DivvyUp with OCR tech updated for Windows Phone, brings Lens support and more for the end of your meal

By Sam Sabri
last updated

A little over a month we showed you guys a really cool app for Windows Phone 8 called DivvyUp. It’s super useful, features beautiful UI, and is only on Windows Phone. That makes it an instant win for us. The latest update brings some handy new features. Let’s check it out.

Head to the Windows Phone Store and you’ll see version 1.1.0.0 of DivvyUp ready for you. The app is perfect for the end of meals, it helps split checks, calculate tip and more. By far the coolest feature is using the camera to scan your using and have it all done automatically using optical character recognition (OCR). Here’s what’s new in the latest update:

  • Added a camera lens so app can launch directly into OCR
  • Hold down menu items to pin them to start screen
  • Added new setting to toggle auto-itemize instructions
  • Misc. bug fixes and enhancements

By far the most useful feature in the latest update is the Lens support. The OCR tech works great with DivvyUp, now you can just jump to that feature by pressing the camera button and selecting the DivvyUp Lens. The various other additions are fairly routine, but do add up overall to make this app even better.

DivvyUp is a great app and totally worth picking up. At least download the free app and play around with it a bit. There is a $0.99 in-app purchase that unlocks some cool features (like the OCR magic). Grab it in the Store for Windows Phone 8 devices, use the QR code below, or swipe to the right in our app. 

QR: DivvyUp

40 Comments
  • Sam I think you passed me today I was walking to Rubio's for lunch.
  • You were coming over my place? Oh, Rubio's... 
  • A black BMW drove by and if it wasn't Sam its his twin
  • Daniel, if you are treating then I'm sure it will be good xD
  • Not me. I've been at Augies all day. And mine is silver. Sounds like a handsome dude lol
  • LOL oh ok. I'm on 5th st at my clients office I think you're across the street
  • maybe you two should date 
  • A new mate.
  • Sam. . . Ryan. . . Ryan. . . Sam
  • Cool app.  I can see a lot of girls using this app because they always want to split checks down to the exact cent.  Most guys I know just throw a bunch of money into the pile and call it good.
  • So true in a lot of cases!!!! Very nice app as well. I was at dinner 2 weeks ago with my wife and kids and my wife was getting very scientific about the tip and bill and I told her that I don't worry about the breakdown or percentage and that I usally give much more than the tip percentage.
    I grab a bunch a money, consider the service and tip accordingly. I had a 7 dollar meal and tipped 9 dollars once for amazing service and food. If I was sticking to the percentages and blah blah, the waitress would have gotten less by default. Instead, I just pulled out some cash and was like "hmm..there are some ones, oohhh a 5, let me throw that in there too!" lol.
    My wife and kids (two daughters) we alarmed at my brutish, non-calculated tipping. :)
  • Well, just one more anecdote and we've got some hard data :)
     
    My wife is also scrupulous about calculating the tip, but mostly so that she makes sure that we give one. Nothing like a big group of people all saying they put in enough, and everyone's tipped except one person who forgot half the stuff they ordered, leaving the waitering staff with nothing extra.
  • Nice app that works very well.
  • I'm throwing my money at the table and its not working
  • I used this the other night, very handy. Two things though, would like the ability to remove tips (generally we don't tip in Australia as meals are expensive and staff get paid above average wages... and their service is usually brow average!). Secondly, I had to keep typing in beers manually rather than just being able to change quantity, this was a pain as I was building our bill throughout the meal. Otherwise, it was great!
  • Haha yeah, 18% tip? In their dreams! Waiters here in Aus would be lucky to get $10 from anyone :P
  • Hi Schikitar, my name is Oren and I'm the developer of DivvyUp. First off thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you find the app useful. I just wanted to let you know that if you set the tip rate to 0%, then it'll remove the tip. If you set it this way in the settings then this will become the default tip everytime you use the app. 
    Also, in regards to quantities, you can assign multiple people to a single item. You can also change the quantity each person had for that item. So if an item looks like:
    3 Beers (@ 7.99 each)     $23.97
    Then you can simple say someone had 1 and the other person had 2 and it'll calculate their totals correctly.
  • Can you guys get into the habit of describing what type of app you're posting about? I read the article but don't understand what this app is supposed to be. Its a camera app?
  • Did you? It says it helps split bills and calculate tips. On top of that, the app is called Divvy Up. Pretty self-explanatory.
  • FINALLY,,, a modern version of Seinfeld's "tip calculator"!  LOL
    Cool little app for sure!
  • I've been using Tip Calculator but I'm looking for alternative since it hasn't been updated for a long time.
    Tried Divvy Up, but I don't feel it offers the function that I've been accustomed to with Tip Calculator, although the item breakdown is nice.
     
  • For me, the update has made the program crash everytime I start it. I'm using a Lumia 920.
  • A handful of people have reported crashes to me on startup. The issue stems from an optimization I made regarding contacts. The good news is I will be submitting an update tonight to fix the crash. It'll take Microsoft 3-4 days to approve the update but that should hopefully resolve the issue you're reporting.
  • Thanks for the heads up Oreng. I appreciate the support. I look forward to the update.
  • Thanks for this information. I just installed it on the strength of this article and was about to kick it to the curb because it crashes on startup every single time.
  • I'm truly sorry about that. I try to test the app on as many devices as possible before publishing it but I can only get my hands on so many phones. There's a bug in Microsoft's code that returns a value that it shouldn't and because I wasn't expecting it the app crashes. I fixed it to handle this case and I'm confident this will resolve the issue you're experiencing. The app update is pending Microsoft's approval which should take about 3-4 days until it gets published. 
  • So useful. Here's my money. $.99 saves a lot of hassle.
  • I see 2 apps named "Divvy Up" and 1 named "DivvyUp"
    http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/search?q=Divvyup 
    Shouldn't this be caught when apps are submitted to the store? So easy to grab the wrong one.
  • Going to download it and try it out for dinner with my girlfriend, so we split the check down to the penny.
  • New article please
  • I hope they fix the check scanning feat.  I found it hard to scan long checks, and the app had problems with the sub total.
  • +1 to the long check scan.  I had trouble with that too as it's hard to fit the entire image in the view finder.  Fantastic app otherwise - congrats Oren :)
  • Thanks tiomi! :-) Long checks can be difficult sometimes. The problem is the further you hold the phone away, the grainier the text becomes, and the harder it is to read it. I'm curious if the Lumia 1020 has this problem with its superior camera. Either of you have that phone by chance?
  • I have a 1020 but no example check to scan, bug I'd be willing to test a bunch of stuff.
  • Short of the "lens" feature, I doubt this will make my guests look any less silly (occasionally stupid) when they're cashing out, lol.
  • Can't get the app to stay open, closed immediately
  • Hi moirane,
    I'm the developer of the app and I'm truly sorry the app isn't staying open for you. I wanted to let you know that I fixed the crash but the app update is pending Microsoft's approval which should take about 3-4 days until it gets published. I hope you'll keep the app on your phone and give it another shot once you get the update notification?
  • This is indeed a fantastic app. One that my iPhone and Android friends are jealous of. My only issue with it is that many of the restaurants I frequent have a list of items, then a subtotal of the items, then tax, then another subtotal (including tax), and then a total. The app almost always reads the first subtotal as a separate item, causing the total bill to be almost double what it should be and the app gets confused because the total it calculates doesn't equal the total on the bill. But when there is only one subtotal line, it really works like a charm.
  • Heck, I would download and try this app just based upon the very interactive comments from the dev himself.  Obvious top notch support going on here.  Impressive!
  • Thanks :-)