BoardSnap vs Microsoft Lens: one saves the image, one ships the tasks.
Short answer
Microsoft Lens captures and straightens whiteboard photos, then saves them to OneDrive or OneNote. BoardSnap does the same scan — using Apple VisionKit — and goes further: it reads every line on the board, generates a summary, and produces a tri-state action item list with auto-generated subtasks. Lens stops at capture; BoardSnap starts there.
## What Microsoft Lens does
Microsoft Lens is a document and whiteboard scanner. It detects the board, corrects the perspective, and saves the cleaned-up image to OneDrive, OneNote, or your camera roll. It can also run OCR to extract raw text. Lens is a capture and file tool — it doesn't interpret content or produce actionable output.
## What BoardSnap does
BoardSnap uses Apple VisionKit on-device to auto-detect and perspective-correct the whiteboard — the same quality correction Lens offers. Then BoardSnap AI reads the corrected image: diagrams, arrows, rough lists, column headers, sketches. The output is a written summary and a tri-state action item list (open / in-progress / done) with auto-generated subtasks, available in about ten seconds.
## Feature-by-feature
- Perspective correction: Both. BoardSnap uses VisionKit; Lens uses its own scanner.
- OCR text extraction: Lens (raw text dump). BoardSnap (interpreted, structured output).
- Summary generation: BoardSnap only.
- Action items with subtasks: BoardSnap only.
- Brand-aware AI: BoardSnap only — paste your URL once, summaries match your brand.
- Projects with memory: BoardSnap only.
- Microsoft 365 save: Lens only.
- Offline capture queue: BoardSnap only.
## The honest case for Lens
If you live in Microsoft 365 and just need the whiteboard image saved to OneNote or OneDrive, Lens is frictionless. It's pre-installed on most enterprise devices and the save-to-OneDrive flow is seamless.
## When BoardSnap wins
When the board's image isn't the deliverable — the action plan is. Teams that run sprint planning, retros, strategy sessions, or client workshops need tasks they can act on, not JPEGs in a folder. That's BoardSnap's lane.
When to use what: Need the image in OneDrive/OneNote → Lens. Need a summary and action items from the board → BoardSnap.
Frequently asked
Does BoardSnap save to OneDrive or OneNote?
Not directly — BoardSnap stores boards in its own Projects system. You can copy the summary and action items as text and paste them wherever you need: OneNote, Notion, Slack, email.
Is Microsoft Lens free?
Yes, Lens is free. BoardSnap is also free to start — 1 project and 30 boards at no cost. Pro is $9.99/mo or $69.99/yr for unlimited boards and AI chat.
See it work in ten seconds.
BoardSnap is free on the App Store. Snap a board — get a summary and action plan.