Mopria Scan app makes it easy to connect your Android device to scanners and multi-function printers

Before Android 8.0 Oreo, it was a lot harder to print documents on Android than it needed to be. With a plethora of different types of printers, it often was the case that you needed to get the app from the printer manufacturer. It often lead to confusion, and if the Mopria Alliance hadn't been created, we wouldn't be where we're at today. For those unsure of what the Mopria Alliance is, it's a consortium of smartphone and printer manufacturers which has improved Android's printer support far beyond what it used to be. It has effectively standardized connectivity between printers and smartphones so you can print to just about any printer from your phone – without installing another app.

Now it gets even better. The Mopria Scan app has been released (in beta) on the Google Play Store which will allow you to use your printer's scanner to save documents directly to your phone. You'll be able to initiate and save scans on your device, so you can even use it as a remote control of sorts for your printer if you want. When scanning, you can select options like whether you want it in black or white, the resolution, whether it's a document or photo, and more. It comes with a whole host of other useful features too, including scanning documents to PNG or PDF, re-printing a scan, selecting the scan area, and more.

The application is simplistic but packed full of features.

If you're worried about what printers and scanners you can use, you shouldn't be. It supports Brother, Canon, Dell, DEVELOP, Epson, Fuji Xerox, Gestetner, HP, Infotec, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Lanier, Lenovo, Lexmark, NEC, NRG, Pantum, RICOH, Samsung, Savin, Sharp, TA Triumph Adler-UTAX, Toshiba and Xerox devices.

This comes as a result of smartphone and printer manufacturers working together. Growing fragmentation in printing software started in Android 4.4 KitKat was effectively eradicated in one move following the release of Android Oreo. The Mopria Scanning app means that we'll be able to do even more with our phones, with the end goal being the exact same functionality as on a PC when connected to your printer. If you want to give it a try, you can check out the app below. It should connect to any printer that Android 8.0 Oreo devices can connect to.

• Initiate scan from the Mopria Scan application
• Initiate scan from other applications: email, file browsers, etc.*
• Select scan resolution
• Select color or B/W
• Select scan format: PNG or PDF
• Select input type: photos, documents, etc.
• Discover scanners automatically over Wi-Fi
• Add scanners manually using IP address
• Select scan area
• Edit scan file name
• Save scans on the phone or tablet
• Share scans to other applications: email, file browsers, etc.*
• Share scans to cloud services: Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, etc.*
• Print scans*

*requires additional applications to also be installed on the Android device.

Mopria Scan (Free, Google Play) →

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