How to Scan Documents on Android

Renée Midrack is a former writer for Lifewire, where she wrote on emerging technology and smart devices. Midrack has been writing about technology for 15+ years.

Christine Baker is a marketing consultant with experience working for a variety of clients. Her expertise includes social media, web development, and graphic design.

What to Know

• Easiest: Tap Google Drive > plus sign (+) >Create New >Scan. Position the camera over the document, tap shutter, tap check mark.
• Use Adobe Scan: Tap screen >Continue. Tap the document’s thumbnail to edit and save.

This article explains two different ways to scan documents with your Android phone using Android 11 or higher.

How to Scan Documents on Android Using Google Drive

You need Google Drive installed to scan documents with Android. The app generally comes pre-installed on Android devices; if not, you can download it from the Google Play store.

Once you have it installed, follow these steps to scan documents with your phone:

Tap the check mark to keep the scan or the back arrow to retake it.

When you finish scanning your documents, enter a file name for your new PDF and choose a folder to save it in. Then, select Save.

How to Scan Documents Using Adobe Scan

Available scanner apps include Tiny Scanner, Genius Scan, TurboScan, Microsoft Lens, CamScanner, and more, but Adobe Scan has all the basics covered in its free version. It's easy to navigate and use without much of a learning curve.

If you haven't registered for a free Adobe ID, you will need to set one up to use this app.

Adobe Scan offers a paid in-app subscription to access additional features and options. However, the free version includes enough features to cover the needs of most users.

Follow these steps to scan documents with Adobe Scan:

1. Open the app and log in with a Google, Facebook, or Adobe ID.

The app automatically takes more scans if necessary. If you don't want to do that, tap the scan's thumbnail to display the editing and saving options. Here, you can rotate it, crop it, change the color, and more. When you're ready, tap Save PDF in the upper-right corner of the screen to save it.

After you select Save to PDF, tapping the More icon displays options for the new file. You can choose to save it to Google Drive, copy it to your device, print it, delete it, and more.

To scan QR codes with your phone, open the Camera app, point it at the QR code, and tap the pop-up notification. On some devices, you'll need to download a third-party QR code reader app.

Optical character recognition (OCR), sometimes called text recognition, is a process that makes text within a PDF recognizable, searchable, and readable by other types of programs or apps. Many scanner apps, such as Adobe Scan, apply it to PDFs automatically, or you can select this option in your phone preferences. The scanning feature in Google Drive doesn't apply OCR to scanned documents.

To scan color photos on your phone, use a photo scanner app like Google PhotoScan, Photomyne, or Microsoft Lens.

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