Can BoardSnap replace Microsoft Lens? For whiteboards, yes — and then some.
Short answer
For whiteboard capture specifically, BoardSnap replaces Microsoft Lens and adds capabilities Lens doesn't have: an AI-generated summary, tri-state action items, brand-aware output, and project memory. If you use Lens primarily for document scanning (PDFs, receipts, forms), those workflows aren't in BoardSnap's scope.
## What Microsoft Lens does for whiteboards
Lens is a scanner app. Point it at a whiteboard, it auto-detects the board boundary, corrects the perspective, and saves a clean image to OneDrive, OneNote, or your camera roll. It also runs OCR to extract raw text. For pure image capture and filing, Lens is excellent.
## What BoardSnap replaces in that workflow
BoardSnap's capture step is identical in quality: Apple VisionKit auto-detects the whiteboard and corrects the perspective in real time. You don't have to do anything differently at capture time.
After the snap, the workflows diverge completely:
- Lens → clean image saved to a folder/notebook
- BoardSnap → clean image + AI reads every line + summary + tri-state action items + subtasks + brand-aware output + project memory
If you've been using Lens and wishing the output told you what to do next, BoardSnap is the direct upgrade.
## What Lens does that BoardSnap doesn't
Lens is a general-purpose document scanner. It handles:
- Business cards
- Receipts
- Printed documents (PDFs)
- Multi-page document scanning
BoardSnap doesn't do those. If you rely on Lens for receipt capture, contract scanning, or business card storage, keep Lens for those workflows.
## The simple replacement test
Ask yourself: why am I snapping this board in Lens? If the answer is "to save the image," Lens works fine. If the answer is "to turn the board into work," BoardSnap is the right tool.
## How to switch
Download BoardSnap from the App Store. The capture UX is intuitive — point the camera at any whiteboard. Free tier handles 1 project and 30 boards. Pro is $9.99/mo for everything unlimited.
Bottom line: Replace Lens for whiteboard capture. Keep Lens for document scanning. Or just keep both — they serve different inputs.
Frequently asked
Does BoardSnap save to OneDrive?
No — BoardSnap stores boards inside its own Projects system. You can copy the summary and action items as text and paste them into OneDrive documents, OneNote, or anywhere else.
Does BoardSnap work for scanning paper documents?
BoardSnap is optimized for whiteboards. It can read text from other flat surfaces, but the AI output — summary and action items — is designed around whiteboard-style content.
See it work in ten seconds.
BoardSnap is free on the App Store. Snap a board — get a summary and action plan.