If you need to scan documents on the go but don't have a traditional scanner, worry not, your Samsung smartphone or tablet can do the job just as easily.

The process of scanning documents using a Samsung phone or tablet is deceptively seamless -- all you need to do is open the camera app and point your device at the document in question. This is a much simpler process than using an actual scanner and produces equally good results.

So, the next time you need to scan something, just pull out your Samsung phone or tablet and get the job done in no time.

Device requirements

Recent Samsung phones and tablets, like the Galaxy S22 or Galaxy Tab S8, have a great feature called One UI. If your phone is up to date, you should already have this feature. You don't need to own one of the best Samsung phones to take advantage of this feature — it's available on all recent models.

Scan documents using the camera app

You can quickly scan documents using the Camera app on your Samsung phone if it's running One UI 2.0 and later editions. The scanning feature is enabled by default, but it's always a good idea to check in case you've accidentally disabled it.

Here's how to scan documents using your Samsung smartphone or tablet:

  1. Open the Camera app and point it towards the document you wish to scan.
  2. The Camera app will automatically highlight the document with a yellow border. To capture your document, select Tap to Scan.
  3. After scanning the document, tap on the thumbnail image in the bottom left corner to review your scan. If you're satisfied with the result, hit Save.

Other Ways to scan documents on Android devices

The Camera app on your Samsung Galaxy phone is good for scanning documents, however, it can't scan multipage documents. For that, you can use the Microsoft Office app, which is pre-installed on your Galaxy phone, given the partnership between Samsung and Microsoft.

To scan a multipage document with the Microsoft Office app, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Microsoft Office app on your phone and navigate to the Actions tab.
  2. Tap on Scan to PDF and point the camera towards your document.
  3. Once the app highlights your document, tap on the capture button.
  4. Make any necessary adjustments and tap on Confirm.
  5. Tap on Add button at the bottom to scan the rest of the pages.
  6. Once you're done scanning all the pages, tap on the forward arrow to continue.
  7. You can use the tools at the bottom to crop, rotate, or reorder pages if you like. After that, tap on Done to save your document.

If you're more familiar with Google's products and services, you might find it more practical to use the Google Drive app on your phone to scan documents instead of Microsoft Office. Google Drive has several scanning features that can come in handy, such as automatic cropping, straightening, and enhancing scanned images.

Scanning documents
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Samsung