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Google Drive takes on Microsoft Lens better for document scanning (Update: Rolling out)
- Google Drive could soon be able to save scanned documents as JPEG files in addition to its current ability to save them as PDFs.
- This would give Google Drive better feature parity against dedicated document scanner apps like Microsoft Lens.
- The feature has been spotted rolling out to devices.
Update 2, July 28, 2024 (11:07 PM ET): We have spotted the feature on our device with Google Drive v2.24.297.0, which indicates that it is rolling out publicly. Have you received this functionality on your device? Let us know in the comments below!
Update, July 15, 2024 (01:25 PM ET): We have managed to activate the feature, and here are two screenshots showing the ability to save in JPEG and PDF.
As you can see, the PDF created will have four pages with scanned images, while JPEGs are individual files for each photo.
Original article, June 5, 2024 (09:07 PM ET): Google Drive is an excellent cloud storage solution from Google, especially for Google One users who rely on it heavily beyond the free tier. Google Drive is also a decent document scanner, but dedicated apps like Microsoft Lens handle document scanning much better. For many users, scanning a document is usually done to share it forward or for storage and archival purposes. Google Drive could soon be a better document scanner, taking the fight more directly to Microsoft Lens.
Google Drive already allows you to scan pages and upload them as PDFs using the document scanner present in the Android ML Kit. However, as we spotted in the latest Google Drive v2.24.227.0, the app will soon let you save these scanned pages as .jpeg image files, too.
Google Drive will soon let you create a separate JPG file for each image/PDF page. You will also have the option to set the quality of the image. This new feature could likely be specific to Google Drive, as we haven’t spotted clues that indicate it is coming to Android ML Kit.
Microsoft Lens already lets you do this, which is why many users prefer it as their default document scanner. Since Google Drive comes preinstalled on phones, a more handy JPEG option will give it feature parity with Microsoft Lens for document scanning. Users will undoubtedly appreciate the ability to save files in PDF and JPEG formats, especially for documents that need to be uploaded on ancient government websites that do not accept PDFs.
This document scanner feature is not currently live within the Google Drive app. It may or may not roll out in the future.