Office Lens for Windows Phone updated with improved algorithm and more

By Sam Sabri
published

Office Lens for Windows Phone has just been updated. The document scanning app for Windows Phone launched this past March but hasn't seen any big feature updates until today. If you're a heavy user of Office Lens, we know you're going to love today's update. Read on for details and a download link.

Office Lens is now sitting at version 1.1.3129.0 in the Windows Phone Store. You'll need either Windows Phone 8 or Windows Phone 8.1 to use this app. Here's what's new in today's update for Office Lens:

  • Improved algorithm generates cleaner document images
  • Now you can select the OneNote location where a new page is created
  • Bug fixes: Now Office Lens is more stable

Office Lens

The Office team has worked hard to make Office Lens work like a real scanner. The captured image quality of document has been improved for clearer results.

OneNote Office Lens

Today's update for Office Lens also allows you to select where images are saved inside OneNote. Before today, they would just go automatically to your default notebook, which just gave you more work as you had to organize your OneNote later.

We're digging the changes to Office Lens for Windows Phone. Use Office Lens frequently? Let us and others know what you think of today's added features!

Source: Office Blogs (opens in new tab)

Thanks for the tip Jean-Luc D!

QR: Office Lens

Sam Sabri
Sam Sabri
88 Comments
  • Has anyone used office lens extensively?
  • I use it all the time, especially for receipts and one off documents.
  • I use it in meetings. It does a great job removing the glare off white boards.
  • I use it to send my homework answers to other people.
  • I use it for homework sending too :)
  • I use it for plansets. it's great for capturing 24 inch x 36inch  plans with the 925.
  • I use office lens all the time. Especially great for larger format document scans such as A3 or A1 engineering drawing or for getting sketches and design ideas back to the guys in the office when i am on the run. This really is a high productivity app for me.
  • Great app. Use it a lot.
  • I use to capture screenshot of my TV. =P
  • You don't say? :) lol
  • Use it lots for receipts for expense report during travel.
  • Can said I almost depend on it everyday for work. Now since the latest update it can't sign in(something went wrong during sign in). It anyone experiencing the same problem?
  • Office Lens is a great app. I use it all the time
  • Cool updating
  • yippee! NOW with more algorithm!  now you can fry ants with office lens.
  • Ha ha.
  • My wife is stuck on Android due to work and is dying to have this. Anyone know if there is an android version, or the best alternative? Thanks
  • I dunno if CamScanner is available for Android. But it is a good alternative.
  • Dude do you even love your wife...Android. Quick get her a Windows Phone before she divorces your ass :p
  • Xaxaxa seems legit! :D She will love it for dure though! ^^
  • lol
  • hahahhaa, blackprince, You just made my day... lol oh, btw poddie, listen to blackprince and get your wife a WP device :)
  • Cam Scanner is available for Android but you should consider getting her a Windows Phone soon, Android = Lags
  • When people say Android lags, are they talking about non high end phones? I feel like saying Android lags these days is like saying internet explorer is slow. The reputation sticks forever.
  • I've seen a REALLY laggy Sony Ericsson android phone (recently) while my friend's modded S3 doesn't have any lag. Mixed results.
  • Well, I wouldn't be surprised if either of those lagged. The recent high end androids with top specs such as the Xperia z2, galaxy s5, and Htc one m8 shouldn't lag. Touchwiz on galaxy s5 is known to lag, but that's Samsung's fault. I remember I had a tablet with Android 2.2 Froyo many years ago, and it was the laggiest thing I had ever seen. The recent kit Kat and android L are much better.
  • this might be available in the OneNote app on android. this feature is available in the OneNote MX version in windows 8.1
  • If it is, she couldn't find it.   (And to all those saying to get her a Windows Phone, I said before her work will only provide Android or iOS). Thanks
  • Her solution is simple, she needs a Job Change.
  • from the google play store: "Take pictures of receipts and bills to remove some of the paper clutter" I'd be interested if they offered this. might be something to fiddle with.
  • Get her a Windows Phone for her own PERSONAL phone ... she will love you for it!
