play Store, boasting an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 and 136,000 ratings on the Apple App Store, making it one of the top-rated apps by the tech giant.
According to the tech giant, the Microsoft Lens app will be retired on September 15 and removed from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store on November 15. As for the scanning feature, the tech giant says users will be able to continue using it till December 15, after which “creating new scans in the Lens app will no longer be possible.” However, previously saved scans will still be available as long as the app is installed on your device.
To give you a quick recap, Microsoft Lens, then called Office Lens, was actually designed for devices powered by Windows Phones, with the core functionality being similar to other mobile scanning apps. The app quickly gained popularity amongst users as it allowed users to quickly scan an image or a handwritten note and convert it into various file types. It also came with several filters that can help enhance the resulting image, lighten a document or turn it into a black and white copy.
After the app is discontinued, the tech giant says users can transition to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, which also comes with a built-in scanning feature. While the Copilot AI-powered app can easily scan images, it misses out on most of the functionalities offered by the Lens app, like read-out-loud and Immersive Reader. Moreover, it does not allow users to quickly save their scans directly to other Microsoft apps like OneNote, Word and PowerPoint.
Alternatively, you can try out other document scanning apps like Document Scanner – PDF Creator, Adobe Scan AI PDF Scanner, OCR and Tiny Scanner – PDF Scanner App, to name a few.
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