Microsoft is getting ready to shut down one of its most straightforward and useful mobile apps: Microsoft Lens. For years, this app has been a popular app for scanning documents, business cards, and even handwritten notes directly from a phone. It was fast, clean, and did not lock features behind a subscription.
Now Microsoft has confirmed that Lens will stop working after December 15, 2025. Before that, it will vanish from app stores in November, and new downloads will no longer be possible. Existing scans will still be viewable, but the core feature, quick scanning, will stop working.
Microsoft is pointing users toward its Microsoft 365 Copilot app. While Copilot can handle scanning, it is more of an AI-powered productivity tool and lacks several of Lens’s unique features. For example, it does not save directly to OneNote or offer some of the accessibility tools Lens was known for.
Read: Best Document Scanner Apps for Android and iOS
This raises an important question. Why remove an app that is still popular and functional? Recent data shows millions of people have used Lens over the years, with hundreds of thousands of downloads in just the past month. The most likely reason is strategic: Microsoft wants more users inside its AI ecosystem, and moving scanning into Copilot is one way to do it.
This is where it could backfire. The Lens was popular because it respected people’s time. Open, scan, save, done. Copilot is not that kind of app. Some will make the switch, but others will look for alternatives that feel closer to what Lens offered. Competitors like Adobe Scan, Google Drive’s scanner, or even smaller independent apps might quietly gain a flood of new users.
From a business point of view, this makes sense. From a user’s point of view, it feels like losing a reliable everyday tool. Lens was the kind of app you did not think about — it was just there when you needed it, always doing its job without extra noise. When
