Scanbot is an Android app that’s been around for some time now. It’s an industry leading Android app to scan documents, receipts and more using a quick and simple app that’s sophisticated and accurate. With super-quick edge detection and automatic OCR processing, Scanbot makes it easy to name, organize and find receipts and documents whenever you need them. You can even use Scanbot to search, using keywords, through your documents thanks to its OCR technology. Scanbot is also one of the best scanning apps to set reminders against documents as well as upload to whichever major cloud storage solution you want. Let’s take a closer look at what Scanbot has to offer.
First thing’s first, users will need to download Scanbot from the Play Store in order to use. When first launched, the app comes with a pretty nice introduction on what Scanbot has on offer.
Should users opt for the Pro Version of Scanbot, they’ll be able to sign and annotate documents there and then, among other things.
Scanning a document is really easy, the mains screen always has a view of the camera, and when you’re scanning something, the app gets to work right away. Scanbot features edge detection and offers up some prompts to help users take the best picture possible.
Once you take an image of a document, you’re also given the opportunity to tweak things to your liking before you finalise the scan.
You can rename a scan whatever you like, and you can also setup automatic upload to a cloud service of your choice. Of which Scanbot supports many. I went ahead and chose OneDrive, as it’ll keep all my work receipts with my well, work.
Once I had scanned a couple of documents, I was asked whether or not I wanted Scanbot to OCR my previous scans and to carry on doing so.
I accepted, and once I scanned this receipt from a purchase I made before I went on holiday this year:
I named this scan the G Watch R Receipt, which is as simple a name as I could think of.
Now, on this receipt as well was a copy of FIFA 14 for my PS Vita, I searched that keyword and lo and behold, this receipt (which was named differently, remember) appeared in my search history:
Scanbot also features a sort of “feed” for lack of a better term with all of your recent scans and such for you to take a look through.
Even taking a look at the Settings Menu with Scanbot is packed full of features:
Something I thought was a small, yet excellent feature, was the ability to change the default naming scheme to whatever you wanted. I adjusted this to how I like it, and now I just need to change the word “Scan” in individual scans to get a date and a quick name.
Scanbot is one hell of a scanning application for Android. It’s super-quick, easy to use and yet it also packs in all of the features that you need in order to take control of your receipts and documents no matter where you are or what you need them for. I was particularly impressed with the OCR feature as well as the new Magic Color Filter. Scanbot ticks all the right boxes, it doesn’t care which cloud storage service you use, it has a lot of flexibility in its settings, and the Pro version is a simple, well-priced, one purchase affair. Better than Microsoft’s Office Lens and something that vastly surpasses Google’s own offerings, this is going to make my life even more paper-free than it used to be, and it can do the same for you as well.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – The only thing takes a little bit of time here is the OCR recognition, everything else is nice and speedy.
- Features (5/5) – This is the one scanning app that does everything you need it to; PDF and image support, multiple pages as one document, scan text with keywords, sign and annotate you name it and Scanbot will do it for you.
- Theme (4/5) – The interface here is nice and easy to use and should you need to, you can even change the overall look using different themes from the settings menu.
- Overall (5/5) – With all the right boxes ticked as well as impressive OCR support, Scanbot does it all and it’s flexible to how you like it, not the other way around. You’re free to do as you please with Scanbot, and it’s a great option if you need to upload to the cloud, no matter the service.
Pros
- No need to jump through any hoops, everything works really quickly and easily.
- Great OCR recognition makes this a simple solution to quickly searching through hundreds of receipts or documents.
- Excellent support for multiple different cloud storage providers all over the world.
- Edge detection is quick and efficient, easily one of the fastest scanning apps available.
Cons
- Pro version might be a little expensive for some users.
- Ability to import scans from other scanning apps would help users make the switch.
All-in-all, Scanbot is the same excellent option that it used to be for those that need to keep receipts or documents safe, but don’t want to spend extra money on a scanner or keep all that paper around. Great for personal use, such as receipts, as well business use like contracts (which you can sign as well) and documents there’s everything that you could need or want in Scanbot and it’s super-quick to boot.