I threw out my scanner after finding this hidden Google feature

A friend reached out to me the other day asking if he could come over and borrow my scanner.

I let him know that usually I’d be fine with that, but on that particular day, I wasn’t at home, so I couldn’t help him.

He explained that his doctor urgently needed a scan of a document he had, but the local store with scanning capabilities was closing by the time he was off work and ready to scan.

I did a quick search online for potential apps that might help him. Color me surprised when the app that came up first was Google Drive.

Perfect. No need to test out or search for reviews on third-party apps. We use Google Drive all the time.

I opened Google Drive on my phone, clicked the little camera icon in the lower-right corner, and immediately started scanning documents.

After giving this feature a try, I decided it’s time to declutter my desk, starting with kicking my old scanner to the curb.

It’s been around for a while, but did they perfect it?

A mostly positive result for simple scanning needs

This feature isn’t new; it’s been out for a few years (I just didn’t know it, embarrassingly.) And as such, I had high expectations; they had lots of time to work out the kinks after all.

When I first opened this feature, I was given a quick Google blurb on what it could do. The first was using your camera to capture either single-page or double-page (think open book) style scans.

I tested the single-page/double-page scan and found it quick and reasonably accurate.

I scanned my computer monitor manual, which was black text on white paper. I’m happy with the results and especially happy about the workflow.

I didn’t have to stop to take any photos. I could just turn the page, and it would keep capturing them as I went.

I especially liked that when saved as a PDF, all the pages were saved one after another.

I did run into an odd issue, however. A few of my scans kept uploading with a light off-color smear every so often.

At first, I thought perhaps it had picked up on a stain on the paper, but it took a moment to realize it was capturing my shadow mistakenly.

Harsh shadows were eliminated automatically, but lighter shadows sometimes made it through. There’s a quick fix for this.

When you are done capturing your scans, click the right arrow to proceed to the editing page.

Below your scan previews, find the option for clean, next to filters and crop & rotate. Lastly, draw on your scan where you would like to clean off any discoloration, and it is gone.

Overall, it was quick and reasonably accurate. Any problems I had were fixed with a tap or two in editing.

Multi-item scanning capability claims

I’m 50–50 on the haphazard pile of receipt test case

The second blurb that Google Drive told me it could do was to scan receipts separately by placing them all in front of you.

In theory, this is an interesting idea, but I’m not someone who takes paper receipts, much less keeps them.

I have a feeling this might be more useful for those who need to keep or claim work receipts for reimbursement.

I tested this out with sticky notes as a replacement. The results were a bit mixed here.

On the one hand, as soon as each note was in the shot, it instantly scanned each and saved them as separate items. Very fast and efficient.

On the other hand, the quality suffered a bit here. Granted, I was testing using colored notes, so these results might be irrelevant to you if your receipts are always black-on-white.

I noticed the text was a bit less crisp than before, but not so much that I couldn’t read it. However, for some reason, the black text on the purple note always came out enhanced as white.

Does that matter if you’re just trying to log receipts? Maybe not, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Overall, this capability was very interesting and very fast, but I was hoping it would come out a bit crisper.

My overall consensus

It’s pretty great and can’t get any faster

I like this feature a lot, and I think the post-editing tool is key in cleaning up any small errors here and there.

The real highlight is the convenience. Since most of us already have Google Drive on our phones, it’s really only about two taps away from working.

I can see this being really useful for people who often need to scan things for business and work purposes.

Because it is attached to your Google Drive, it can be set up to save things in your shared folders for access by other company members.

If you are collecting a driver’s license scan from someone in person to be passed on to an HR rep, this could be uploaded to a folder that the rep can access (rather than waiting for an email with the scanned license attached).

You might be thinking to yourself that physically scanning documents is archaic, that these days everything is digitally uploaded and doesn’t need physical forms.

I’d agree with you in principle, but as someone who used to work in an office where the owner insisted on fax machines and handwritten work orders, I can guarantee you there’s still a lot of use for these kinds of features.

But honestly, you’re probably right

While I’m ready to recycle my scanner in place of this feature, I don’t expect everyone to do the same.

I can imagine a graphic designer angrily commenting below about my audacity to compare their professional scanner to a phone camera.

You are absolutely welcome to make your case, and I’ll probably agree with you!

This isn’t going to replace the high-quality scanners you see in professional libraries or art-related fields.

This is going to replace your awful, sometimes unresponsive old scanner that came with your equally bad printer.

And for day-to-day applications, I think you’ll be happy to do it.

Perfect for just such an occasion

I don’t foresee a ton of situations where I’ll need a scanner these days. My old physical scanner was collecting dust, after all.

But for those odd or niche situations where you desperately need to send a scan to someone, I’m grateful this feature exists and will be digging into Google Drive a bit more to see how other features might benefit me in the future.