What is HP ePrint and do you need it?

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Remember that time when printers were considered a computer accessory? Yeah, those times are looking to pass us pretty quick. These days, printers have their own navigation system and even an LCD screen to help ease your troubles. They don’t even need cables to send data anymore. What’s next?

Giving them their own email address, of course! Sort of, but that’s what HP is going for with their ePrint app. While your printer having its own email address can sound downright bizarre, the feature is actually quite handy.

What does HP ePrint do?

The ePrint is a cross-platform app (Windows, Mac and mobile) that lets you send printing jobs from anywhere to your friends, colleagues or even the printer itself. Provided everyone is using ePrint on the network, this will make printing across rooms, blocks or borders much easier. It will probably fall upon you to explain to them what is HP ePrint, though.

The app itself is pretty straightforward: you email the print queue to the printer itself, which is connected to a cloud computing network. Everyone on the network can see and edit the document(s) that need to be printed pretty easily from there. This probably leads you to our next question…

How is ePrint different from other cloud storage technologies?

Although we’re tempted to say it’s not different in any way, that’s not entirely accurate. Understanding what is HP ePrint SW and why it’s used goes back to the manufacturer’s bottom line: they want to create an ecosystem that supports itself instead of relying on third-party technologies. Cloud printing has been around for a while, but there aren’t many printer manufacturers who dared take things a step further.

So far, they’ve done a pretty good job of it. While some personal users will probably feel a certain amount of agitation when the ePrint app installs itself, offices and the like might find this feature invaluable. Instead of navigating the office cloud network (if you have one) in search of a file or document, the app will provide an easy-to-access interface that separates printing documents from the rest.

Is the ePrint app useful to everyone?

Not exactly. The ePrint is primarily geared towards at least small offices: the larger the office or corporation, the greater use they’ll have for the app.

If you’re using your printer for personal purposes, the functionality is very limited. Besides letting your printer know how much you miss it while you’re away, there isn’t much use for the mobile app. You might create a document on the road and send it to the printer, but you could just as easily save it in a number of ways and print once you’re home.

Making the most of ePrint’s JetAdvantage adjacent feature

Good things come in pairs, and HP’s cloud storage system is no different. What is HP ePrint + JetAdvantage? A full-blown set of features that will meet the needs of even the neediest corporations, while also making HP printer troubleshooting that much more difficult. By difficult, we mean fun, of course.

Whereas ePrint is mostly geared towards remotely sending print jobs, JetAdvantage On Demand is a full software suite that lets you oversee the printing done on a network. With JetAdvantage, you can control who sees which documents on the printer’s cloud network and even monitor the printer’s activity remotely. Having the option to create Private Prints, whether locally or remotely, is exceedingly useful. You don’t have to worry about the cloud network being breached externally, and you can keep spies at bay internally.

Knowing if your printer supports ePrint

As you might have expected, ePrint is reserved for the more modern line of printers. While most printers can do some kind of Wi-Fi printing (we even have a guide on how to make a wired printer wireless!), ePrint requires a fairly sophisticated printer model in order for it to interact with HP’s cloud network.

As a general rule, any printer that needs a USB cable or lacks a display will not support ePrint (or make it to any best buy all in one printers list, for that matter). Still, neither wireless connectivity nor a LCD display guarantee that the ePrint feature will work. Furthermore, to squeeze out the most of its functionality, every printer in the office or building should be ePrint-compatible, although that’s not a requirement. If you think one or more printers in your office are due for an upgrade, our printer reviews will tell you what’s sharp in the industry these days.

As for ePrint, we recommend you check the HP printer manuals section and find the instructions for your model, be it an InkJet or laser. The manual should tell you if your printer is compatible and go over what is ePrint on HP printer for that specific model.

Other uses for the JetAdvantage software

While ePrint’s primary chore is to facilitate remote data transfer while JetAdvantage monitors printing activity on the network, there is much more to the software suite than meets the eye. While non-business users will be tempted to remove both applications as soon as they’re done with the HP printer setup, companies and corporations can make great use of HP’s ecosystem.

For starters, JetAdvantage offers a highly secure storage solution that is independent of other cloud systems. If your office cloud is breached, there’s a good chance you’ll thank the heavens that you stored all the sensitive documents on HP’s heavily-encrypted cloud.

Aside from adding a layer of security, the JetAdvantage software branches out from being a localized solution to a worldwide cloud system. You can use it to download apps for HP devices, such as laptops, without having to rely on third-party app stores and the like, and the software also verifies the apps on its own. All in all, it’s a pretty versatile tool, and we recommend you look into its features before deciding it’s not doing much but clogging up disk space.

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