Typically it’s good to have a easy app that does one factor properly with out a variety of fuss.
Microsoft Lens was that kind of app: a cell doc scanner that turned paper paperwork, enterprise playing cards, receipts, and anything into simply readable digital recordsdata. Now that app is being discontinued, Microsoft says, because it directs its customers to its Copilot AI chat app as a substitute.
Based on a brand new help doc, Lens might be retired from iOS and Android gadgets beginning on September 15, 2025, then faraway from the Apple App Retailer and Google Play on November 15, 2025. Current customers will be capable of proceed to make use of the app’s scanning capabilities by way of December 15, 2025. After that date, no new scans might be potential, however entry to prior scans will stay within the app so long as it stays on the consumer’s gadget.
First launched in 2015, Microsoft Lens (then often known as Workplace Lens) advanced from an software initially designed for Home windows Telephone gadgets. Whereas its core performance was much like different cell scanning functions, it didn’t attempt to upcharge customers for sure performance or push them right into a subscription — a rarity in at present’s App Retailer.
As an alternative, it carried out its job of turning any notice — handwritten or in any other case — doc, receipt, enterprise card, and even whiteboard scribbles into the file format of your selection, like PDF, Phrase, PowerPoint, Excel, or photos. It additionally supplied a wide range of built-in filters to reinforce the ensuing picture, lighten the doc, flip it right into a sharper black-and-white copy, and extra.
You could possibly then save the file to one among Microsoft’s apps, different on-line providers, or your digital camera roll. It was easy, and it labored properly.
The app’s impending shutdown was first noticed by the positioning Bleeping Pc, which factors out that customers are being directed to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, which lacks all of the performance present in Lens. Whereas Copilot can deal with scanning, it doesn’t help saving these scans on to OneNote, Phrase, or PowerPoint, nor does it save enterprise card scans to OneNote. It additionally lacks Lens’ accessibility options like read-out-loud and Immersive Reader integration, the positioning notes.
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Regardless of its age, Lens stays pretty standard, having pulled in over 322,000 downloads on the App Retailer and Google Play over the previous 30 days, in keeping with information from app intelligence supplier Appfigures. Since January 2017, it has been downloaded 92.3 million instances, the agency’s information reveals.
Microsoft has not but responded to a request for touch upon its choice to close down Lens.
