1. What PixWork does
PixWork photographs a business card and saves it as a contact. An AI reads the card; you check what it read before it is saved.
Saved contacts are managed on the device, and they can also be shared and managed in Google Sheets or written out to the phone’s own contacts app.
2. Install and sign in
The stores PixWork can be installed from are listed under "Get PixWork" at the bottom of this page.
On first launch, sign in with a Google Account. Signing in is required. At this point the app asks only for basic profile information (name, email); nothing is requested for Google Drive or Google Sheets yet.
3. Scan a card
Photograph the card on the camera screen. There are three modes; "Single" is the one to start with.
- Single — a preview appears after the shot, and you confirm before the AI reads it
- Batch — reads several cards laid out on a desk in one shot. Analysis starts immediately after capture, and you review the contact candidates it found before adding them
- Save Only — saves just the photo without AI analysis. Works with no connection, and the photos can be analysed together later
In every mode, what comes in is a photo taken with the camera. There is no way to pick a card image out of the phone’s photo library. The Single preview offers "Analyse with AI", "Analyse later", and "Retake". Merely showing the preview sends nothing to the AI, consumes no scan allowance, and saves nothing to the device. Notice a blurred shot here and retake it. Choosing "Analyse with AI" holds a recovery copy of the image on the device before the network call starts, then sends the image to an external AI service. "Analyse later" calls no AI and uses no scan allowance. If the network call fails, the AI fails, the scan limit is reached, or no card is detected, the recovery image stays in the "Unanalysed" list. Batch normally starts analysis without this post-capture preview.
4. Check and correct the reading
After analysis, review the contact record that is about to be added. An unclear card or layout can leave mistakes in the reading.
Use Edit for any field that needs correcting. You can also edit the contact after it has been saved.
A field that is not on the card stays empty. Use Edit to fill it in yourself when you need it.
5. Save it on the device
Once it looks right, save it. The contact you checked and saved is stored in PixWork’s own database on the device.
Unanalysed photos, and the recovery copy kept in case analysis fails, are held temporarily in the "Unanalysed" list on the device. When analysis completes successfully that temporary recovery image is deleted. Images are never saved automatically into the phone’s photo library.
Data on the device is lost if the app is uninstalled. If you expect to change phones, or the data matters, consider the Google Sheets connection below.
6. Share and manage in Google Sheets
Turning on the Google Sheets connection syncs contacts two-way with a spreadsheet of your own. Share one sheet across a team and everybody sees who owns which contact and what happens next, in the same place.
You’re asked for Google Sheets access at the point you turn it on, not before. The walkthrough is in "Sharing and managing in Google Sheets" and the sheet layout in "Google Sheets column layout".
7. Save to Android contacts
This is available on Android only. OS contact export is not currently available on iOS. On iOS there is no such setting to find.
On Android, turning on saving to the phone’s contact book writes saved contacts out under a dedicated "PixWork" account. Useful when you want a caller’s name to show on an incoming call, or to pick a contact from a messaging app.
This is a one-way save from PixWork into the phone’s contact book. Edits made in the phone’s own contacts app do not come back into PixWork.
Only contacts that have a phone number are written out. It can be switched off at any time in Settings.
8. If you already have data
If you already keep a customer list in a spreadsheet and its column layout matches PixWork’s, you can select it directly through the Google picker. If it does not match, either adjust the columns or move the data into a new PixWork sheet.
The steps are in "Migrating existing data". Make a copy of the original sheet before you start.