Microsoft’s OneNote app for Android can now integrate directly with Office Lens, allowing users to work with scanned documents, and has also gotten some new tweaks and shortcuts. Along with general security fixes, users can now sign into OneNote using their phone number on supported devices, rather than having to remember their password. On top of that, users on Android version 7.1.1 (Nougat) and above who are using a launcher that supports icon actions can long-press on OneNote’s icon to jump to the creation screens for different kinds of notes. Finally, Microsoft rounds out the update with a generic entry for nondescript “bug fixes and performance improvements”.
While the shortcuts and easier sign-in both add a nice touch, the Office Lens integration is the most compelling element of this update. Office Lens is mainly for scanning documents, and OneNote integration allows users to work with those scans on the go. This means that business cards, documents, and other such items can be stored and synced, and edited using the usual tools found in OneDrive. Users can scan in images directly from their phones through the OneDrive app, then crop them, resize them, crop them, and rotate them as needed. These scans will act much the same as any other scans imported into or taken through Office Lens.
Microsoft has been steadily working to increase its presence in the mobile world by adding new features to its apps for Android and iOS, and this latest update is yet another example of that trend. The previous update to the OneNote app, as another example, included a ground-up UI redesign that clung more closely to Material Design conventions than before. Microsoft’s Translator app, meanwhile, recently became capable of translating in-person conversations in real time, acting as a Rosetta Stone of sorts to enable communication without a language barrier in common face-to-face situations like business travel or tourism. Microsoft’s Office suite, of course, has been making marked improvements on Android to compete with Google’s own solutions, which are mostly based around cloud storage service Google Drive, and mirror the capabilities of the Microsoft Office software in a number of meaningful ways.