Two tasks that are readily confused
"Scanning with the phone" means two different things: documents (contracts, invoices, forms — goal: a straight, high-contrast PDF) and old paper photos (goal: a glare-free, color-accurate digital copy). Most apps can only do one of the two really well — so it's worth looking at all four candidates.
The overview
| App | Best for | Cost | Account needed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Notes (iOS, pre-installed) | documents | free | no |
| Google Drive (Android, usually pre-installed) | documents | free | Google account |
| Microsoft Lens | documents, whiteboards, business cards | free | usable without |
| Google PhotoScan | old paper photos | free | no |
Apple Notes: the underrated pre-install
On the iPhone, documents usually need no extra app: open Notes, camera icon → "Scan Documents". The app detects page edges live, straightens the perspective, raises the contrast, and appends any number of pages to a PDF. Strengths: no sign-up, on-device processing, directly shareable as PDF. Weaknesses: no text-recognition exports to Word, few settings. For official uploads and job applications it's completely enough.
Google Drive: the Android counterpart
Behind the plus button in the Drive app sits a full document scanner with automatic edge detection, straightening, and filters (color/grayscale/black-and-white). Strengths: already on most Android devices, the PDF lands directly in your storage. Weaknesses: the scan then sits in the Google cloud — for sensitive documents, consciously decide whether that's okay, or save the scan locally afterwards and delete it from Drive.
Microsoft Lens: the feature champion
Lens can do the most: documents, whiteboards (with reflection correction), business cards, even export to Word/PowerPoint with text recognition. Its scan quality in difficult light is among the best in the field. Strengths: the whiteboard mode, OCR exports, usable without a Microsoft account. Weaknesses: the many modes make the app slower to handle than the one-button solutions — if you only need PDFs, the built-ins are quicker.
Google PhotoScan: the specialist app for paper photos
Photographing old photos almost always fails at one problem: glare — the gloss of the photo paper lays a bright patch over the image. PhotoScan solves exactly that with a clever trick: the app takes five shots from slightly different angles (center plus four corners) and merges them into a glare-free image. Result: markedly better than any single re-photo, including automatic cropping. Weaknesses: the resolution stays behind a flatbed scanner — for the family chronicle in print quality the classic scanner remains the better choice; for sharing and archiving, PhotoScan is easily enough.
What matters with all of them: the post-processing
Whichever app — three steps after the scan make the difference:
- Check the size. Scanner apps happily produce 5–10 MB per page. Shrink before a portal upload — the route is in Shrinking a scan for upload.
- Bundle multiple pages. Merge single images into a PDF before sending them — here's how with built-in tools.
- Mind the metadata. Scans from camera apps can carry GPS coordinates. Before sharing with strangers, check and remove them with the metadata editor — browser-local, the document stays on your device.
Conclusion
Documents: try the pre-install first (Notes on iOS, Drive on Android) — it's enough in 9 out of 10 cases. Add Microsoft Lens when whiteboards or Word export are needed. Old photos: PhotoScan is unrivaled on the glare problem and worth the install. And regardless of the app: good light and shooting straight from above don't replace software — they make it almost unnecessary.
Sources
Apple — Scan documents in Notes · Google — Scan with Drive · Microsoft — Lens · Google — PhotoScan.