Microsoft is consolidating its applications, leading to the discontinuation of some standalone services in favor of newer, integrated offerings. The company is enhancing its Microsoft 365 Copilot suite, which combines popular productivity tools with its AI assistant.
OneDrive, a component of this suite, now includes a document scanner feature. Consequently, Microsoft has decided to retire its dedicated document scanning application, Microsoft Lens. Despite its relatively niche status, Microsoft Lens had cultivated a strong positive reception from its user base.
Microsoft Lens Discontinued Despite High User Ratings
OneDrive Assumes Document Scanning Role
Microsoft has confirmed the discontinuation of its mobile application, Microsoft Lens, as reported by Neowin. This app allowed users to scan documents using their smartphone cameras and was available on both Android and iOS platforms.
The functionality previously offered by Lens has been integrated into OneDrive, prompting Microsoft to retire the standalone Lens app. According to Microsoft Support, the Lens app will be retired from iOS and Android devices starting January 9, 2026, with support ending on February 9, 2026. Users will be able to create new scans until March 9, 2026. After this date, new scans will not be possible, but existing scans will remain accessible if the app is kept installed on the device.
The Microsoft Lens app is scheduled for removal from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store on February 9, 2026.
Microsoft Lens enjoyed considerable popularity, boasting an impressive 4.8/5 rating on both Android and iOS. The Android version alone accumulated over 50 million downloads. Despite this strong user approval, Microsoft has chosen to phase out Lens, directing users to utilize OneDrive for their scanning needs instead.
Users who relied on Microsoft Lens should transition to OneDrive to avoid disruption. For those new to OneDrive, information on its features, including comparisons to other cloud storage services, is available, such as reasons Microsoft OneDrive is better than Google Drive.
