Scan Thing: Scan Anything Reviews

by Danbarkan

ScanThing worked well enough that I went and paid for the full version. As soon as my purchase was complete, though, ScanThing stopped working. It won’t save scans (it gives an error that says something like “image not created,” and it says “no text identified” or something like that when I try to capture plain-as-day black-and-white text in a book with no images and no fancy formatting. ScanThing *will* take pictures and add them to my camera roll, but I don’t need to spend $5 for something that duplicates a function that’s already baked right into the OS. Sadly, I’ll be requesting a refund.

by Hurai H

At first when I got ScanThing, it was so cool, you can scan certain things with the background not being there! Sadly, after a certain amount of uses, ScanThing charges you $5 to take pictures, like why would I pay money to take pictures? I feel like that isn’t something that should be required just to take pictures.
A suggestion for ScanThing is to please make the scanning free, ScanThing is free itself, but please have unlimited scanning free.

by Lhindir

As far as I can tell, the document scanner is just a wrapper of the built-in Files/Notes scanner feature, which isn’t that great. I had some more specific criticisms, but I left them in an email to the developer since they’re mostly related to this fact.

I’m sure it’s nice for scanning objects, but for documents there’s little point to ScanThing. It might add an OCR text layer, which iOS doesn’t do, but I would still recommend Scanner Pro for mobile document scanning for the moment, despite ScanThing’s better privacy policy, payment model, and adherence to iOS norms.

by Mystical Mermaid 99

When I asked my mom for ScanThing she said it looked like you would have to pay for it, but I still wanted to try it out. I took some pictures and it looked GREAT, but then it said that I couldn’t take anymore unless I paid $5. I’m very disappointed. I hope they will change ScanThing so you can take unlimited pics or at least WAY more then you can currently take. Maybe there could be a few ads—that’s better then only being able to take 5 or 6 pictures. Overall I say DON’T get ScanThing unless the editor makes a few tweaks. Please respond.

by Meditationstudioishorrible

The Object scanning is the best around. However, the scanning of actual pages is nowhere near as good as other apps that are the same price (as the unlimited version of scan things). If the scanning of paperwork part of ScanThing (the most important part) was improved, this would be a 5 star app because the object scanning deserves 5 stars. However, you can’t be lackluster on the most important function of a scanner app.

by Jstoneage Mcbonage

Anyone who is leaving negative reviews saying something like, “z0mG 12 free scans… DaS iT?!?!!???” is most likely a young child (in no way trying to be rude—just a likely assumption) who doesn’t have the $5 measly dollars for this highly multifunctional, extremely useful application. For JUST the PDF ➾ text conversion factor alone, there are a multitude of applications for sale on ScanThing market that cost on average 10-20$…! ScanThing… is so streamlined, so visually appealing, so EASY TO USE and EFFECTIVE (given that even at $20, the other apps fail to have as much accuracy as this one does)—I’m in literal awe right now. If only I could’ve had this application a few years ago, at the start of my university career, the tremendous headache that would’ve resolved due to ease of PDF file & Lecture material *redundant/tiresome* translation.. would be remarkable. I don’t think I even fully comprehend the powers and capabilities of ScanThing.. all I do know is that it will be a cornerstone app to my future life endeavors; scientific, research, educational, artistic, or other. God bless you developers. You are doing mankind a fatty solid right hurrr. 👌🏼✅

by ShelbyLewLew

As a teacher, I use ScanThing all the time! Being able to copy printed text and turn it into digital text would be amazing in any year - but in a year of remote teaching, I couldn’t have gotten through it without that feature. Beyond being incredibly useful, it’s really fun too!

by Honshin

This is the best overall scanning app I’ve found yet. It scans text with few issues that are common to most text scanning. But it’s ability to scan objects, including people, is nothing short of amazing. ScanThing is worth every penny spent.

by Aztec Crow

I was very intrigued by other apps with the same capabilities, but privacy concerns kept me from using them. This developer doesn’t need to take my data, and it looks like everything happens in my device. I love that, and that’s why I’m willing to pay for, and recommend ScanThing.

by Kda1990j

I usually don’t write reviews, especially app reviews. If ScanThing isn’t the best I just delete it. HOWEVER, ScanThing is absolutely incredible. It blows my adobe scan app out of the water, PLUS no subscriptions and data collection like those other companies. Good job, developers and staff, you won me over!

