Which Android Phones Scan Rooms?

The short answer on how Android phones scan rooms

Android phones scan rooms, but almost none of them do it with a dedicated ranging sensor. They do it with the ordinary camera and software.

Google publishes the list that settles this. The ARCore supported devices page carries 1,116 Android entries in its Google Play section. Exactly 10 of those entries carry the note “Supports time-of-flight (ToF) hardware depth sensor”. Every other entry that can handle depth does it in software.

The 10 Android phones with a hardware depth sensor

Here is the full set, straight off Google’s list.

Not one Pixel is on it. Not one Galaxy S21, S22, S23, S24, or S25 is on it. Google’s list records depth sensors on a short run of Samsung flagships up to the S20 generation, and on nothing newer from any maker.

Working off a phone that is not on this table? SimplyWise Cost Estimator turns a photo into an itemized, branded estimate in about 6 seconds. It runs on Android.

What every other Android phone uses instead

Google’s answer to missing hardware is the Depth API. Per Google’s own documentation, it “uses a depth-from-motion algorithm to create depth images and merges data from available hardware sensors like ToF for enhanced accuracy”. So the sensor is a bonus, not a requirement.

800 of the 1,116 Android entries on the list carry the note “Supports Depth API”. That includes Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold, plus every listed Galaxy S21 through S24 model, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the Galaxy S26, and Galaxy Z Fold2 through Z Fold5 and Z Fold7. Your phone is very likely in that 800, but look up the exact model, because the Galaxy S25, the Galaxy S25+, and the Galaxy Z Fold6 do not appear on Google’s list at all.

Two limits come with the software route. Google states depth data is most accurate when the device sits half a meter to about five meters from the scene, and that “experiences that encourage device movement yield better results”. Translation for the jobsite: walk the room slowly, and do not try to range the far end of a warehouse.

Why Apple’s room capture has no Android twin

Contractors keep asking for RoomPlan on Android. Apple’s developer page says why that cannot happen: RoomPlan “utilizes the camera and LiDAR Scanner on iPhone and iPad to create a 3D floor plan of a room”. No LiDAR Scanner, no RoomPlan.

Apple also states the LiDAR Scanner “measures the distance to surrounding objects up to 5 meters away”. That is roughly the same working envelope Google quotes for depth from motion.

Where an Android scan stops and judgment starts

A scan gives you geometry. It does not give you scope. It cannot tell you the substrate is failing, the trim is custom, or the homeowner wants the closet moved.

Treat the scan as the fastest way to get wall and floor area onto paper, then price the conditions yourself. That is the same discipline our room scan to bid walkthrough lays out.

Check your Android phone in this order

1. Look up your exact model

   Open Settings, then About phone, and read the model name. Match it against Google’s ARCore supported devices list, not against a spec roundup.

2. Read the note next to it

   If the entry says “Supports Depth API”, software depth is available. If it also names a ToF sensor, you own one of the 10.

3. Install Google Play Services for AR

   Depth features on Android run through that component. If it is missing, the scan option in most apps never appears.

4. Scan inside the working range

   Stay between half a meter and about five meters from what you are capturing, and keep moving. Google says movement improves the result.

Keep reading

• Which iPhones Have LiDAR
• Room Scanning Apps for Contractors
• Photo to Estimate Apps