Summary
- Android devices may soon have an integrated PDF editor within the Files by Google app, reducing the dependency on Drive PDF Viewer.
- The new PDF editor UI includes dedicated arrow buttons for easier scrolling and a floating action button for text annotation features.
- User reports suggest the new integrated PDF reader is already rolling out to a few users, potentially making it available through the Play Store soon.
Android devices are powerful tools because the Google Play Store usually has an app for every imaginable requirement. To handle documents on the go, we usually rely on the best PDF editor apps, but Google has a few provisions pre-installed on Android to help you out in a pinch, including the Drive PDF Viewer. However, a new sighting suggests the Files by Google app may soon reduce its dependency on this app in favor of an integrated PDF editing suite.
The Drive PDF Viewer is a great PDF reader/editor stripped down to the bare necessities to view all the pages and annotate using basic drawing tools like a highlighter or marker. Despite inadequacies, it remains the default PDF viewer app on Android and even documents downloaded via Chrome browser rely on it because, unlike the desktop version, Chrome for Android doesn’t have an inbuilt PDF viewer. While that could change soon, app researcher and tipster AssembleDebug shared a Telegram post revealing the Files by Google app could soon use an independent PDF reader as well.
The new solution could include more features
Screenshots of the upcoming PDF editor UI
In the screenshots the tipster shared, there are a few key differences in the UI for the Files app’s PDF reader. First off, we can see dedicated arrow buttons, presumably to scroll up and down in the document or in one-page increments without tiring your thumb.
Another key difference is the floating action button (FAB), which looks like a message button in the new UI, hopefully giving users much-needed text annotation features in addition to the doodling tools the Drive PDF viewer already has (accessible through the magic wand FAB).
We didn’t see the new UI on any of our devices to test out functionality firsthand, but user reports on AssembleDebug’s Telegram channel reveal this integrated PDF reader is rolling out already, ridding the Files by Google app of its dependency on the Drive PDF viewer. It should be available through the Play Store if Google plans to make the new features available at scale.
