Microsoft Lens is retired. What reads a scanned page now?
Microsoft Lens was retired from iOS and Android in early 2026. The recommended replacement, the OneDrive scanner, saves as PDF or JPG — and Immersive Reader accepts neither. The free scan-and-read path has a gap in it.
What Microsoft announced
From Microsoft’s own retirement notice: “The Microsoft Lens app will be retired from iOS and Android devices starting January 9, 2026, and will no longer be supported after February 9.”
Source: retirement of Microsoft Lens.
Why the replacement does not close the loop
Microsoft points users to the scanner built into OneDrive. That scanner produces PDF and JPG files.
Immersive Reader’s documented input types are text/plain, text/html, application/mathml+xml and .docx. Neither PDF nor JPG is on that list, and the SDK contains no OCR step. So you can scan a page with Microsoft’s tool and then have no free Microsoft path to hear it read.
Who this affects most
Anyone handed paper. Students with photocopied readings, employees with scanned internal forms, people managing correspondence from organisations that still post letters.
It affects blind and low-vision readers first, and dyslexic readers immediately after — both groups were relying on scan-then-listen, and the scan half no longer connects to the listen half.
Reading a scanned page today
You need one tool that recognises the text and reads it, rather than two tools that do not fit together.
Darvy reads scanned, image-only PDFs directly on Windows 10 and 11, keeps tables in their rows and columns, and runs alongside JAWS, NVDA or Narrator. It is free for seven days, with no card. Step by step: how to read a scanned PDF when you are blind.
Related questions
When was Microsoft Lens retired?
Microsoft's notice states the app was retired from iOS and Android starting January 9, 2026, and is no longer supported after February 9.
What replaced Microsoft Lens?
Microsoft points users to the scanner in OneDrive. It saves scans as PDF or JPG.
Can Immersive Reader open the PDF that OneDrive's scanner produces?
No. Immersive Reader's documented input types are text/plain, text/html, application/mathml+xml and .docx. PDF and JPG are not accepted, and there is no OCR in the SDK.
How can I read a scanned page aloud on Windows?
Use a tool that performs OCR and reads the result in one step. Darvy reads scanned, image-only PDFs on Windows 10 and 11 alongside your existing screen reader.
More comparisons and guides are collected in the Darvy resources hub.