How to add signatures to documents on your iPhone or Android phone

When you receive a digital document, such as a PDF or Word file, that requires your signature, you can easily take care of it using your phone. Regardless of whether you use a iPhone or an Android phone, both include built-in options to quickly add a signature to a document, save a fresh copy, and send it to whoever you need.

While these tools work in a pinch, I wouldn’t recommend them if you’re marking up a more in-depth document that requires multiple signatures and filling out a lot of text boxes. A more advanced signing tool like DocuSign or Microsoft 365 is better optimized, and frankly, if you’re signing something like an apartment lease, you might want to open a larger screen like a computer or a tablet.

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Most documents that need your signature are much shorter and simpler, so if you’re dealing with one of those, Apple’s markup tool and the Google Drive app each include a quick way to fill it out the documents and on the way.

Sign with Google Drive on Android or iPhone

The the Google Drive app — included on all Android phones and can be downloaded to an iPhone — includes markup tools that make it easy to sign a document.

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

When it’s opened, depending on the file, you’ll get either a Edit option marked with a pencil or a Annotate option marked by a pen with wavy lines. If you have Edit option, then you can select Filling out the forms to enter the additional information. If you only have Annotate option, you can tap it to bring up a pen tool and use it to quickly sign your document.

Unfortunately, Google Drive doesn’t consistently detect PDF files that should receive the form-fill option, and if you need to edit your document to include plain text, you may want to use a more robust alternative service. If the above steps have achieved what you need for your document, you can then tap Save in the upper right to save those changes. If you want to make a separate copy with these changes, you can tap the button More button marked with three vertical dots and tap Save as.

The iPhone version of Google Drive has less flexibility. After opening a PDF, you’ll see a Complete Form option at the bottom that indicates whether Google Drive can complete the form. Otherwise, there is no annotation option to fall back on. Apple has its own built-in document signing tool that can be used instead.

Sign with Apple’s markup tool on iPhone

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

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

After markup is enabled, you’ll first have the option to scribble directly on the document using a variety of pen tools — but don’t use them to sign the document. Instead, tap Signature icon marked by a pencil rectangle, which will probably be in the top row of the Markup menu. This will then bring a + icon at the bottom right of the screen and after tapping it you will select either Add the text form box or Add your signature. The former is good for typing printed text, while the latter is for handwritten signatures.

If you select to add a text box, you will first be able to move the text box by dragging and resizing it as needed. You can then tap the text box to display the keyboard for entering text. When you’re done, you can tap outside the text box to make the keyboard disappear, then tap Made in the upper right to save those changes.

If you’re adding a signature, you’ll first use the pop-up menu to sign your name using a finger. That signature can be saved and used again for future documents. After setting up that signature, you can tap Made to move it to a text box in the document. You can then use your finger to drag, drop and resize as needed.

Whether you use the text box option or the signature option, you can make additional adjustments to each box by tapping an option icon next to each box, marked with three dots (…). This popup will allow you to cut, copy, duplicate or delete the box as needed.

When you’re done making adjustments, you can select either Made to save your changes or use the Share icon to send the edited document to another application such as email or cloud storage.