How do I scan documents with the mobile app?

all Updated Thu May 21 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

The native iOS and Android apps are in private beta. Until they ship, use the web app on your phone — sign in at app.taxiteasy.org, tap Upload, choose Take photo. The phone camera works directly from the browser and the photo runs through the same extraction pipeline as a desktop upload.

Current status of the native apps

The native iOS and Android apps are in private beta and shipping in the coming weeks. They are not in the App Store or Play Store yet. If you want early access, write to [email protected] with the subject prefix [BETA] Mobile app early access and we'll send you a TestFlight link (iOS) or Play Store internal-testing invite (Android) when the next access round opens.

The waitlist is short — we're keeping cohorts small to control feedback throughput.

Until the native apps ship: the web app on your phone

This is the actively supported path right now, and it works well. The web app at app.taxiteasy.org is responsive and the file picker on both iOS Safari and Android Chrome includes a Take photo option that opens the camera directly. No browser plugin, no extra steps.

The walk-through

Open app.taxiteasy.org in your phone's browser (Safari on iOS, Chrome on Android). Both Firefox Mobile and Brave work too; Safari and Chrome get the most testing.
Sign in. If you've enabled 2FA, the 6-digit code prompt is the same on mobile as desktop — keep your authenticator app handy.
Open the Documents page and tap Upload.
The system file picker opens. On iOS it shows Photo Library, Take Photo or Video, Choose Files. On Android it shows Camera, Files, Photos. Pick the camera/take-photo option.
The camera opens. Aim at the document, snap, and confirm. iOS prompts Use Photo or Retake; Android prompts a checkmark or X.
The photo uploads. Within a couple of seconds the AI begins extracting fields. You can navigate away — the document keeps processing in the background.

Some tips that actually help

Hold the phone above the document, parallel to it. Tilted photos cause perspective distortion that the AI handles, but worse than a flat shot. Phone-flash off (glare on glossy receipts).
Find a contrasting surface. A dark countertop with a white receipt produces clean edge detection. A white receipt on a white desk does not.
One document per photo. Stacks of receipts in one frame are processed as one document. Snap them separately.
Long thermal receipts? Take 2–3 overlapping photos along the length, upload them separately, and use the document detail page to merge if you want a single record. The OCR pipeline handles individual photos cleanly; long single-photo perspective is the only case where it struggles.

Add-to-home-screen shortcut

If you'll be using the web app on your phone regularly, save a one-tap shortcut:

iOS Safari — open app.taxiteasy.org, tap the share icon, scroll to Add to Home Screen. You get an icon that looks like a native app.
Android Chrome — open app.taxiteasy.org, tap the three-dots menu, Add to Home screen.

Tapping the home-screen icon opens the app full-screen without browser chrome, which is the closest you can get to native-app feel without the native app.

What the native apps will add when they ship

The native apps are not strict re-implementations of the web flow. They add:

One-tap camera shortcut from the home screen — no browser address-bar typing, no signing in on every fresh session.
Offline capture — photos queue locally if you're without signal (subway, basement, rural areas) and upload automatically when you're back online. No data lost.
Biometric unlock — Face ID, Touch ID, or Android biometrics instead of password + 2FA every time. Sessions are longer-lived on a verified device.
Push notifications — extraction-finished pings, tax-advisor flag alerts, end-of-month reminders.
Batch scan mode — snap 10 receipts in a row in one camera session, the app uploads them together.
Edge detection in-camera — automatic crop and contrast boost before upload, similar to Apple Notes' built-in document scanner.

The web flow keeps working after the native apps ship. They're additive, not replacements; pick whichever is in front of you.

Troubleshooting

The web file picker doesn't show a Take photo option. Older browsers (Safari pre-15, Chrome pre-90) and some privacy-hardened modes (Tor Browser, Brave with Shields Up + WebRTC off) suppress the capture=camera hint. Take a photo with your phone's normal camera app, then upload the saved image — same end result.

The photo uploaded but the AI returned blank fields. Almost always a readability issue. Open the photo on your phone — if you struggle to read the receipt, the AI will too. Retake under better lighting, and the document detail page has a Re-scan button (up to 3 retries per document) so you can re-upload the better photo without burning quota on a redo.

My phone can't read HEIC photos. HEIC is iPhone's default format and we accept it natively — there's no need to convert. If your phone is on an Android with HEIC enabled (some Samsung settings), it's still accepted.

I want offline capture today. Until the native app ships, use any free document-scanner app (Apple Notes' built-in scanner, Adobe Scan, Google Drive scanner) to capture offline. They save to your camera roll; upload to TaxItEasy when you're back online.

iPad? Same flow? Yes — the responsive web app works on iPad in both Safari and Chrome. The file picker shows the same Take Photo option, and iPad's wider screen actually makes the in-app document detail view more comfortable than the phone view.

Upload via the web — desktop drag-and-drop and the file-picker upload
Set up email forwarding — the no-camera path for digitally-delivered invoices
Supported file types and sizes — full format + limit reference