Rita El Khoury/Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Drive finally gets a major scanner upgrade with smart on-device AI features and a refreshed Material 3 expressive design.
- New smart batch scanning lets you scan multiple pages in a row without capturing each page manually.
- Auto-Best Frame automatically swaps blurry scans with clear shots, while duplicate detection prevents repeated pages.
Google Drive’s built-in scanner has been one of its underrated features hiding in plain sight. It lets users scan receipts, contracts, forms, and handwritten notes straight from their phone and store them as searchable PDFs in Drive. Over time, Google has gradually improved the tool with auto-capture, JPEG export support, and image enhancements like shadow removal and white balance correction. Now it looks like Google is taking things too far.
A recent screen recording shared x Android Ecosystem President Sameer Samat revealed that Google Drive is introducing a redesigned document scanner with some powerful on-device upgrades.
It brings the Material 3 expressive viewfinder and a set of new tools to speed up your workflow. The big new feature here is smart batch scanning. You don’t have to take photos one by one; You simply hover over multiple pages with your phone. It feels like recording a spontaneous video, with previews of pages instantly popping up at the bottom of your screen.
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The old clunky beaker icon in the upper right corner is gone, so now you have a clean, distraction-free UI. Going too fast? Simply press the pause button to disable auto-scanning or tap the system file picker to pick images already taken.
The entire experience is powered directly by Google Play Services. This means it not only connects to Drive but also works seamlessly with apps like Files by Google. Samat says the experience shifts completely to on-device processing, so the scanner offers lightning-fast performance, offline availability, and complete data privacy.
Since these local capabilities require some serious computational power, the new scanner is currently limited to high-end Android devices with at least 8GB of RAM.
For anyone who scans receipts, contracts, school documents, or business paperwork from their phone on a regular basis, this update takes away some of the hassle that made mobile scanning seem like a simple task. Google isn’t revamping document scanning here, but rather making one of Drive’s most useful features more sophisticated.
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