Chrome Browser for Android Finally Learns to Open PDF Files

Until now, users had to use third-party apps to view PDF files on Android. Now, Google has finally rolled out native PDF support in the Chrome web browser for Android. The first mentions of native PDF support (Open PDF Inline on Android) appeared in the code as early as February 2024, but the feature itself was previously blocked.

Image source: androidauthority.com

This highly requested feature is guaranteed to work in Android 15, but there is no support for it in older versions of Android yet.

Chrome’s PDF viewer for Android offers a built-in annotation panel with pen, highlighter, eraser, undo, redo, and visibility features. The user can select line thickness and color and scroll the document to select where to annotate. By default, the panel appears at the bottom of the page, but can be moved to the top.

When viewing PDF files, Chrome’s built-in full-text search displays all occurrences of the text you’re searching for in the document and lets you easily navigate between them.

The first mention of the ability to view PDF files in the browser (Open PDF Inline on Android pre-V) was found in the Android 12 code, but until now this feature has remained blocked.