CamScannerfor Android

CamScanner is one of the better-known mobile scanner apps available for Android devices. It uses your mobile's camera to scan documents. You can then apply filters and save them as a variety of file types, export, and more.

Scanner apps

There are plenty of scanner apps out there, from the feature-rich Genius Scan to the user-friendly TurboScan and streamlined Tiny Scan. CamScanner offers a middle ground between these kinds of apps, with many similar features wrapped up in an intuitive interface. It’s available for free or with a license.

Free vs. paid

The free version of the app comes with most of the features mentioned below, except that documents are watermarked, there are ads, and you can only annotate 30 pages. Some other features are also time-limited, such as uploading to OneDrive or Evernote.

The ‘Premium’ service is a monthly or annual subscription model that removes ads and time limits: you can use all the app features with enhanced capabilities, e.g., you can create collaborative documents that over 40 people can access. 

Then there’s the CamScanner license, which is another paid service. However, all it does is remove ads from the free version, so it’s mostly pointless.

Features

Apart from being a scanner, the app also lets you save and convert files. PDF is the default file type, but it’s possible to convert text and spreadsheet documents into other formats. You can edit and annotate documents, share them with others to edit, and upload to the CamScanner cloud. 

Once you’ve scanned a document to your Android device, you can tweak filters, including the brightness and contrast, as well as change a color image to black and white. Crop, resize and sharpen blurry images, then share them via social media, email, and more. Note that some of these features are only available to Premium users.

Our take

If you need to scan on the go or don’t have a standalone scanner, CamScanner is an ideal option. When you use an app that includes ads, there’s always a risk that those ads will infect your Android device. However, CamScanner is safe to use and remains a powerful scanner app. 

Should you download it?

Yes. Although some features are locked behind a subscription, the free version will be more than enough for most people’s needs.