8 Best OCR Apps for Android
Using your smartphone camera to scan documents isn't anything new. Earlier we saw some of the best Android scanner apps to scan QR codes and visiting cards. And as you have guessed it from the title, next in line is the best OCR apps for Android.
While there is no shortage of OCR apps for Android on the Google Play Store, finding the right one for you might take some time. Fret not, we have tested several Android scanner apps to see which one is suitable for your needs. Let's dive into the best OCR apps for Android.
Office Lens
Office Lens is an app by Microsoft which means you already know it will come tightly integrated with the office suite of apps. Office Lens comes with a powerful OCR scanner but it will work with only OneNote, Docs, Excel, Powerpoint, or PDF.
Pros: You can save everything in OneDrive and edit the converted text in OneNote or Word. A must-have for Office 365 users. Works amazingly well and easy to use. There are no ads.
Cons: If you don't use Office 365, try something else. The app is free but MS Suite is not.
Verdict: I would only recommend Office Lens to 365 users. You can't go wrong with this app if that's the case. Easy to scan, store, and search for everything in the cloud.
Text Fairy
Text Fairy, one of the best OCR reader apps, does one thing and it does it really well. The popular OCR app is free to use and comes with no ads whatsoever. One thing that Office Lens lacked was the ability to correct the viewpoint. Say, you are scanning a book and the pages are bent near the center, the app will scan and take an image and correct it automatically.
Pros: Supports many languages, autocorrects viewpoint, and export to PDF. No ads and completely free. There is a text-to-voice feature.
Cons: No handwriting support, no cloud or third-party app support.
Verdict: Text Fairy is easy to use the app with a clean UI and minimalist design. Good for when you don't need to scan, organize, search too many documents. Otherwise, cloud support would be better. It is good for occasional work.
CamScanner
CamScanner is a multi-purpose app that can be used for scanning documents (converting images to PDF) as well as an effective OCR tool (converting images to editable text). The OCR features in CamScanner only come with the pro version, for a one-time fee of $1.99. After scanning some handwritten notes, I saw the app made some mistakes. Accuracy was lower than expected and not comparable to the likes of Office Lens or Text Fairy.
Pros: It comes with a cloud storage account so you can store everything there. Support is great, and the app UI is good to look at.
Cons: OCR is slightly less accurate than other apps, and there is no way to edit the document without subscribing to the premium plan, which is expensive if you use it just for OCR.
Verdict: If you are already invested in the CamScanner ecosystem, then it makes sense to upgrade with one purchase and get its OCR feature. With this, you'll be easily able to store everything in the cloud.
Google Keep
Google Keep is a strong OneNote and Evernote competitor with a lot of note-taking and storing features. Being a Google app, it integrates with Calendar, Docs, and other Google services. The app is free and ad-free, as all things Google are.
Pros: The app is free and syncs with other Google products. Accuracy is good.
Cons: Since Google Keep is not a stand-alone OCR app, you'll have to manually copy-paste the item into a new document. To overcome this issue, you can scan documents using Google Drive on your Android or even use Google Goggles app as it scans text and then you can copy it on the clipboard. Since all of them use Google cloud server for OCR, the result should be pretty much the same.
Verdict: Google Keep is one of the best OCR scanner apps for Android because it has everything you need, including cloud storage and cross-platform compatibility and sync for free. It is more useful if you need a kick-ass note app.
PDF Scanner
PDF Scanner is a document scanner that comes with some in-app purchases for additional features, but the OCR tech is completely free to use. You can easily scan the image for text and convert it into PDF. It lets you edit the text before saving it.
Pros: OCR works as advertised with some errors, supports 100+ languages.
Cons: Too many ads ruined the experience.
Verdict: PDF Scanner is a robust app that offers a free OCR scanner. If the ads are annoying, you can upgrade for $2.99 to remove them.
Adobe Scan
Adobe is a known entity when it comes to document management apps, so it comes as no surprise that they have a scanning app too. The app has a minimalist feel to it and comes with 5 GB of online storage on the Acrobat site. With the OCR tech, you can scan for text inside documents. It has a built-in editor so you can annotate, highlight, and comment on text in the scanned documents on the fly.
Pros: The app is free, works really well, offers 5 GB cloud storage, and OCR tech is one of the best.
Cons: Adobe Scan doesn't support third-party cloud storage services. I couldn't find an option to save as JPEG. There was only PDF.
Verdict: Adobe Scan is a cool little app that is focused on taking scans and extracting text from it. It is reliable and free but doesn't play well with third-party apps.
Smart Lens
Smart Lens will not only allow you to scan documents and convert it from an image to text, but you can also translate it to other languages. You can use it to scan business cards, and it will detect numbers, names, email IDs, and other info and sort it systematically.
Pros: Support for foreign languages and comes with a language translator.
Cons: The only drawback is that it doesn't support handwritten notes like Adobe Scan and CamScanner.
Verdict: Smart Lens is a good app that can come in handy while traveling abroad but the lack of handwriting support limits the app's capability.
Post-It
If you take a lot of post-it notes, this app is for you. The Post-It app solves the problem of digitizing those notes. You can scan the notes using the Android's camera. It can work with any type of colored notes and they don't necessarily have to be made by 3M, but the app sometimes rejects the notes if they're not completely flat against the surface.
Pros: Detects multiple notes at once, an option to manually detect notes if the app skips it, an option to rotate, edit, and group notes.
Cons: Doesn't detect the notes if it isn't flat on the surface, doesn't transform the image to editable text.
Verdict: It is a great app to digitize your Post-It notes you may have taken during a meeting or are stuck on the fridge at your home.
Conclusion
If you are an Office 365 user, Office Lens is the best option for you. Same way, if you are heavily using Google Docs, Google Keep is a really good option. If you are an occasional user who needs a good OCR scanner without all the bells and whistles, Text Fairy will help you out. Adobe Scan is powerful, free, works with handwriting too, and comes with 5 GB storage.
If you need a robust document scanner with OCR features, CamScanner, though expensive and a little buggy, is still better because it offers so many other features that you will not find elsewhere.

Jim's passion for Apple products ignited in 2007 when Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone. This was a canon event in his life. Noticing a lack of iPad-focused content that is easy to understand even for “tech-noob”, he decided to create Tabletmonkeys in 2011.
Jim continues to share his expertise and passion for tablets, helping his audience as much as he can with his motto “One Swipe at a Time!”