【Nikki Nova Archives】

Google's Area 120 – an in-house incubator,Nikki Nova Archives where Google engineers pursue their pet projects that sometimes turn into actual products – has launched a document scanner called Stack, and it may just be one of the best such apps out there.

Like most document scanners, Stack uses your phone's camera to create a scan of a document, such as a receipt, bill, or a banking statement. However, the app also reads some of the key data from your document – such as the total amount on a bill, for example – and then organizes your scanned documents into folders.

These folders, called "Stacks," are labeled as various categories, such as receipts, bills, vehicle, house, IDs, etc. You can also mark a document as starred, which will put it into a separate Stack.

Finally, Stack lets you search for the full text of your scans, and it can also back up all of your scanned documents to Google Drive.

Stack is not the only document scanner out there; I've been using an app called CamScanner, and on iOS there's a document scanner built into the Notes app. But free scanning apps typically leave a watermark on your documents (and require you to upgrade to a paid version if you don't want it). Also, Stack seems to have a pretty good combo of essential features and Google integrations that you need without being too bloated.

Stack is available for free on Android, but only in the U.S. for now. There's no word on when it may become available globally.

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