How to scan a pill, bottle or prescription label
Point your camera at a pill bottle, prescription label, supplement bottle or barcode. One scanner reads all of them, matches the medicine against a database of over 135,000 products, and adds it to your stack after you confirm.
Steps
8 steps · tap a step to expand
Step 1: Open the Scan tab.
The camera starts straight away — there is nothing to choose first, because the same scanner handles a pill bottle, a pharmacy label, a supplement jar, a food package, a barcode and a QR code.
Step 2: Hold the item so the printed label fills most of the frame, about a hand's width from the camera.
The screen coaches you while you line it up — 'Hold still', 'Move a little closer', 'Too dark — turning the light on' — and takes the photo itself the moment the frame is sharp enough to read.
Step 3: If the item has a barcode, the scanner reads it first and looks the digits up in medicine, supplement and food databases.
If there is no code, or the code is unknown, it reads the printed label instead.
Step 4: Curved bottle?
When part of the label is still hidden, the scanner says exactly how to turn it — 'Roll the bottle slowly to the left' — and merges up to three angles of the same bottle into one reading, so a wrapped pharmacy sticker is read in full rather than half-read.
Step 5: The reading is matched by name against the product database: brand names, generic names, pharmacy abbreviations and common misspellings all resolve to the right compound, so 'Lipitor 20mg' becomes atorvastatin 20 mg and 'Nature Made Vitamin D3 5000 IU' becomes vitamin D3.
Step 6: Check the review screen.
It shows what was read, the matching product record, and a confidence score: 70% or higher is a confident read, 50-69% means check the details, under 50% is flagged as a rough guess.
Change the compound, dose, unit or timing right there.
Step 7: Tap Save.
The item joins your stack with its half-life, interaction checks and reminders — nothing is ever saved without you confirming it.
Step 8: Loose tablet with no bottle?
Use Pill ID instead and photograph the tablet on a plain background so its shape, colour and imprint code can be matched.
Tips
- For a pill bottle, photograph the pharmacy sticker rather than the cap — the medicine name, strength and directions all live on the sticker.
- Tilt the bottle a few degrees to kill glare from the pharmacy's clear tape; reflections are the most common reason a prescription label fails to read.
- A prescription label is read word for word. The sig line ('Take 1 tablet by mouth twice daily') becomes your suggested schedule, but you can change it before saving.
- You can scan a photo from your camera roll — an old bottle you no longer have, or a picture a family member sent you.
- Have a whole list rather than bottles? Use the prescription list import instead and photograph or paste the list in one go.
- If the scan still misses, type the medicine name in the search box on the review screen — the same database lookup runs on typed names.
Common questions
How do I scan a pill?
Open the Scan tab and hold the pill bottle or blister pack so the printed label fills the frame, about a hand's width from the camera. The scanner coaches you until the frame is sharp, takes the photo itself, reads the label, matches the medicine by name against a database of over 135,000 products, and shows you a review screen before anything is saved. For a loose tablet with no packaging, use Pill ID instead and photograph the tablet on a plain background so its shape, colour and imprint code can be matched.
How do I scan a prescription bottle label?
Photograph the pharmacy sticker, not the cap. The scanner reads the medicine name, strength, quantity and the sig line word for word, and turns the directions into a suggested schedule you can edit. If the sticker wraps around the bottle, the app tells you which way to roll it and merges up to three angles into one reading so nothing on the hidden side is missed.
Can the app identify a pill from a picture?
From a labelled bottle or pack, yes — the printed name and strength are read directly and matched to the medicine. A loose tablet with no label is harder: Pill ID compares shape, colour and the imprint code stamped on the tablet and returns the closest matches with a confidence score, which you should confirm against your own prescription before relying on it.
Do I need a barcode for the scan to work?
No. The scanner reads a barcode when there is one and looks the digits up in medicine, supplement and food databases, but a pharmacy label, a supplement bottle or a food package with no usable code is read from the printed text instead.
Why is the match by ingredient rather than by barcode?
Barcodes are unique per brand and package size, so the same ingredient has thousands of different codes. Matching on the ingredient means your dose tracking and interaction checks work regardless of which brand you bought.
Will the scan add the medicine automatically?
No. Every scan ends on a review screen showing what was read, the matching product record and a confidence score. You can change the compound, dose, unit or timing there, and nothing enters your stack until you tap Save.
Can I add the product without scanning?
Yes. Search the library directly from the Stack tab — scanning is a shortcut, never a requirement.
Related guides
- Finding your way aroundFive places along the bottom of the screen: Home, Track, Scan, My stack and More. Everything lives under one of them.
- Scan confidence and accuracyWhat the percentage on a scan result means, and where those levels came from.
- Scan insights (Pro)Your scan history, the confidence each one scored, and what you scan most.
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