The bulky, finicky, business card arguably has no place in today’s fast-approaching paperless world. Carrying around a stack of identities you’ll likely never get in touch with not only seems anachronistic in view of environmental concerns, but is impractical, too. According to statistics in the U.S. alone 10 billion business cards were printed in 2012, but 88 percent of those cards were reportedly cast into the trash within a week.

In an effort to supplant the printed contact, Microsoft just updated their Office Lens app for Windows Phone with a new ‘business card’ feature.  The feature allows you to take a picture of one of your business cards, and the image will automatically be saved to OneNote. The information can then be added to your contact list and Outlook. Microsoft reported that at the moment the app works best in English, but that the company intends to introduce the technology in multiple languages soon.

Microsoft’s new app is very useful, but it’s not entirely original. A bunch of apps already exist in which contact details can either be typed in, scanned, or photographed – operating in a similar manner to Office Lens. Data can then be saved and filtered, and also shared.

Here are some business card apps currently on the market:

CamCard Free for Android does pretty much the same as Office Lens by scanning your hard card and turning the information into a digital format. If you’ve got a CamCard account you can also share this information on other devices.

Apple Inc.’s Biz Card app allows you to swipe a business card across your phone and automatically an email can be sent to the address on the card. This app won’t manage these contacts however.

CardtoContact, again, is similar to the above apps but has quite a few impressive features you can use such as make notes with each card you save, file your contacts, share with friends, or call contacts and send emails inside the application. It’s also free, which isn’t a bad thing!

Photo credit: Fitsum Belay via photopin cc