February to March every year is a very busy time for Android. At this time, Google is usually almost ready for the next version of the Android system, and at this time more new features under development will gradually surface. According to news released by Android expert Mishaal Rahman, Google is developing a new Android Jetpack library for Android 15, allowing applications to add PDF viewing support.
What are the shortcomings of the current PDF viewing function of Android:
I don't know if it was a fool's errand during development or a technical problem. The current built-in PDF function in Android is very bad. It will render the PDF into an image and then display it as a page, so the content is actually "unreadable".
As for PDF files, most applications either do not support them and prompt users to use other applications to open them, or they integrate PDF libraries provided by third parties to provide a better experience.
New PDF library:
In Android 15, Google decided to develop a new library that allows Android to honestly render the content when opening a PDF file instead of turning it into an image. This way, for document-type PDFs, users can also choose text, read aloud, copy, etc.
At that time, other applications can also directly call the API to open PDF files. There is no need to pop up the option to select other applications every time you click, which is relatively very convenient.
This feature may also be supported for devices running older versions of Android. After all, the new Jetpack library should also be able to be integrated and called.