Microsoft launches document scanner app 'Office Lens'

Microsoft has launched a mobile document scanner app for iOS and Android smartphones called Office Lens, which will allow users to take snap photos of documents, receipts, business cards, menus, whiteboards, sticky notes and more.

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Microsoft has launched a mobile document scanner app for iOS and Android smartphones called Office Lens, which will allow users to take snap photos of documents, receipts, business cards, menus, whiteboards, sticky notes and more.

Office Lens works with OneNote. It was first launched a year ago as an application designed only for the Windows Phone.

Office Lens was launched on Apple's App store and on Android phones, alongside other Microsoft applications, including Office and Outlook. This is a part of the company's newer strategy to embrace other platforms outside its own.

According to TechCrunch, Office Lens identifies the text on the images it captures using optical character recognition (OCR), which allows users to locate the file using the keyword search in OneNote or in Microsoft's Cloud storage site, OneDrive.

Users can also convert the images they scan of paper files and whiteboards into Microsoft Office formats and more, including Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and even PDFs and JPGs. These files can then be inserted into OneNote as images.

Office Lens also offers a business-card scanning function that lets users turn cards into contact details which they can add to Outlook or your phone's contact list.

Microsoft's app also offers the ability to create an online archive of your scans in its own OneDrive service.

A preview for the product is available on Google+ for Android users. There they will be able to test the version ahead of its public debut. The app is available on the iTunes App Store for iOS users.

Microsoft now has over 100 iOS and Android applications in total. It has already launched some of its most popular products and services to competing mobile platforms like iOS and Android, including by launching Office for iOS late last year, as well as Outlook for iOS and Android, various MSN properties, OneDrive and more.