14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has released an update for the Pix camera app for iPhone that brings business card support, allowing users to quickly add and store contact information on the device or in a LinkedIn account.
With the new Pix app, all users have to do is scan a business card, and Microsoft’s AI system takes care of everything. It can automatically detect phone numbers, email address, and URLs, then offering options to either create a new contact in the phone’s address book or, if LinkedIn is configured on the iPhone, to store the info for further details online.
The LinkedIn integration makes it possible to quickly open the contact’s profile on the business social network, which obviously offers more information like job title and work experience.
The LinkedIn push
Seeing Microsoft adding LinkedIn integration in its apps is not at all surprising after the software giant purchased the social network, and with such features, it can continue its productivity focus even beyond its device portfolio.
The company hasn’t missed this occasion to highlight the focus on AI, explaining that Pix would evolve even more in the coming months.
“Pix is powered by AI to streamline and enhance the experience of taking a picture with a series of intelligent actions: recognizing the subject of a photo, inferring users’ intent and capturing the best quality picture,” said Josh Weisberg, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington. “It’s the combination of both understanding and intelligently acting on a users’ intent that sets Pix apart. Today’s update works with LinkedIn to add yet another intelligent dimension to Pix’s capabilities.”
Microsoft Mix is available free of charge from the App Store, and it supports iOS 10 or later, running on iPhone 5s or later and iPad Air and newer. It supports a growing list of languages, starting with English and also including German, French, and Chinese.