After the desktop version of Chrome, the Android app now also has an integrated PDF reader. You can test the feature in the latest Canary version.

Chrome has long been able to serve as a PDF reader on Windows and Mac, eliminating the need to install separate PDF software. Almost every internet browser offers this functionality. If we look at the mobile variants of Android, Chrome lags behind. So far you can’t open PDF files in Chrome, while you can already do so in the Firefox and Edge mobile apps.

Anyone who uses Chrome on their Android device today has to install a separate PDF app. That will change soon. On Twitter, user Leopeva64 shares that he has one flag found in the Canary test version of Chrome on Android that you can open PDFs in the browser.

In fact, you don’t even need to download the PDF to open it in the browser. Firefox and Edge already support this today. In the trial version you can open a PDF immediately. There is a button at the top left to download the PDF file. It’s hard to estimate how quickly the feature will transition from the Canary trial to the stable version that everyone receives. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, sometimes a few months.

It’s bizarre that Chrome lags behind in terms of functionality despite its market dominance on mobile devices. Edge even already supports Chrome extensions in the mobile version. Users have been demanding that Chrome work on this for a while now, but Google hasn’t reported anything about it yet.

The PDF reader is already an important first step towards parity with Edge, also a Chromium-based internet browser. Now the extensions Google.