Microsoft retires Office Lens on iOS and Android. What are the alternatives?

Microsoft is ending support for the once-popular document-scanning app, giving iOS and Android users until March before it stops working altogether.

The tech giant will end the support of the app, launched as Office Lens in 2015 and rebranded to Microsoft Lens in 2021, on February 9th. That same day, the app will also be removed from Apple App Store and Google Play Store, according to Microsoft.

Users will still be able to continue scanning documents in the app until March 9th, but it will not function beyond that point.

“After that, you will not be able to create new scans, but you will still be able to access your previous scans if the app remains installed on your device,” Microsoft said.

The company first announced it would retire Office Lens in August last year, so the app’s shutdown was not a surprise. However, it still caused some dismay among its dedicated users.

Despite its recent fall to relative redundancy, Office Lens was praised as a “killer app” in its heyday and described as one of the most useful tools released by Microsoft.

Microsoft said it recommends its OneDrive app, which includes a built-in scanning feature, as an alternative to Office Lens.

Other options include device native scanners or apps like Adobe Scan, CamScanner, Genius Scan, PDFgear Scan, or open-source OSS Document Scanner, among others.

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