WhatsApp is now bringing a new capability for its Android beta testers that allows them to scan documents directly from the app, a feature that has been available to the app’s iOS users for the past several months. The new feature ends the need to rely on third-party document scanners as WhatsApp itself creates images into documents that can be shared with different contacts.
With the new feature, WhatsApp will bring a more streamlined document-sharing experience to its users by allowing them to seamlessly scan, convert and share documents in PDF format, reducing the hassle of switching between different apps.
The feature was first spotted in WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.25.18.29, where it remained inactive owing to being still under development.
However, the feature is now seemingly being rolled out to beta testers at large, with many users reporting gaining access to the new feature after installing the latest update from the Google Play Store.
After the latest update, a new ‘Scan Document’ option now appears alongside the current ‘Browse Documents’ and ‘Choose from gallery’ options in the attachment menu. Clicking on the new option will open your Android device’s camera and prompt users to click images for document sharing.
Notably, WhatsApp also allows users to position their phone correctly for document sharing by giving them manual and automatic options. Under the manual option, users can take control over which parts they want selected for document scanning, while in automatic mode, WhatsApp detects the edges of the document in order to provide an instantaneous document-sharing experience.
In other related news, WhatsApp also rolled out a new AI-powered feature earlier this week that summarises personal chats of users. The Meta AI-backed feature allows the personal messaging app to create a bullet-point summary of chats in order to provide users with a general idea of what the conversation is about before diving further.
