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.