How to sign documents with iPhone or Android phone

When you receive a digital document that requires your signature, you can easily take care of it from your phone. Whether you use an iPhone or an Android phone, both include built-in options for adding a quick signature, saving a new copy, and sending it to whoever you need.

While these tools work as a last resort, I wouldn’t recommend them if you’re marking up a more detailed document that requires multiple signatures and filling out a lot of text fields. A more advanced signing tool like DocuSign or Microsoft 365 is better optimized, and honestly, if you’re signing something like an apartment lease, you might want to get out a larger screen like a computer or tablet.

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Most documents that require your signature are much shorter and simpler, so if you’re dealing with one, Apple’s Markup tool and Google Drive app offer quick ways to fill out and send your documents.

Sign with Google Drive on Android or iPhone

The Google Drive app — available on all Android phones, as well as an iPhone app — includes annotation tools that make signing documents easier.

If you’re using Google Drive on Android, you’ll first need to open the PDF file you want to sign.

Once you open the file, depending on its type, you will see: Edit option marked with pencil or Comment option marked with a pen with wavy lines. If you have Edit option, you can then select Filling out forms to enter additional information. If you only have Comment option, you can tap it to bring up the pen tool, which you can use to quickly sign the document.

Unfortunately, Google Drive doesn’t always detect PDFs that should be given the option to fill in forms, and if you need to edit the document to include plain text, you may want to use a more reliable alternative service instead. If the above steps don’t work for your document, you can tap Rescue in the upper right corner to save these changes. If you want to create a separate copy with these changes, you can tap More the button marked with three vertical dots and tap save as.

The iPhone version of Google Drive has less flexibility. When you open a PDF file, you’ll see a Fill in Form option at the bottom, indicating whether Google Drive can fill in the form. Otherwise, there’s no annotation option to refer to. Apple has its own built-in document signing tool that you can use instead.

Sign with Apple Markup on iPhone

Apple’s Markup tool lets you annotate documents and photos with text, images, emojis, and signatures. You can access the tool from iOS, directly when viewing a PDF, or from Apple’s Share menu.

First, you need to open the PDF file you want to sign, whether that PDF comes from an email attachment or from a website. Depending on the app you’re using to view it, you may already see Overhead tool in the lower right corner of the screen, represented by a pen tip in a circle. If not, tap Participation the icon marked with a square with an arrow pointing up, and in the pop-up menu, scroll up to find and tap Overhead.

When you turn on Markup, you’ll first be given the option to write directly on your document using a variety of pen tools—but don’t use them to sign your document. Instead, tap Signature icon marked with a rectangle drawn in pencil, which will probably be in the top row of the Markup menu. This will bring up + icon in the lower right corner of the screen, and when you tap it, you will select Add text form field Or Add signatureThe first one is suitable for writing printed text, the second one for handwritten signatures.

If you choose to add a text box, you will first be able to move the text box by dragging it and resizing it as needed. Then you can tap the text box to bring up the keyboard for entering text. Once you are done, you can tap outside the text box to make the keyboard disappear, and then tap Done in the upper right corner to save changes.

If you’re adding a signature, you’ll first use the shortcut menu to sign your name with your finger. This signature can be saved and reused in future documents. Once you’ve set up this signature, you can tap Done to move it to a text box in your document. You can then use your finger to drag, drop, and resize as needed.

Whether you use the text box or signature option, you can make additional changes to each field by tapping the options icon next to each field, indicated by three dots (…). This pop-up will allow you to Cut, Copy, Duplicate, or Delete the field if needed.

Once you have finished making changes, you can select Done to save changes or use the Share icon to send the changed document to another application, such as email or cloud storage.