Office Lens is Renamed to Microsoft Lens

Microsoft revealed today that it has rebranded Office Lens mobile app to Microsoft Lens and has created a restyled icon.

“Recommended by Wirecutter as one of the best mobile scanning apps in 2020, we’re taking the next step in our evolution by changing our name and logo from Office Lens to Microsoft Lens and adding some dynamic new features,” Microsoft’s Saumitra Agarwal writes in the announcement post. “Along with the new identity, we are bringing [new] intelligent actions into the camera including Image to Text, Image to Table, Image to Contact, Immersive Reader, and QR Code Scan.”

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The new version of the app also includes an improved scan experience that lets you 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, and switch between local- and cloud-based PDF save locations.

Microsoft Lens will replace Office Lens on Android immediately, and the iPhone update will arrive “in the coming months.”

“Since Microsoft Lens powers the camera in Microsoft 365 mobile apps, including Office, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and OneDrive,” Agarwal  adds, “you can rely on Microsoft Lens to capture and intelligently enhance, and [to] work with your documents, photos[,] and videos with the same ease and dependability of [the standalone] Microsoft Lens app.”

Download Office/Microsoft Lens on Android
Download Office/Microsoft Lens on iOS

 

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 16 comments

  • faustxd9

    Premium Member
    01 February, 2021 - 2:31 pm

    <p>The new app name appears not to be active yet.</p>

    • xperiencewindows

      01 February, 2021 - 2:46 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#611324">In reply to faustxd9:</a></em></blockquote><p>It’s rebranded (name and logo) on the iOS app store for me. </p>

      • j5

        Premium Member
        01 February, 2021 - 4:27 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#611325">In reply to xperiencewindows:</a></em></blockquote><p>Same here on iOS. I love this app. I use it regularly to scan paper receipts and invoices.</p>

    • qaelith2112

      02 February, 2021 - 1:52 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#611324">In reply to faustxd9:</a></em></blockquote><p>As of right now, I'm still not seeing it on the Google Play store either. I get the old application last updated in December with the old icon and old name. Maybe soon though. I just happened to be in the middle of re-evaluating the latest PDF scanners to see what I should be using. This rework is timely, at least if I can get my hands on it.</p>

  • lewk

    Premium Member
    01 February, 2021 - 5:19 pm

    <p>Why is it leaving the office brand? </p>

    • xperiencewindows

      01 February, 2021 - 7:12 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#611357">In reply to Lewk:</a></em></blockquote><p>Probably to keep in line with Office 365 being renamed to Microsoft 365 </p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      02 February, 2021 - 8:57 am

      Because Microsoft is a better brand than Office. This is just one of many examples of Microsoft products and services making this change.

  • christianwilson

    Premium Member
    01 February, 2021 - 11:09 pm

    <p>Is there a reason to use this app if you are already using OneDrive, which has Lens built in?</p>

    • staganyi

      Premium Member
      02 February, 2021 - 12:12 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#611383">In reply to christianwilson:</a></em></blockquote><p>Wondering the same thing if using OneNote.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      02 February, 2021 - 8:51 am

      I believe they’re positioning it so that any of the Lens solutions are equal, so no. If you’re using it somewhere else, that should be the full experience.

    • behindmyscreen

      03 February, 2021 - 5:16 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#611383">In reply to christianwilson:</a></em></blockquote><p>Does OneDrive do as good of a job at auto cropping and de-skewing?</p>

  • jumpingjackflash5

    02 February, 2021 - 1:51 am

    <p>Hmmm, what a strange approach … Maybe Microsoft wants to become new IBM and makes us buy IPhones or Androids ….</p>

  • codymesh

    02 February, 2021 - 4:58 am

    <p>I love this app. For most people, this app should replace a dedicated scanner.</p>

  • Greg Green

    03 February, 2021 - 6:37 am

    <p>That’s interesting. I have far more positive and consistent feelings about Office than I do MS. While Office has way too many options in its ribbon for mortals like me, it’s been complexity reliable and bulletproof (and expensive). It’s never crashed or lost anything on me.</p><p><br></p><p>MS on the other hand is nebulous, scattershot, disjointed, and sometimes seems out of touch. MS makes me think of Office, WFWG, Win 98SE, WinXP, all of which were bulletproof for me, but I also think of zune, MS Bob, Nokia, kinect can’t be removed from Xbox one-wait we were kidding, Xbox as a non submarine media center, and we’re interested/not interested/interested again in gaming.</p><p><br></p><p>There’s many ‘What were they thinking’ movements with MS as a brand.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      03 February, 2021 - 11:43 am

      lol ok but the rest of the world thinks Microsoft is the better brand. 🙂

      More seriously, but no less truthfully, Office is a generic term.

  • illuminated

    04 February, 2021 - 12:59 pm

    <p>I think that Microsoft has a team that just roams around offices renaming things at random. It is Microsoft version of "chaos monkey". </p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC