Microsoft today announced the launch of the Office Lens app for iPhone, following its debut on Windows Phone last year. Office Lens turns the iPhone into a portable scanner, much like popular scanning app Scanner Pro, but it has the ability to upload scanned documents to both OneNote and OneDrive, making them accessible on all devices.

Office Lens' scanning capabilities are already built into Microsoft's OneNote app for iOS, but today's Office Lens release is a standalone app. It's able to scan things like business cards, notes, restaurant menus, whiteboards, receipts, and more.


Office Lens is able to detect the corners of a document that's being photographed, which allows it to automatically crop the image to the right size. It also cleans it up images and enhances them for better readability, and it can even straighten images taken at an angle.

The app includes optical character recognition (OCR) to make receipts and scanned documents searchable via key word in OneNote or OneDrive, and it's able to convert images of paper documents and whiteboard notes into Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and PDF files.

There's also an option to automatically generate contacts when business cards are photographed, and images scanned can be inserted into OneNote or OneDrive in different formats, including DOCX, PPTX, JPG, and PDF. Images can also be saved, exported, and shared.

Microsoft's Office Lens for iPhone app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

saintforlife Avatar
130 months ago
Loving the new Microsoft. They are quickly becoming one of my favorite companies.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Breadman86 Avatar
130 months ago
Loving the new Microsoft. They are quickly becoming one of my favorite companies.

Seriously. It's kind of getting weird now. I still mostly use apple devices, but I'm surprised by how many Microsoft apps I'm using on those devices, and loving it.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jclo Avatar
130 months ago
Does MacRumors have an affiliate agreement with AppShopper? Or why do they link to their page instead of directly to the App Store?
AppShopper is our sister site. We link to both because some people don't like to be redirected to the iTunes Store when attempting to look at an app. You can always find the direct iTunes links in the brackets where it says [Direct Link].
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
RaggieSoft Avatar
130 months ago
Does MacRumors have an affiliate agreement with AppShopper? Or why do they link to their page instead of directly to the App Store?

AppShopper is run by MacRumors
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Wiesenlooser Avatar
130 months ago
The app is actually quite impressive. The automatic detection and correction of distortion is easily among- if not the best in the App Store
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jamesdmc Avatar
129 months ago
Let's hope so, it would make a use difference for me and for others I reckon.

You reckon correctly.

When I found this app on Friday, I used it at every meeting and wow. I like that I can sit in the corner of the room and it can still take a picture as if I'm in the center.
...and record the meeting notes, too.
...and if you type transcribe the audio, when you play it back, OneNote will highlight the text as the audio plays.

OneNote is awesome. As soon as it became available for the iPad, I ditched Evernote and started futterwacken (http://aliceinwonderland.wikia.com/wiki/Futterwack). Vigorously. :D
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Apple One Apps Feature 2

Apple One's Best Plan Now Includes Two More Perks For Free

Monday March 10, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Apple One allows you to subscribe to up to six Apple services for one discounted monthly price. There are three Apple One tiers: Individual, Family, and Premier. Over the last month, the highest-end ‌Apple One‌ Premier plan has gained two additional perks. Here is what Apple One Premier already included, for $37.95 per month:Apple Music Apple TV+ Apple Arcade Apple News+ Apple Fitness+...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Will Bring Biggest Design Overhaul Since iOS 7

Monday March 10, 2025 12:17 pm PDT by
Apple is planning for a major design overhaul of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac interfaces with the introduction of iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16 later this year, reports Bloomberg. The update will "fundamentally change" the look of Apple's operating system, introducing a more consistent cross-platform experience. Apple plans to update the style of icons, menus, apps, windows, and system...
2016 12 inch macbook feature

Apple Introduced Its Most Controversial MacBook 10 Years Ago Today

Sunday March 9, 2025 1:00 am PST by
Apple announced the infamous 12-inch Retina MacBook a decade ago today, an experimental new Mac that was as controversial as it was revolutionary. Apple unveiled the 12-inch MacBook on March 9, 2015, at the "Spring Forward" event in San Francisco, California. The event was primarily focused on the Apple Watch, which was being fully detailed ahead of its launch the following month, so the...
airpods pro 2 gradient

AirPods Pro 3 Launch Now Just Months Away: Here's What We Know

Tuesday March 11, 2025 3:26 am PDT by
Despite being released over two years ago, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 continue to dominate the wireless earbud market. However, with the AirPods Pro 3 expected to launch in 2025, anyone thinking of buying Apple's premium earbuds may be wondering if the next generation is worth holding out for. Apart from their audio and noise-canceling performance, which are generally regarded as excellent for...
iphone 17 mockups idevicehelp

Video Shows iPhone 17 Mockups Based on 'Internal Documents'

Monday March 10, 2025 4:41 am PDT by
YouTuber iDeviceHelp on Friday posted a video that shows off mockups of Apple's forthcoming iPhone 17 models that are purportedly based on "internal documents." We're sharing the video here since it was made in collaboration with leaker Majin Bu, who last month published similar iPhone 17 renders that were widely corroborated by separate leakers with links to Apple's Chinese supply chain....
iOS 18

12 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.4

Monday March 10, 2025 9:28 am PDT by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.4 in early April, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a neat new capability to iPhone 15 Pro devices, new emoji, and more. While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.4 still introduces enhancements that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've listed 12 new...
iOS 18

iOS 18.3.2 Update Coming Soon for iPhones

Monday March 10, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple employees are internally testing iOS 18.3.2 for iPhones, according to our website's visitor logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. The software update should be released in the next week or two. iOS 18.3.2 will be a minor update that addresses software bugs and/or security vulnerabilities. Don't expect any new features. iOS 18.3.2 will be an interim...
iPhone 16 Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

iPhone 17 Air and 17 Pro Max Allegedly Same Size Apart From Thickness

Friday March 7, 2025 2:45 am PST by
Apple's all-new ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air shares the same dimensions as the iPhone 17 Pro Max, with the only difference being in the thickness of the devices, according to the leaker Ice Universe. Posting to their Weibo account, the Chinese leaker today claimed that the iPhone 17 Air and iPhone 17 Pro Max have identical body length, width, screen size, and bezels. "The only difference is the...
iPhone 17 Pro Render Front Page Tech

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 8 New Features

Tuesday March 4, 2025 3:15 pm PST by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. iPhone 17 Pro's alleged design via Front Page Tech Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone...