The Lens app has changed its name, dropping the Office moniker to simply be called Microsoft Lens in its new updates on Play Store and App Store. In addition, the document scanning application has also gained new functions to improve the use of the digital lens, which is very useful for home office.

The main changes to the app are in the conversion of images to text, OCR (or Optical Character Recognition). In other words, Microsoft Lens has been improved to better identify information in images, tables, documents and even handwritten sheets.

It is important to note that, with the exception of handwriting reading, all the functions shown above are compatible with 30 languages, including our Portuguese. annotations that we make in notebooks will only work if we write in English, since the app only recognizes manual notes in the British language.

What are the new features in Microsoft Lens?

Almost all of Microsoft Lens’ new features are related to this intelligent reading. For example, it can read what’s written in tables, and assemble the results into a table.

In your text about the app for Android e iOS, Microsoft says that capturing in Lens will not be a simple import, but rather documents similar to the original. Additionally, it is worth mentioning that documents can be captured digitally in PDF, Word, and PowerPoint formats. It is also possible to edit scanned PDFs, and add filters to images in documents. Users can scan up to 100 pages and save them as images or text, locally or in the cloud. It is easy to identify which documents are saved in each location.

Business card scanning mode and smart reader

The new Microsoft Lens also features a “business card” mode. By pointing the your smartphone camera for a card, the app will capture the contact information and automatically save it to your address book or Outlook.

Another interesting feature is the smart reader, which can be used by people with visual or reading difficulties. By pointing Microsoft Lens at a document, it can read it out loud. It is worth remembering that documents generated by the app can be saved to OneDrive.

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. Pocket Now