Google Drive's Document Scanner Updated With Auto Enhancement Feature on Android

Google Drive's mobile document scanner tool has been upgraded with a new feature dubbed ‘auto enhancements'. It can automatically enhance the resolution and image quality of a digitised document to improve its readability. The new auto enhancement feature on Google Drive can fix a number of issues in a scanned document including white balance, shadows, lighting, and contrast. While it was announced for Google Workspace users, the feature will also be available to personal Google account holders.

Google Drive's Auto Enhancement Feature White Balance, Shadows and Lighting

The Mountain View-based tech giant has been periodically upgrading the mobile document scanner tool within Google Drive for Android. Last year, the company added machine learning (ML)-powered title suggestion, automatic capture, camera viewfinder, import from camera roll, and a new floating action button (FAB) for the scanner.

This year, the company further upgraded the document scanner with a feature that allows users to save the scanned files as a PDF or a JPEG file. Additionally, a new black-and-white filter was also added. Now, Google is adding another feature to improve the scan quality dubbed "auto enhancements" according to the company's latest blog post.

Auto enhancement feature in the document scanner in Google Drive
Photo Credit: Google

With this new feature, the document scanner tool in Google Drive will be able to automatically improve scans after a physical document has been digitised. The feature will analyse the scan for imperfections and automatically suggest actions such as white balance correction, shadow removal, contrast enrichment, auto sharpening, light improvement, and more.

Google says this will turn the scanned documents into higher-quality images. Notably, the feature will work even when users save a scanned file as PDF or JPEG.

The company says thatusers on Rapid Release domains will get this feature by January 2, 2025, whereas users on Scheduled Release domains will get it by January 6, 2025. This feature is being made available to the enterprise accounts of Google Workspace, Workspace Individual Subscribers, as well as users with personal Google accounts. Once available, the feature will work on its own once an image has been captured, according to the company.