by Alexwiwa

It's a pretty cool app for the money. Been using it to scan all my models and Lego sets. I hope one day they add 3d scans but for now it's still well worth the price. I also appreciate that they don't collect data or have some annoying subscription plan, even if that means I have to pay for future features.

by @adon

Used it like twice but still bought the full app just because of great business practices. No data collection or trackers. You got some apps that will charge you 10+ dollars while simultaneously wanting to know everything you do in ScanThing . No thanks. So my payment is more of a statement even if I don't use ScanThing often.

by Barbqman

When I read books and articles, I highlight interesting things which I sometimes refer to in material I write. This is the easiest way I’ve found to do that. I can’t believe how quickly and accurately it extracts text! Just what I’ve been needing. If I can dream for a second, a feature I’d love to see is the ability to input part of the title of a book, etc. which would become the first part of a file name to be used until I change or delete it and then be able to input a page number, etc. before storing the file which would become the last part of the file name. It would also be nice to optionally, automatically, make this last part an incrementing number. But it’s still great the way it is.

by Gamma Series

Amazing doesn’t begin to describe ScanThing. I’ve used at least a dozen different scanning apps and they all seem prehistoric compared to this. It simple. It’s POWERFUL. Best of all, it’s cheap...like really cheap...for what you get. All that with no collecting or selling user data.

I never write reviews but this one deserves not only a great review, but a thanks to the dev. Thanks dev!

by JungleNut

I haven’t even begun to use the scan functionality but the ability to detect and separate an object from the background and so FAST is simply unbelievable. ScanThing saves tons of time for this function alone. I used it to create a Craigslist posting and the photos look really professional but it took only seconds!
Well worth $4.99 and free trial for the first few photos!

by Ultra Man 7

Was a fan of other apps over the years, but they either had gone subscription or didn’t improve their feature set. This one is fantastic, especially for a one time cost of $5. Even if they charge for a new version in 18 months, that is preferable over a subscription.

This does far more than any other scanning app I’ve ever used (and I have used many)!

by Neon Studios2

I usually need to scan a lot of documents and permission slips for school. ScanThing makes it so easy to scan and send straight to my teachers. My favorite feature is the text scanner.

I have ADHD, so I need to keep notes everywhere so I don't forget stuff. With the text scanner, I can scan and copy text from hand-written sticky notes directly into my notes on my phone, which then syncs to all my other devices. Thank you for this awesome app!

by GreenPrell

This is a great app for quickly making really good transparent-image versions of things. It’s also excellent at scanning documents and putting them in your Files app in a reliable and non-annoying way.

My favorite way to use ScanThing is to make ‘objects’ of things and then use another app to turn them into stickers for Messages. Now I can leave stickers of all my favorite stuff and people in all my messages. Thanks, Scan Thing! Very cool app.

by Seltzer John

Before learning about ScanThing from the latest AppStories podcast, I was using ClipDrop, which does something similar.

However, ClipDrop has a much steeper price, is subscription, and doesn’t currently export a “high” resolution image. Scan Thing solves all of these problems by being inexpensive (really, ScanThing should be more like $10-$20; $5 is a no-brainer what what it does).

Definitely worth a look if you’re someone who needs to convert a real-life object onto a digital canvas (and without a background).

by TheAlekW

This is truly a remarkably great scanning app. Definitely worth the money!

I hope the developer continues to improve ScanThing with more options for automatic file naming and shortcuts to file save locations. For example, if I scan a receipt, I’d love to be able to set a date-first file name before custom text, and have a shortcut to save it in a specific receipt folder. The current automatic naming and save options are fine, they are just slower than they could be with some optimization.

by Smoothtrag

It seemed relatively easy to use, and the scan objects thing was kind of cool, but the OCR was not very good and the single document that I tried scanning before I ran out of free scans (which took about three minutes) didn’t work properly at all. I would probably play with it more if the unlock was more like $1, but for $10, it didn’t show enough promise to be worth the investment.

by Qaqwqa

I love your app but the problem does not support Arabic language. when it come to text scan !!
when you will add Arabic language ?
if you add it.i will support your app in my Twitter account APPS_RH

by Nullfeedback

Really fun and functional. So looking forward to where ScanThing will go in the future. It’s now a main icon on my home screen because it’s that good.

by رلبعهد

Please improve Arabic language text scan

by Biscool

Show greats it’s hard to believe the results