Google Drive for iPhone Gains Document Scanner Feature

[lartola]

How to scan documents on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

You can use the Notes app to scan documents and add signatures on your iPhone or iPad.

support.apple.com

I've been using the iOS Notes document scanning feature for this and it works surprisingly well.

And just in case you didn’t know the same document scanning feature found in notes has been available in the iOS files app too for at least a year.

 

[lartola]

The iOS Notes app has had a scanner built in for years.

And the files app too.

 

[lartola]

I don't use notes, and I want a PDF of my scan.

The scanner in notes does save the document scans as pdf, in case you didn’t know. Furthermore, the same scanning feature found in notes has been available in the the iOS files app too for years. I don’t get why people are still using third party apps for something that’s been built in to ios for years.

 

[CarAnalogy]

TBH, iCloud has lost more of my files than Google ever has.

Lucky I do local backups too. Carbon Copy Cloner ftw.

I've had sync errors and weird problems for no apparent reason with all the cloud services. It was just my favorite dad joke about mixing up shredders and scanners. Or maybe I just made that one up. Feel free to use it.

 

[CarAnalogy]

The scanner in notes does save the document scans as pdf, in case you didn’t know. Furthermore, the same scanning feature found in notes has been available in the the iOS files app too for years. I don’t get why people are still using third party apps for something that’s been built in to ios for years.

I've recently found that the same friends and family who can't stand to hear my boring work tech stories are enthralled with the Macrumors top 10 hidden features type lists of things just like this. They just don't know. Apple's Tips app pushes the things they want you to know about, but misses tons of hidden gems like this.

And yeah I'm not really sure why one would even use Notes to scan anything that's not ephemeral, it's just getting locked into the notes database. Just scan it into iCloud or your local phone storage directly as a PDF and do whatever you want with it.

Same thing for QR scanners. Saw a co-worker bust out his Samsung phone and some random ad-infested app to scan a QR code. I said just open the Samsung Camera app, assuming (correctly) that just like Apple's camera app it recognizes QR codes just fine.

 

[lartola]

Good to see that it is available now. Always have been using Apple Notes app

I’m being surprised by how many people here have no idea that the same document scanner from notes was added to the iOS/iPadOS files app years ago. That’s what I’ve been using for years. No need to go through notes or use a 3rd party app when you can do it directly from files.

 

[lartola]

The Files app has had it for a while too. Scan to your phone or iCloud. Feels a bit easier than scanning to Notes.

But it seems that most people in this thread don’t know that.

 

[lartola]

I've recently found that the same friends and family who can't stand to hear my boring work tech stories are enthralled with the Macrumors top 10 hidden features type lists of things just like this. They just don't know. Apple's Tips app pushes the things they want you to know about, but misses tons of hidden gems like this.

And yeah I'm not really sure why one would even use Notes to scan anything that's not ephemeral, it's just getting locked into the notes database. Just scan it into iCloud or your local phone storage directly as a PDF and do whatever you want with it.

Same thing for QR scanners. Saw a co-worker bust out his Samsung phone and some random ad-infested app to scan a QR code. I said just open the Samsung Camera app, assuming (correctly) that just like Apple's camera app it recognizes QR codes just fine.

It doesn’t get locked into the notes database. If you scanned a document in notes you can still open the scan and save it as a pdf anywhere you want using the share dialog, but it’s easier to scan directly from the files app since the scanner feature is available there too.

 

[CarAnalogy]

It doesn’t get locked into the notes database. If you scanned a document in notes you can still open the scan and save it as a pdf anywhere you want using the share dialog, but it’s easier to scan directly from the files app since the scanner feature is available there too.

Yeah I think my bias showed in my phrasing. I just meant that Notes is stored in a database synced via CloudKit and is accessible only via Notes on an Apple device and/or iCloud.


With the Files app you can store it anywhere. You can even mount a network drive and scan it directly to that. It’s saved as a plain PDF wherever you specify, as opposed to only being accessible via Notes.

 

[lartola]

Yeah I think my bias showed in my phrasing. I just meant that Notes is stored in a database synced via CloudKit and is accessible only via Notes on an Apple device and/or iCloud.


With the Files app you can store it anywhere. You can even mount a network drive and scan it directly to that. It’s saved as a plain PDF wherever you specify, as opposed to only being accessible via Notes.

From notes you can also save the scan as a plain pdf anywhere you want via the share sheet. It just adds an unnecessary extra step.

 

[GuruZac]

They already did, it’s been there for years.View attachment 2319982

Thank you, and I don't know how I didn't know that...

 

[CarAnalogy]

From notes you can also save the scan as a plain pdf anywhere you want via the share sheet. It just adds an unnecessary extra step.

If the Notes database is actually where you want it, it’s handy. Otherwise yeah why even use it.