  • She would love Windows Phone... however, she definitely would NOT love trying to keep two phones charged, juggling two phone numbers, and carrying two phones in her purse. Unfortunately the school district is on gmail, so they are predisposed to Google products.
  • That's too bad that they are predisposed to Google products. I hadn't thought about the juggling 2 phones part ... it could be off-putting!  But I guess if they PROVIDE the phone and service, you can put up with it even if you don't love it.  
  • Forward her work phone to the new phone. Put the work phone on a charger and throw it a drawer. What I always did.
  • You guys are crazy. If it was me, I would certainly find a way. But this is my wife... not one of us who faint at the earliest sign of an incoming update. I'm honestly not sure which she would pick if given the choice... she might pick Windows phone, but it's certainly not a deal breaker for her. And certainly not something I'm interested in shelling out an extra $50 a month for. If it makes you guys feel any better though, she IS a diehard Surface fan. She had Surface RT and now has moved up to Surface 2... and looks lovingly at Surface Pro 3 whenever we pass through the Microsoft store.
  • Try camscanner on android,even camscanner on wp is better than office lens
  • Agreed. But gona try the updated Office Lens soon.
  • Google Drive has an scanner option built in that works very well. I used to use it a lot when I had a Galaxy S3.
  • Do camscanner and/or Google Drive do the whiteboard glare fixing, perspective correction, and cropping?  Thanks!
  • Perspective correction and cropping yes! But whiteboard glare fixing I'm not sure... I used to scan documents, I never tried it with whiteboard...
  • Under Muslim Sharia law, husbands who make their wives own Android phones must pay village elders the sum of 5 goats for their penance. Under EU law, husbands who make their wives use Android phones are breaking their fundamental human rights, and are therefore required to sit and view the entire box set of Desperate Housewives until your brain bleeds.
  • +929
  • Good thing I live in the US :P
  • Use this app several times a week. It is so handy and sends everything to One Note which is one of my favorite Catch All apps. Its like having your Kitchen drawer with you all of the time. 
  • How it sends to onenote?! I didnt know that! You can set that on settings?
  • It sends everything to One Note automaticly, thats what is so nice about this app.
  • Well it would be lovely if you put the tile in the same color as office is (it's a bit darker haha yeah I need to have everything perfect on my start screen :P)
  • Great! I use this app a lot. What I want MS to fix is the store download. On Windows 8.1 I can check and update multiple apps at the same; with 3 simultaneously pulling updates. On Windows Phone not so much.
  • You're right plus introduction of incremental updates! Isn't it possible, why do I need to download the whole app all over again just because of some bug fixes? MS should consider this option and let developers embrace it
  • .appx don't download the entire app.
  • I use this app a few times a week. Throw all my bills away now. Good riddance
  • Errmmm ... I don't know if that's a good idea.
  • Camscanner still Has better algorothm, but creates lower resolution images. Only blackboard mode is good in office lens
  • It's much easier to use rather than opening mspaint, making sure the printer is on, opening the scan dialogue, choosing a good quality, previewing, waiting about 2 minutes for it to scan then about 5 minutes for it to finish transferring, then figuring out which image type I should save it as. Yes, I do use mspaint. The reason for that is Office Scanning and Imaging or whatever it is no longer works on my XP tower, and neither does it on my Windows 7 laptop. Also, my mom's laptop has to be put into hibernate just to go from the living room to the office, which is about 30 seconds, because it has terrible battery life. Also, my XP tower is offline, so that means that I have to transfer the file to my mom's laptop to email it, as mine has a bad fan and is being fixed. So, this basically means that Office Lens takes WAY less time to use.
  • It'd be really neat I'd they gave you the option to simply save the pictures locally.
  • Not exactly on topic:
    I like 'new' trend of creating post images by isolating the app on it's own row and taking a photo of the phone, but I preferred it more when you guys didn't blur everything else out.  It looked better to me.  Just my two cents. On topic:
    The new algorithm looks p. sweet
  • Finally, waiting for the save location update for office lens. This will ease the productivity of this app. Nice!
  • I'm glad they now allow you choose the notebook location now.
