Microsoft Sunsets Microsoft Lens Scanner App for Android and iOS in 2025: What’s Next?

Microsoft is set to discontinue its widely-used Microsoft Lens scanner app for Android and iOS devices, effective September 15, 2025.

First introduced in 2014 on the now-defunct Windows Phone platform, Microsoft Lens allowed users to digitize paper documents such as invoices and receipts into readable formats like PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files, all without any subscription fees. The app accumulated over 100 million downloads on Google Play and approximately 136,000 ratings on the US App Store.

As announced, new installations from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store will be discontinued mid-October, and Microsoft Lens will be removed from both app stores by November 15. Users who already have the app can continue to create new scans until December 15. Existing scans will remain accessible in the MyScans folder as long as the app remains installed, although users will not be able to create any new scans thereafter.

For those seeking an alternative to Microsoft Lens, Microsoft suggests trying the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, which offers similar functionality. Scans saved using Copilot will be accessible via the MyCreations section in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on OneDrive. However, it’s worth noting that Microsoft 365 Copilot currently does not provide the same range of features as Microsoft Lens, such as direct saving into other parts of the Microsoft ecosystem like OneNote, Word, or PowerPoint, or read-out-loud functions and integrations with Microsoft’s reading assistance tool, Immersive Reader.

Microsoft did not disclose specific reasons for waiting until now to retire the popular app but has seen several other widely-adopted apps phased out this year. In March 2025, Microsoft announced the sunsetting of Microsoft Publisher, a three-decade old application, with an end-of-life date set for October 2026, citing integration of its functionalities into other Microsoft 365 apps such as Word and PowerPoint. Meanwhile, the consumer version of Skype was discontinued in May, with users being redirected to Microsoft Teams.

It is unclear at this time if Microsoft has plans to introduce new features or functionalities to Microsoft 365 Copilot that will address the aforementioned limitations. Stay tuned for updates.