RIP, Microsoft Lens, a easy little app that is getting changed by AI

[ad_1] Generally it’s good to have a easy app that does one factor effectively with out lots of fuss.

Microsoft Lens was that sort of app: a cell doc scanner that turned paper paperwork, enterprise playing cards, receipts, and the rest 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.

In accordance with a brand new assist doc, Lens will probably be retired from iOS and Android units 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 via December 15, 2025. After that date, no new scans will probably be potential, however entry to prior scans will stay within the app so long as it stays on the person’s gadget.

First launched in 2015, Microsoft Lens (then often called Workplace Lens) developed from an software initially designed for Home windows Cellphone units. Whereas its core performance was just 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 immediately’s App Retailer.

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As an alternative, it carried out its activity of turning any notice — handwritten or in any other case — doc, receipt, enterprise card, and even whiteboard scribbles into the file format of your alternative, like PDF, Phrase, PowerPoint, Excel, or pictures. It additionally provided 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 may then save the file to certainly one of Microsoft’s apps, different on-line providers, or your digicam roll. It was easy, and it labored effectively.

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 assist 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 fashionable, 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 exhibits.