Printing from your smartphone hasn’t always been possible, at least not in a simplified way, but these days it’s never been easier to print pictures, documents, or other files from your mobile device and it’s thanks to apps like Mopria Print Service. Mopria Print Service is an app that was created by the Mopria Alliance, which is made up of a number of companies that make printers, with a goal to make printing as easy as possible from your smartphone or tablet running on Android. The app itself doesn’t have an interface but it does enable Android devices to connect to a wide variety of different printers. Let’s take a look and see how the app works and what it provides.
First things first, if you want to connect to your Wi-Fi-enabled Mopria certified printer you’ll need to head to the Play Store and download Mopria Print Service. Once installed, you’re ready to print anything on your phone that you need to.
As stated, Mopria Print Service works with a wide variety of different printers from all kinds of companies, like Brother, HP (which is the type of printer i’m personally using), Epson, Canon, Xerox, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba, and more.
No matter what type of printer you have chances are it’s compatible with the Mopria Print Service app, and if you aren’t sure you can open the Mopria app and click on the link they provide to check the list of printers that work with the service. When you have something you need to print you simply need to tap on the print option for the file and Mopria will take over from there and you’ll need to select the printer you want to use.
Once the printer is selected Mopria will also give you a list of different printing options that you can adjust and/or modify before you send the file you want to print to the selected printer, such as the number of copies you want to print, whether or not you want black and white or color, the paper size, and even if you want things printed on both sides of the paper.
Of course, the very first time you go to print something after installing Mopria Print Service the app will ask you if you want to use it, alerting you that your document or file may pass through multiple servers before making its way to the printer.
While you can easily print just about anything on your Android device using the print button if it’s available, you can also share stuff with the Mopria Print Service app which will send it to the connected printer with no effort. Simply tap the share button for photos or other shared content on your device and when the share options pop up, scroll to find Mopria Print Service and tap to select it. If what you’re trying to print requires you to give Mopria Print Service permissions to access the app where the file is stored, you’ll see the permissions request pop up on the device.
If your printer isn’t connected to your Wi-Fi network or if you just don’t want to send the file over the Wi-Fi network, you can also print with Mopria Print Service using Wi-Fi Direct as well, which essentially just creates a wireless network between the phone or tablet and the printer so the file can be sent and printed out.
While Mopria isn’t an application which will have tons of features and options for you to interact with in its own app interface, it’s quite a useful application for being able to print stuff from your Android device. While some printers will have a dedicated application available, such as HP for the Envy 7645 printer i’m using, Mopria Print Service also connects to this printer and it’ll allow you to connect to other printer types as described above, so this app is perfect for a work environment or even the home if you have more than one printer type.
Ratings
- Speed (5/5) – There was almost nothing to the setup process so using Mopria was quick and painless.
- Features (4/5) – Mopria isn’t packed with features but it doesn’t need to be as it does its job and does it well and allows you a decent amount of control over your printing options.
- Theme (4/5) – There’s no app interface really, save for the one page that has links to help and supported printers when you open the Mopria Print Service app.
- Overall (4/5) – Easy to use application and quick setup, which made it easy to connect to the wireless HP printer I have in my home.
Pros
- Setup was easy
- connects to a wide variety of different printer brands and models
- lets you print over Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi Direct
- Can help you print photos, documents, or other types of files, as well as shared content
Cons
- No app interface for options or settings, which might confuse some users
Overall Mopria Print Service was really an easy-to-use application that should be installed on any Android device if you have a need to print stuff from your phone or Android tablet. The app is free, it connects to almost any printer brand, and it lets you print just about anything. You can even print stuff through the Android share option. If you don’t have a printer which supports Google Cloud Print, then this is the easiest way to get printing from your Android phone or tablet.