Google Drive’s document scanner is getting a much-needed UI refresh

Google Drive’s built-in document scanner for mobile devices is one of those quietly brilliant features that can be an absolute lifesaver. It’s a powerful tool for digitizing receipts, notes, and documents on the go. Now, Google is making that great feature even better with a significant update to the editing interface, giving it a much-needed UI refresh to make it more intuitive and powerful.

According to a new post on the Workspace Updates blog, the new editing experience for scanned documents is rolling out now, and it brings some fantastic quality-of-life improvements.

A cleaner, more intuitive layout

The goal of the update is to provide a seamless and improved user experience, and the changes are focused on making the editing process faster and easier. Here’s what’s new:

• Larger page previews: You can now see every detail of your scanned pages much more clearly, making it easier to spot issues.
• Easy access to actions: Key functions like deleting a page or retaking a scan are now right there within the page preview, saving you a few taps.
• Drag-and-drop reordering: This is the best part. A new Material 3-style page thumbnail carousel now appears at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to quickly skim through a multi-page document. Even better, you can now simply drag and drop the thumbnails to re-order your pages, a huge usability win.

This isn’t a brand-new feature, but it’s a fantastic and thoughtful refinement of an already-great one. It’s a great example of Google continuing to improve the user experience of its core apps.

The new UI is in a gradual roll-out that started on September 1st, and the good news is it’s coming to everyone, including all Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts. Keep an eye on your Google Drive app for this slick new interface.