Three Apps That Solve Math Problems Through a Picture

A few years ago when Photomath hit the App store there was all manner of debate about whether or not it was a good app for students. I fall into the side that argues that students are going to find apps like Photomath whether we tell them about it or not. Therefore, we need to think about the kind of math problems that are given as homework assignments. That is much like those of us in history classes who need to think about the kind of research assignments we give to students in the "Age of Google." David Wees and Scott McLeod had some good commentary on this back in 2014.

Here are three apps that your students might have installed on their phones to help them solve math problems given to them for homework.

Photomath was the first app that I remember having the capability to let students snap a picture to get the answer to a math problem. It will not only show students the answer it also shows the the steps required to solve a math problem. When I recently tested the app against the other two in this list, it was the most responsive of the three. It also felt the most intuitive of the three. Photomath is available for Android and iOS.


Mathpix offers similar functionality to Photomath. Mathpix claims to be the first app to support handwriting recognition (although the other apps in this list do the same). It did a fine job recognizing my handwritten examples. The problem I had was that it defaulted to trying to graph every problem that I scanned even though the problem didn't call for a graph. A quick tap of the "solver" tab in the app showed the correct answer. Mathpix is available for Android and iPhone.

Cymath is another free app that also lets students scan typed or handwritten math problems to see solutions and steps. Of the three apps on this list, this one had the largest field of view for the camera. It also has the cleanest user interface except for a banner ad that appears in the free version. Cymath is available for Android and iPhone.

PhotoMath Could Change the Way We Think About Teaching Math

PhotoMath is a new iPhone and Windows phone app that will provide users with the solution to math problems. PhotoMath users can take a picture of a math problem in a book and have the problem completed for them. The "steps" button on the app will show users the steps needed to successfully solve the math problem.


PhotoMath from MicroBLINK on Vimeo.

Applications for Education
Obviously, PhotoMath is an app that students can use to check answers to math problems that have been assigned to them from a math textbook. What I am curious about is how this app could encourage teachers to change the way they think about math assignments. David Wees and Scott McLeod have already started this conversation. I encourage math teachers to join the conversations that David and Scott have started.

Photomath http://t.co/U2b2vgwcNv If you are still giving routine problems to your students, you might want to see this app. #mathchat
— David Wees (@davidwees) October 21, 2014

Post by Scott McLeod.