Capture and save PDFs with Office Lens while offline and without having to log in.

Office Lens is a powerful scanner on your Android device. The app was designed for easy scanning of documents, images and whiteboards. For the latter Office Lens will remove the glare and other imperfections to make it readable. No matter what you’ve scanned, you can use Office Lens built-in tools to, say, convert a document to PDF. Same can be done with an image and with the integration of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote, Office Lens will smoothly convert to these file format as well and save them to OneDrive or your local device. In order to take advantage of all these features, a Microsoft Account is needed. But not always.

Today’s update introduces the ability to save PDF files when your device is offline without having to log in. A feature that is handy when on the go and there’s no internet access. Microsoft says that this update will let you “quickly save PDF captures to your device without having to log in and without a watermark.”

Office Lens new offline feature makes the app even more useful and powerful. So make sure you check it out in Google Play Store for free.

Microsoft OneDrive for Android makes viewing photos faster.

Microsoft OneDrive was updated today. In version 4.15 of the app, the company improved the scan feature. The change log says all scans “will be cropped, cleaned up and polished thanks to the power of Office Lens.” Microsoft also improved performance and that results into viewing of photos faster. 

Get this update to Microsoft OneDrive for Android in Google Play Store.

Select multiple items in Microsoft OneDrive with hold and drag gesture.

Microsoft OneDrive was updated today with a pretty neat feature. In version 4.8 of the app, you can hold and drag to select multiple items in the Photos and tiles view. A very convenient feature that lets you quickly select multiple photos with a simple gesture. And should you need to select non-contiguous photos, simply repeat the same hold and drag gestures on the next photos. A cool feature you can start using by downloading or updating Microsoft OneDrive for Android in Google Play Store.

Microsoft adds new improved sharing sheet to OneDrive for Android.

No doubt Microsoft is doing an awesome job pursuing their "mobile first" strategy on competing platforms. Take this update to their OneDrive app for Android as an example. The update was published on June 10 and I missed it since it did not show on my Nexus 6 running Android N; but it did on my Nexus 7 (2013) and it is a long awaited update, albeit a simple one.

Before that update, sharing a file on Onedrive was limited to sharing a link, sending file or inviting people to view the file. There was nothing that permitted sharing to the popular social network platforms we're so accustomed to, as shown in the screenshot below.

Thankfully, Microsoft took note of this limitation and updated their OneDrive app on Android to give users more option for sharing stuff. The screenshot below is quite self explanatory. Tapping the sharing icon will bring up the screen below with more options for sharing your file. It is no more limited to just the three options I've highlighted above, and Android users will get to choose among the apps they have installed on their devices plus the tree options I've already mentioned. You can see the difference after the upgrade with the screenshot below.

In the event you missed the update, get it in the Google Play Store for free.

View photos by tags in latest OneDrive for Android update.

OneDrive is pretty good at handling and storing our precious photos in the cloud. Equally very important is how these photos is presented in the app to easily find the photos we're looking for. I am very bad at categorizing my photos and I let the app handle that for me, which it does well. OneDrive for Android has made a step further to help me more than it actually does by letting me view photos by tags that the app automatically added or that I added myself. The latter is very unlikely in my case, so it's convenient that OneDrive handles that for me. 

That's the only feature Microsoft added to this update that raises the app version to 3.3.0 which is available for download in Google Play Store.

Microsoft's OneDrive app for Android now supports Chromecast.

Microsoft is hard at work bringing their services to Android. Since cloud services is now an important part of their strategy, Microsoft is making sure you want to use their cloud offering with the OneDrive app for Android. The latter got an update that lets users cast their photos and videos to a TV with Google's Chromecast. A feature that I welcome, being a user of OneDrive and owner of a Chromecast. 

The update is of course free for download on Google Play store. This update does not contain any performance improvement or bug fixes.

OneDrive lets you limit camera backup to only when charging your Android.

Microsoft's OneDrive for Android has been updated with a very interesting feature today. The cloud storage service is now capable of backing up your precious pictures when your device is charging. A nice addition that will help save power on your Android devices. So, if you're not worried your device gets lost or stolen or bricked by the time you get to a charging station, you will like this feature. Even more so when your out in the field.

The update brings OneDrive for Android to version 2.9.4 and includes the usual bug fixes and stability improvements.

Download the update in Google Play store.

Microsoft renames SkyDrive to OneDrive and adds new features.

Today Microsoft has released the re-branded SkyDrive app which is now known as OneDrive. The change in name was driven by the loss in court of a trademark claim by a British company. Microsoft did not appeal the verdict and decided instead to rename its cloud storage service.

There is more than just a change of name though. See the change log for the new features Microsoft added to OneDrive.

What's new on Android 4.0+:

• Automatically upload photos and videos to OneDrive using Camera backup

• Improved support for working with Office Mobile for Android and OneNote, including editing Office documents

• Larger thumbnails and nicer photo views

• Bug fixes and performance improvements

Update SkyDrive to OneDrive in Google Store.