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If your crew runs Android phones — Samsung, Google Pixel, or anything else — and you're looking at field documentation tools with 3D scanning, you've probably already hit the wall: most construction apps that offer 3D measurement require a LiDAR-equipped iPhone.
This guide explains why that limitation exists, what it means for mixed-device crews, and what your options actually are.
The majority of construction-grade 3D scanning tools rely on Apple's LiDAR sensor, which is built into iPhone 12 Pro and newer Pro models. LiDAR — light detection and ranging — fires infrared pulses and measures how long they take to bounce back, building an extremely accurate depth map of a room or space in real time. It's fast, precise, and works even in low light.
Android phones don't have LiDAR. Google explored depth sensors on early Pixel phones but abandoned the hardware. Samsung has experimented with time-of-flight sensors on some Galaxy models, but they're not LiDAR, and no mainstream Android phone today has the sensor hardware that these apps require.
So if a construction 3D scanning tool is built on Apple's RoomPlan API or similar LiDAR-dependent frameworks, it simply cannot run on Android. Not because Android is a bad platform — because the hardware isn't there.
CompanyCam is available on Android and works well for its core function: GPS-tagged photo documentation. Photo capture, project timelines, annotations, checklists — all of that works on Android.
3D scanning does not. CompanyCam's measurement features require a LiDAR-compatible iPhone. If your crew member is using a Samsung Galaxy or any Android device, they get the photo tools and nothing more. That's a real limitation for crews where not everyone is on an iPhone Pro.
Manifold takes a different approach with Orbit Measure. Instead of relying on LiDAR hardware, Orbit Measure is video-based: you record a short walk-through of the space (anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds), upload it to Manifold's servers, and the system processes the video into a measurable 3D model using computer vision.
Because it's video-based and server-processed, it doesn't need any specific sensor hardware. It works on any iOS or Android phone with a decent camera — which, in 2026, is essentially every smartphone made in the last four years.
The output is a measurable 3D model, not a floor plan. You can navigate the model, take point-to-point measurements, and share it with clients or engineers via a link. The accuracy is typically within half an inch, which is sufficient for the vast majority of field documentation, estimating, and pre-construction planning work.
Most construction crews are not uniformly on iPhone Pro. A typical small crew might have one person on a recent iPhone, one on an older iPhone, and one on a Samsung or Pixel. If your 3D scanning tool only works on the iPhone Pro, you've just created a single point of failure — only one person on the crew can capture 3D data, and if they're not on site, the scan doesn't happen.
With Orbit Measure, anyone on the crew with a phone can capture a 3D model. The foreman with the Samsung Galaxy can walk the space the same way as the project manager with the iPhone 15 Pro. That flexibility matters on real job sites.
Manifold also offers Floor Plan Scan, which is a separate feature that uses Apple's RoomPlan API to generate a structured 2D floor plan with labeled walls and room dimensions. This does require an iPhone 12 Pro or newer with LiDAR — there's no way around the hardware requirement for this specific output type.
So to be direct: if you specifically need a clean, labeled floor plan rather than a 3D model, you'll need an iPhone Pro for that workflow. But for 3D documentation, measurable walkthroughs, and remote measurement — which covers the majority of field use cases — any phone works.
Here's where the two approaches differ in practice:
Yes, with Orbit Measure. Record a short video walkthrough in the Manifold app, upload it, and get a measurable 3D model back within minutes. No LiDAR, no special hardware.
Yes. The full Manifold app — photos, checklists, reports, client sharing, and Orbit Measure 3D scanning — is available on both iOS and Android.
LiDAR (like Manifold's Floor Plan Scan) is faster and produces a structured 2D floor plan with labeled dimensions in real time. Orbit Measure takes a video, processes it in the cloud, and returns a 3D model — it takes a few minutes longer but works on any phone and produces a navigable 3D walkthrough rather than a flat floor plan.
For the majority of field documentation use cases — pre-close inspections, as-built records, estimating reference, client walkthroughs — yes. Accuracy is typically within half an inch. For anything requiring survey-grade precision, you'd want dedicated hardware regardless of which app you use.
Manifold's Photo+Scan plan is $24/user/month with no seat minimums. Start a free trial — no credit card required — or read more about Orbit Measure.
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