Getting started · Chapter 4

nexpaper on the phone

nexpaper is a web app. It is not in the App Store or the Play Store, but you put it on the home screen from the browser. Then it opens without a browser bar like any other app, and a letter is photographed and in the inbox in a few taps.

Putting it on the home screen

1. Open nexpaper in the browser

   Preferably at the https address you use for nexpaper anyway, and sign in there. Leave “Stay signed in on this device” ticked, and you stay signed in until you have been away for 30 days.

2. On the iPhone

   In Safari tap “Share”, then “Add to Home Screen”.

3. On Android

   In the browser's menu choose the item that puts the page on the home screen or installs it as an app. What it is called depends on the browser. nexpaper has no button of its own for it.

4. Open it from the icon

   From now on you open nexpaper from the new icon. If you press and hold it, some phones offer two shortcuts, upload and camera. In this version their names are German, “Hochladen” and “Fotografieren”.

The quick upload

When you open nexpaper on a phone, you land on the quick upload first. At the top are three big buttons: “Take a photo” for a letter, invoice or receipt, “Choose a file” for a PDF from Files, from a mail or from a download, and “From photos” for pages you have photographed already.

Below it, “Goes to” says which vault the upload will go to. Under “Latest from you” you see your last uploads and their state: “Being read”, “in the inbox, waiting to be filed” or “filed”. At the bottom a number shows how much is waiting in the inbox. “All” at the top right leads into the whole app.

The quick upload comes once per visit. If you would rather start in the whole app, switch off “Start with the quick upload on the phone” under “My account”, tab “Upload”, in the card “On the phone”. You can still reach it through the round upload button at the top right.

Photographing a letter

nexpaper's camera looks for the sheet in the live picture, straightens it and turns several pages into one document. The edge finder runs in the browser on your phone and is part of nexpaper. Reading the text is done later by the server.

1. Open the camera

   Tap “Take a photo”. The browser asks whether nexpaper may use the camera. That works only over an https address or on localhost. Otherwise nexpaper offers the file picker.

2. Hold the sheet in view

   At the top it says “Looking for a page …”. As soon as nexpaper has found the edges it says “Page found, hold still”. If the sheet stays still for about a second and a half, the camera takes the picture by itself. It helps if the sheet stands out from what it lies on. You can take it by hand with the round button, and “Auto off” switches the self-timer off.

3. Check the corners

   Next it says “Check the corners”. If the four dots are not exactly on the corners of the sheet, drag them there. Then “Keep page 1”, or “Again” if the picture is blurred.

4. More pages, then “Done”

   If the letter has more pages, take them one after another. “Done (2)” turns them into a single PDF, which is uploaded to nexpaper. It waits in the inbox then.

At the top edge you can switch the flash on and off and change between “Colour”, “Greyscale” and “Black and white”. If the edge finder does not load for once, take the picture yourself and drag the corners by hand.

Where uploads go

Without any other choice, uploads land in your personal vault. Under “My account”, tab “Upload”, the card “Where your uploads go” lets you pick another vault, say the shared vault “Home”. It applies to the phone, the browser, the mailbox and the intake folder. In the quick upload you can change it every time under “Goes to”. Rules may still move a document afterwards, everything from the utility company to “Home”, for example. More on that in the chapter Proposals.

Sharing from other apps

On Android

In Android browsers that know about sharing to web apps, nexpaper stands in the share menu of every app once it is on the home screen. A file or photo you share opens nexpaper with the note “Shared from another app”. The files stay on the phone until you tap “Upload” or throw them away with “Discard”. If they lie around unused for 15 minutes, they go by themselves.

On the iPhone

Safari does not let web apps into the share menu. A shortcut steps in instead, called “Nach nexpaper”, which then stands in the share menu of every app. It sends PDFs and photos straight to your inbox. It needs a key that can only upload, so the operator first has to switch on “Allow API keys” under “Settings”, tab “API”.

1. Load a finished shortcut

   If the operator has stored a finished shortcut, the card “From other apps on the iPhone” under “My account”, tab “Devices and apps”, has a button “Load the shortcut”. Tap it on the iPhone and add it. While it is being added it asks for the address and a key.

2. Or build it yourself

   If none is stored, tap “Key for the shortcut” in the same card. The address and a key then stay there to copy. In the Shortcuts app make a new shortcut “Nach nexpaper”, switch on “Show in Share Sheet” under Details and choose PDFs and images as input. Then comes the action “Get Contents of URL” with the address, the method POST, the header “Authorization” and the request body as a form with the field “file” as a file with the shortcut input. Last comes the action “Show Notification” with “It is in the inbox.”.

nexpaper shows the key only once. Afterwards it stands with your API keys, where you can delete it. Never put it into a shortcut you share with others, because whoever has it can upload into your account. Whether sharing works on your own phone the way it is written here depends on the browser and the phone. Try it with a test file.

What is different on the phone

• At the bottom is a bar with the five menu items, at the top right the round upload button and your account button.
• You turn notifications on per device, under “My account”, tab “Devices and apps”, with “Turn on for this device”. On the iPhone that works only from the app on the home screen, from iOS 16.4.
• Without a connection to the server nothing works. nexpaper keeps nothing on the phone in between, and a photo goes straight to your server.