[chazeon]

You can actually directly scan in the Files app from the triple dots menu in the upper right corner, this will allow you to directly scan as a PDF file.

[toomuchtodo]

I love Apple, but this is so Apple: hidden powerful functionality you'll only know about through word of mouth or intentional exploration in the UI.

[criddell]

It’s also documented in the iPhone User Guide.

You can get it through Books or on the web:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iphf2746307f/18...

[minkles]

No one reads the manuals these days.

Apart from me apparently.

[elashri]

I work mainly with undocumented stuff. That taught me to appreciate when there is manuals and documentation for anything and I read them. I don't watch YouTube videos, I read the manual. Of course until I can't figure it out and then still look into YouTube anyway.

[loloquwowndueo]

Exploring the UI is a perfectly valid method of discovering functionality. What’s the alternative? The phone interrupting you every 2 steps saying hey by the way, you can also do this and this from here?

[jagged-chisel]

Valid, yes. But this should never be the sole method of discovery.

Good UX provides clues to discovering additional functionality without intruding on the user.

What’s the alternative? That’s a question for a UX team - something Apple can certainly afford.

[loloquwowndueo]

Clicking on a kebab and getting a clearly-labeled “scan document” option seems like an eminently followable clue. It’s not like it’s a minuscule inscrutable icon three levels down.

[marcellus23]

> Good UX provides clues to discovering additional functionality without intruding on the user.

This does that. It's behind a button that means "click this for a bunch of stuff you can do here"

[toomuchtodo]

Now, I’ll probably ask Siri. “How can I scan a document with native iOS functionality?” Hopefully I get the right answer back from the LLM!

(Admittedly, I have never read the manual for any iPhone I’ve owned; mea culpa)

[mrbombastic]

It also shows up as a shortcut in spotlight if you search for “Scan Document”

[Obscurity4340]

Same with number-range call blocking. Gotta pay $4 but it saves you from scammers and other serial callers

[marcellus23]

...or the manual.

[manmal]

And you can scan to any cloud provider that integrates with Files that way. Dropbox etc

[nialse]

Mind blown. Thanks for telling me about this gem.

[lobochrome]

And you can use the Shortcuts app to create a home screen shortcut for it.

[treetalker]

You can long-press the Files icon and access it from the iOS context menu too!

[wrs]

With an iPad, just open Camera. If it sees a piece of paper, you’ll get a yellow Scan Document button without doing anything.

[cromka]

Also worth noting is that if you have a Mac, you can do the same from its Finder and a right click menu.

[terraplura]

Came here to say the same. I wonder how this app compares. One perk this app provides is you have a button to press from your home screen. With the native feature, you could set up an Apple shortcut to start scanning a document and create a button on your home screen.