  • For me as a 1020 owner,I have had better results of documents "scanning" via taking normal picture with Nokia camera than scanning with mentioned app. Perhaps this update makes the app worthwhile using :)
  • just a question for the people who use it.. after I upload the image on OneNote how do I select the OCR text?I see how I could do it on my surface but not on the phone, is it possible? thanx
  • I can now uninstall Handyscan.
  • Love this update. Can almost replace CamScanner.
  • I'd rather have an option to save locally not on OneNote
  • Okay, maybe I'm missing it. I updated Lens, but I don't see where I can select the destination section in OneNote.
  • Drop to the three dots select setting, sign in to your Microsoft Account. Be sure that your OneNote app is linked to your Microsoft Account also.
  • I have used Office Lens routinely since it came out. Love the program. However, since updating this morning I can no longer save image files to OneNote. Every attempt to save to OneNote is met with response "Something went wrong during sign-in. Please try again" l have uninstalled Office Lens and reinstalled, with the same result. I am on a Nokia 928. Anyone have an idea on the problem?
  • The same here on 925 (no cyan yet) :( have you managed to sort it out?
  • Sorry, but no. Currently I have installed CamsScanner until the problem is resolved. It also allows you the save to OneNote. It is a stronger app but a little more involved. I like Office Lens because it was quick and simple.
  • Hope they realise there is a problem and fix it soon
  • Hi WaterWorldLLC and all responders. I'm Yu from Office Lens team in Microsoft. We really apologize for the issue and we have already started investigate the cause of the issue. Sorry for your inconvenience and thank you for your patiance.  
  • Any reason to switch from HandyScan?
  • As I'm data challanged, HandyScan allows me to scan documents without using any data.
  • Camscanner is much better than office lens.
  • cannot agree more... camscanner is much more powerful
  • The app is amazing
  • does the image/scanned taken saves on jpeg/image format?
  • No idea, it sends images directly into OneNote. Saving from there might give you options. Never had the need. Office Lens is quite amazing. I recently scanned a 20 page printed document with it, and with the 'convert to text' option I was able to recreate the paper document to digital text within half an hour. I was amazed how precise the conversion was, only some small editing was needed. Love the lens<->OneNote combo. :-)
  • cool! ive just downloaded the app, i had to see it for myself and yeah...the image taken automatically saves into your camera roll folder just like a regular camera...   those scanned images that goes into OneNote is just a backup file, when you decide to access your image file on your desktop i think i'll be keeping this app =)    
  • HELP!!! Is the saving into OneNote working for you after this update? L925
  • Same for me on a L925 with 8.1 Cyan. Have reinstalled. No avail. Frustrating given it clearly logs into OneNote to allow me to choose a destination folder. Double frustrating that my wife, using the same phone and software, can use it perfectly.
  • I have 8.1 update 1 DP but no Cyan yet... It's really frustrating. Good job I scanned around 40 photos yesterday before the update. Hope they fix it soon.
  • Hi danvol and all responders. I'm Yu from Office Lens team in Microsoft.
    We really apologize for the issue and we have already started investigate the cause of the issue.
    Sorry for your inconvenience and thank you for your patiance.
  • Thanks for your reply Yu. Good luck with solving of this issue.
  • Office Lens is now broken for me. Whenever I try to upload a scanned document I get "Something went wrong during sign-in. Please try again." I'm running WP8.1 Update 1 Developer Preview.
  • Hi jay_pee_emm. I'm Yu from Office Lens team in Microsoft.
    We really apologize for the issue and we have already started investigate the cause of the issue.
    Sorry for your inconvenience and thank you for your patiance.
  • There appears to be a bug.  I haven't been able to save to OneNote since the update.  Anyone else? http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_mobile-onenote/office-lens-no-longer-functions-after-the-recent/34d188c9-f8e5-4fe5-911d-c7ed9d6883bf      
  • Same here. Seems they've noticed and are working on it.
  • Hi rockycpa. I'm Yu from Office Lens team in Microsoft.
    We really apologize for the issue and we have already started investigate the cause of the issue.
    Sorry for your inconvenience and thank you for your patiance.