Back in 2014, Microsoft launched a scanning app exclusively for Windows Phone called Office Lens. A year later, it branched out to offer Android and iOS versions. Now it's getting a name change along with some new features.
Saumitra Agarwal, Senior PM Lead for Lens at Microsoft, announced on the Microsoft 365 Blog that Office Lens will now be known as Microsoft Lens. The icon has also been updated to bring it in line with what we're used to seeing for the Office apps. Agarwal describes the change as a "new identity" for the mobile scanning app, but the main reason users will want the latest version is because of the new features it introduces.
New intelligent actions added to the camera include Image to Text, Image to Table, Image to Contact, Immersive Reader, and QR Code Scan. Agarwal also explains that, "We are releasing an improved scan experience allowing you to re-order pages, re-edit scanned PDFs, apply a filter to all images in the document, scan up to 100 pages as images or PDFs, easily switch between local and cloud locations while saving PDF, along with an easy way to identify local and cloud files. "
The new features aren't quite ready for release, but Agarwal says Android will get the updated version first followed by iOS "in the coming months." The Microsoft 365 mobile apps also have Lens integrated, so the new features will also be available to Office users from their smartphone or tablet.