PhotoScan by Google Photos

What it does

PhotoScan by Google Photos turns printed photographs into digital images using a phone camera. It is aimed at anyone preserving family albums, school pictures or loose prints without setting up a flatbed scanner. The app guides you through several shots of the same photo, then combines them into one image with reduced glare and corrected perspective.

Living with it

The workflow is deliberately narrow: place a print in view, follow the on-screen points and let the app process the result. Automatic edge detection reduces the need for manual cropping, while rotation and perspective correction help when the phone is held at an angle. That makes it approachable for occasional users, even if they have a large box of photographs to work through.

Its strongest advantage is handling glossy prints. A normal camera shot can preserve reflections from windows or room lights; PhotoScan’s multi-frame approach is designed to limit those distractions. Results are not always a substitute for a dedicated scanner, particularly when maximum resolution matters, but they are generally more useful than photographing each print once and fixing it later.

Who should use it

• Good fit: families digitising albums, collectors making quick archives and anyone who wants cleaner scans with minimal setup.
• Less suited to: users who need fine control over colour, resolution or batch scanning, or who expect every old print to emerge with professional restoration.

Verdict

Google LLC has kept PhotoScan focused, and that focus is its main virtue. It does not try to be a full photo editor; it solves the awkward first step of getting physical images into a phone-friendly form. Its 50,000,000+ installs and 204,069 ratings reflect broad adoption, while the 4.0790863 rating suggests a well-liked tool with sensible limits rather than a flawless scanner replacement.

Score: 8.2/10