There’s A Document Scanner Feature Rolling Out Into Files By Google
I have a Samsung smartphone, and the few times I’ve needed to scan documents with my phone camera, I’ve had to resort to downloading a separate application to do the job reliably. A lot of the time, it feels like it shouldn’t be that much trouble to scan a paper quickly.
Fortunately, Google agrees, and a new feature is rolling out to users in the beta version of their Files By Google app. In the bottom-right corner of the app, you’ll see a new “Scan” button that allows you to scan documents without needing another app.
I tested this out, and by installing Files By Google and joining the Beta program, I was able to see this feature on my Samsung S22 Ultra. This suggests that it is available on pretty much any Android smartphone, not just Google’s Pixels.
How Good Is The Document Scanner Feature?
So you don’t need to bother; I have given Google’s document scanner in Files a spin to see how good it is. It’s a more basic version of competing apps like Adobe Scan, but since it isn’t a standalone app, that’s not a bad thing, especially because I think it brings just enough to be useful for 90% of cases.
On pressing the shutter button, you’re taken to the viewfinder, where you’re given the option of a manual shutter or one that autodetects the document once it is stable and in the frame.
Once you take the picture, you’re taken to the editing screen, where you can access basic options like cropping, rotating, applying filters, cleaning defects on the photo, and adding more images (to create a multi-page file). Pressing “Done” will save the file directly into the “Scanned” folder in your phone’s storage.
It does the job, and if you already have Filed, I think it is certainly the way to go for occasional document-scanning tasks.
Google Drive Got The Exact Same Function Last Year
If you’re an avid user of Google Drive, Google’s cloud storage application, you might have noticed that it has had a similar function for quite some time. Late last year, it was redesigned. The interface in Files is the same as that in Google Drive.
This makes it very easy to scan documents and save them directly to your Google Drive instead of needing to download a separate application and upload them there manually.
