Installation and first launch
PixWork installs from Google Play. The App Store version is not available yet — check the store listing for current availability.
On first launch, if no language is set, you’ll be asked to choose the language the AI generates results in. It defaults to a guess based on the device language and can be changed anytime in Settings.
Google Sign-In
There is no separate PixWork password. You sign in with a Google account.
Ordinary sign-in requests only basic profile information (openid / email / profile). Nothing is requested for Google Sheets at this point.
When you turn on the Google Sheets connection, one additional permission is requested: drive.file. That scope reaches only files this app created and files you explicitly picked in the file picker. It does not list your Drive and does not read files you did not pick.
If you use more than one Google account, note which one you signed in with. Switching accounts later does not carry the data over.
Scanning a card — three modes
The camera screen offers three modes. Switch based on what you’re doing.
| Mode | Cards | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Single | 1 | Shows a preview after capture; you confirm the photo before analysis runs |
| Batch | Several | Reads several cards laid out together in one shot and analyzes them immediately. The number you can capture at once is shown in the on-screen guidance |
| Save Only | One at a time | Skips AI analysis and just saves the photo to the device; it can be analyzed later in bulk |
In Single mode’s preview, you choose between "Analyze with AI," "Analyze later," or "Retake." Photos marked "Analyze later" are not deleted — they collect in an Unanalyzed list you can process afterward. Retaking at this point does not use a scan credit.
Reviewing and correcting the reading
The AI’s reading is designed to be checked before it is saved, not trusted automatically. When a card is unclear or the AI misreads a field, the main fields — name, company, contact details — need to be checked before saving.
A mistake can be corrected on the spot before saving, and can also be edited manually afterward at any time.
The AI does not fill in information that is not printed on the card. A field it could not read stays blank.
Where records are saved — device, Google Sheets, OS contacts
A saved record lives on the device first. From there, syncing to Google Sheets (free on every plan) and saving to the OS contact book can each be turned on independently. Both are optional; the app works on-device with neither.
On-device data is lost if the app is uninstalled. With Google Sheets sync on, synced contacts also live in the sheet, so picking the same sheet again on a new device brings them back.
The Google Sheets connection is not a backup feature. Only the synced columns reach the sheet, card images do not, and only contacts updated within the last 90 days are in scope. Do not present it as a complete recovery path.
Connecting and first-syncing Google Sheets
A sheet is selected only through Google’s standard file picker. There is no way to connect by typing in a spreadsheet ID or URL.
Creating a new sheet from within the app sets up the required structure automatically (a Contacts and a Companies sheet).
When you select an existing sheet, it is only set up automatically if the header row is empty. A missing sheet or a blank header row is created with the user’s consent, and existing columns and data are left as they are. But a header row that already has something in it and does not match is never overwritten — it produces an error instead, and you are directed to create a new CRM sheet or pick a different one.
To share one sheet across a team, the sheet’s owner grants edit access to members via Google Sheets’ own "Share" feature, and each member selects that same sheet through the picker from Settings.
Only contacts updated within the last 90 days are synced. Anything older is not — this is the detail that surprises people most often.
How the two-way Google Sheets sync works
Pressing sync compares the phone and the sheet, and flags only the fields where both sides have a conflicting change. When conflicts exist, you’re shown a screen to choose "keep phone" or "keep sheet" before anything is written.
Status, Assignee, and Next Action Date are read-only in the app. These three always come from the sheet — the intended workflow has the sales team manage them directly in the spreadsheet.
If a field on the phone is empty, the app never overwrites a value that already exists in the sheet with that empty value.
Saving to OS contacts
When this is on, contacts saved in PixWork are written out to the phone’s own contact book. Android keeps them under a dedicated PixWork account and iOS in a PixWork contact group, so they stay separate from contacts that were already there. It can be toggled on or off in Settings (on by default).
Useful for seeing a caller’s name on an incoming call, or picking a contact quickly from a messaging app like WhatsApp. Only contacts that have a phone number are written out.
This is a one-way save from PixWork into the phone’s contact book. Edits or additions made in the phone’s own contacts app do not come back into PixWork. It is not a two-way sync.
The setting is labelled "Automatic sync to the OS contact book" in the app, but it behaves as described above — a write-out from PixWork only. The iOS app is not published yet, so in practice this is usable on Android today.
The QR business card (My Card)
Presents your own contact details as a vCard QR code for someone else to scan. When another PixWork user scans it, the contact is saved instantly with no network call involved — since no AI is used, this feature has no API cost.
Useful at a trade show or meeting when both sides want to exchange contact details on the spot.
Company research (Company Brief)
Based on the company name extracted from a card, three tiers of research are available: open a Google search, generate a summary from what the AI already knows, or search the web for current information and summarize it (Company Brief).
Company Brief separates confirmed facts (source URL and retrieval date) from AI-generated summary and suggestions. If you use it to prepare for a meeting, check the factual part against the actual source before relying on it.
Company Brief consumes purchased tickets. Neither the Free nor the Plus plan includes a monthly allowance for it.
Duplicates, editing, deletion
Saving what looks like the same contact a second time triggers a duplicate check and a merge suggestion.
Any contact can be edited or deleted manually at any time. Changing a row’s status to "Deleted" in the sheet marks that contact deleted inside the app, so it drops out of the list. It does not remove it from the phone’s address book. The OS address book entry is only removed when the contact is deleted from within the app, and only when a phone number is stored.
What to do when something goes wrong
- "Scan limit reached" — the plan’s scan allowance has been used up; the limit differs by plan (check the current figure in the app). Upgrading resolves it
- "There is a problem with this sheet’s structure" — the selected sheet’s column names or order don’t match what PixWork expects. See "Google Sheets column layout" to check the names and order. By design, nothing gets written while this state persists — the sync stops before touching the sheet
- "Stopped because other members kept editing" — appears when other team members were editing the same sheet during sync. Wait a moment and sync again
- "This contact has a conflict" — appears when syncing a single contact and both the phone and the sheet have a differing value. Run a full (two-way) sync instead and resolve it on the conflict screen
Purchases, billing, and restore
On the Free plan, a fixed lifetime number of scans is available (check the current figure in the app), and some screens show ads.
The Plus plan raises the monthly scan allowance and removes ads. Neither plan includes a free Company Brief allowance.
If a purchase doesn’t show up after a device change or reinstall, use "Restore purchases" in Settings. This requires being signed in with the same Google account or Apple ID the purchase was made with.