5 Best Android Apps to Scan Old Photos
There was once a time when we used film to capture our pictures. That’s right, I know it’s hard to remember but most of your childhood pictures are probably stored in the attic. These are the best Android apps to scan old photos and post them all over Instagram for easy likes.
All jokes aside, the old Polaroid you have, may not last that long. Every paper has a shelf life, same goes for the ink used to print on the glossy paper so, it is better to keep your memories safe in the cloud than in shoebox.
Thankfully, there are a good number of apps to scan old photos on Android and they work perfectly well. I was scanning my old photos with the new Google app that just came out and it struck me, a lot of people may want to do the same with their memories.
Therefore, in a natural Joy of Android fashion, I decided to make a full-blown list of apps that will help you scan photos with ease. Granted, I only used 2 of the apps in day-to-day usage, all of them have some great features to transport your photos to the digital realm.
Note: The 5 best Android apps to scan old photos were tested on a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge smartphone. I used moderate lighting conditions and a flat table to take scans of my old pictures. For the sake of convenience, I’ll be using a single photo with all the apps so you can easily compare the results. All of the apps worked perfectly fine with my smartphone and there were no hitches during scanning.
1. PhotoScan by Google Photos
This is one of the most intuitive apps I have ever used, and it comes from the same guys who made Android. Google has outdone themselves with this amazing app that makes scanning your old photos a breeze. All you need to do is place the picture on a flat surface, hold your smartphone on top of it, tap on the capture button, hover over the 4 points until they are done, and that’s it.
The app might take a little while to process the images, and after that, you’ll have a crisp and clear photo scanned. That’s not all; the image will have a great resolution and quality to it. Even if you have the flash on, it will be magically removed from the picture. Overall, I highly recommend that you use this app first then move on to the others.
2. Office Lens
This app right here is a bit different than the one made by Google. Simply because it can also scan documents, charts, bills as well as whiteboards. To be frankly honest, I didn’t hear about this app until today when I was researching for the best Android apps to scan old photos.
Surprisingly, though, Microsoft did a great job with this app, and it is a wonderful experience to use this one. One of the best reasons to have this app is its ability to convert images to PDF files. If you’re a student and your teacher usually write fast on the whiteboard, you’ll find that this app will save you a lot of time.
All you need to do is stand at a respectable distance and snap a picture of the whiteboard; the rest will be taken care of by the app. Same goes for photos, lay the photos down, frame the camera over them and snap away.
3. CamScanner
CamScanner is one of the first apps I install on any of my Android devices, and it is a highly recommended app. Naturally, I turned to this app for scanning old photos, but I found it a little bit harder to do so.
Scanning documents and papers are great with this app, but when it comes to scanning hundreds of pictures, the process does get a bit cumbersome. The principle here is also same, lay the photo down, snap a picture and the app will take care of everything.
The thing is, despite having the rapid capture mode, it becomes a little bit harder to make adjustments to each and every picture. I suggest that you invest in a tripod stand so that the adjustments are minor.
4. Camera Scanner Image Scanner
This is a relatively new app that allows you to scan photos with a few steps. With this app on your smartphone not only you will be able to scan your old photos but also scan documents and papers.
The app also allows you to store the scanned images on cloud storage easily. Want to email the images to someone directly from the app? You can do that as well.
I especially like the auto photo enhancing feature available in this app, it reduces glare from outside sources and makes the photos a bit cleaner to look at. You can also share scanned files easily with people nearby.
5. Tiny Scanner
This is the most feature loaded scanning app for Android, and it’s no wonder that it’s on the best Android apps to scan old photos list as well. With this app, you’ll be able to scan in color, grayscale, or even black and white.
One of the best things about this app is that the photo edges are detected automatically and adjusted so that the image looks great after scanning. Another good thing about this app is that it starts up fast and the image processing is done in mere seconds. If you want to protect the scanned photos with a passcode, that option is available as well.
Conclusion
After a long while, the first app on this list actually deserves the first spot. There is no question about it, Google has done a remarkable job with their old photo scanning app and they deserve all the praise. It’s not that the other apps are incapable of scanning photos, the way Google handles it is remarkable. I highly recommend that you check out the first app on the list first and then move down if you find something is off with it.
I find these apps to be very competent and I’m glad that I scanned around 1000 images and saved them for future viewing. I can finally lock up the heavy photo albums back in the trunk.
Questions? Suggestions? Leave a comment below and we will check them out.
