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

Generally, it’s good to have a easy app that does one factor effectively with out lots 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 information. Now, that app is being discontinued, Microsoft says, because it directs its customers to its Copilot AI chat app as an alternative.

In line with a brand new help document, Lens can 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 December 15, 2025. After that date, no new scans can be potential, however entry to prior scans will stay within the app so long as it stays on the person’s machine.

First launched in 2015, Microsoft Lens (then referred to as Workplace Lens) developed from an utility initially designed for Home windows Cellphone gadgets. 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 at the moment’s App Retailer.

As an alternative, it carried out its job of turning any be aware — 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 photographs. It additionally supplied quite a lot of built-in filters to boost the ensuing picture, lighten the doc, flip it right into a sharper black-and-white copy, and extra.

You would then save the file to considered one of Microsoft’s apps, different on-line providers, or your digital camera roll. It was easy, and it labored effectively.

The app’s impending shutdown was first noticed by the location BleepingComputer, 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 location notes.

Regardless of its age, Lens stays pretty common, having pulled in over 322,000 downloads on the App Store and Google Play over the previous 30 days, in response to information from app intelligence supplier Appfigures. Since January 2017, it has been downloaded 92.3 million occasions, the agency’s information reveals.

Microsoft has not but responded to a request for touch upon its choice to close down Lens.