Smartphone owners can use their cameras for more than just taking pictures to capture memories or create works of art thanks to these great browser apps for Android. Go paperless using one of these excellent browser apps for Android. Store documents, business cards, class notes on the whiteboard, or scan documents to digitally sign and send. We’ll show you the 5 best browser apps for Android smartphones that will help you work paperless and be more productive.
Evernote
Open Evernote and tap the Plus icon to bring up the new note menu.
Evernote (Free with subscriptions) users should look no further than the app they are currently using. It comes with a great scanning function built into the app. There’s also a nice widget that Android users can place on their phone’s home screen to quickly scan documents or business cards into Evernote.
Open the app and sign in to an account or sign up for one if you don’t have one. Tap the plus icon in the lower right corner (see left screenshot above). Then tap on one of the new note types in the drop-down list that appears above the plus icon (middle screenshot above). The right screenshot above shows a scanned image. It was a glossy document and Evernote gave me a warning saying this wouldn’t look good and that I had to open the camera to remove the glare. It’s a nice attention to detail built into it.
Use one or both of the Evernote for Android Widgets for quick access to browsing functionality.
Users can place a beautiful widget on their Android home screen that provides quick access to the Evernote new note functionality. Above you will see two different widgets. On most Android phones, press and hold them on the home screen to place them on the home screen. Tap the widgets to open your widget drawer. Some Android phones or Android launchers work differently. Follow your phone’s instructions to place the widgets on the home screen.
In the above widget, the above functions work as follows:
- To open the Evernote app
- scans documents and adds them to the default notebook.
- Starts a new blank note in Evernote.
- opens a new voice recording note for voice memos.
- Opens a new drawing note in Evernote, great for capturing visual ideas.
- notes will search for your Evernote account.
- single action widget starts a new text-to-speech note so you can speak your note.
After customizing the widget, the first six functions appear in an Evernote widget (see below). If you have many business cards, you can add other types of note functions, such as a business card scanner. Note seven is a separate widget. Evernote allows the user to place a single function widget instead of the widget bar holding one to six functions.
The Evernote widget allows the user to customize which new note features are placed in the widget bar in addition to the shortcut to open the Evernote application (see numbered screenshots above). You’ll have to customize it to do the things I put in my widget bar. When placing the widget on the home screen, it opens the middle screenshot above. Tap the button to see all available widget functions. To remove them, tap the ones you don’t want first. Then tap the ones you want (up to five functions). Select the green color screen or the black color screen at the bottom of the customization screen.
Evernote is a great app and includes OCR for scanned documents or images with text in them. You get more features and storage with a paid subscription. They start at $25/year for the mid-tier Plus plan. The premium plan costs $45/year.
Many other scanning apps also support exporting to Evernote. Android places Evernote in the Share menu if they don’t support it directly. Any application that uses the OS Share menu can save content to Evernote.
Office Lens
Those who invest heavily in Microsoft Office and OneNote, Office Lens Give it a try (it’s free). It simply works. Point the camera at a document or photo and it takes a picture. The user can tap the save icon (at the bottom of the left screen above) and a screen will pop up asking where to save the image (right screenshot above). It will ask for a name and automatically select OneNote and Gallery, which saves the image to the phone’s image gallery. It also offers saving to OneDrive, Word, PowerPoint or a PDF file.
User can crop photo before saving. I rarely needed to do this as the app does a great job of cropping documents.
Tap the scanner icon before scanning to see a list of scan types (see left screenshot above). Scans documents, a whiteboard, photo, or business card in the classroom or meeting room. Choose the right one for best results. If you select the business card, only Gallery and OneNote are shown on the save screen as optional places to save it. Saves to OneNote in a Notebook called Contacts. To see this notebook on the phone, tap it from recent history in Office Lens and it will automatically open in OneNote.
You’ll need an Office 365 to get the most out of the app, but Live will work with a free Microsoft account like Outlook or Hotmail.
Camera Scanner
Camera Scanner (Free with optional subscription) is a good option for those who don’t want to use Office or Evernote. It works on both Android and iOS, so it’s a good option for Android users with an iPad.
The CamScanner app for Android offers some rich and powerful features even in the free version of the app. It processes QR codes as well as scanning documents and images.
CamScanner performs QR code reading in a simple way.
Point the browser at a QR code and the resulting website link opens ready for the user to press it to navigate to the site. The user has to swipe left or right to switch between QR Code scanning and Documents scanning.
To scan a document, tap the camera icon and place the camera over your document. When you’re ready, tap the camera icon again to take the photo. The app will crop the footage to select the document. This works best on a contrasting color background. Tap the buttons at the bottom to refine the shot. Buttons for rotating and changing image exposure settings are located at the bottom of the screen. The checkmark saves the shot.
At the top of the screen are buttons that adjust the captured footage to specific modes. It includes…
On some phones you will have to swipe left or right to see all the buttons. On a Galaxy S7 Edge with a 5.5 inch screen, I couldn’t see the two right buttons.
CamScanner works fine in the free version. Sign up for an account and the Basic Account version provides 200MB of cloud storage and automatic OCR to search scanned documents. It also allows users to fax documents and add a customized watermark. Share with up to 10 people.
For $4.99 per month or $4.99 per year, CamScanner provides up to 10GB of storage, editable OCR documents, document collages from scanned pages, upload to third-party sites (Box, Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, OneDrive) and in Application that adds downloads to stored PDF files. Subscribers can also add password protection and expiration dates for shared access to a document.
CamScanner offers a $1.99 (normally $4.99) paid version of their app that captures higher resolution footage, removes in-app ads, and allows users to upload to Evernote and OneDrive. It also removes the watermark added to user-created PDF files from scanned documents.
Tiny Browser
Making another Android favorite called Appxy Tiny Browser (A free paid optional version available for $4.99).
TinyScanner offers us the simplest of these document scanners. It captures the image, cuts the document, and then the user can share the document. There is no QR code reader.
Among the few features that make it different…
While the above scanners give us more powerful features, those who just want a very simple scanner should take a look at TinyScanner.
Bing Search
Tap the camera icon to use the Bing barcode/QR code scanner.
While this technically doesn’t help anyone go paperless, Bing Search The (free) app scans barcodes and QR codes to make it easy to find deals or QR-linked websites. Open the Bing app on an Android phone and press the large search icon until the camera and microphone icons appear to the left and right of the search icon (magnifying glass). Tap the camera and the barcode/QR code scanner appears. Point at a barcode or QR code and hold the phone steady. It will either load the website or search for the product online.
Browser Apps for Android Tips
Browser apps transfer everything from documents to business cards to images to your phone for use in other apps and even other devices. The following tips will help users get the most out of scanning with their Android phone.
If you can think of other tips, add them in the comments below.