Ask HN: Why does Chrome on Android not open PDF files like Chrome on Windows?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33332086

by metadat • 4 years ago

4 8 4 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I've found it annoying enough that I avoid clicking PDF links, because they clutter up my Downloads folder.

compressedgas2• 4 years ago

Perhaps it is because Android Chrome has no extension support, not even pdfium.

metadat• 4 years ago

But why are these extensions omitted?

I've noticed my iOS device browsers handle PDFs just fine. Struggling to understand why Chrome on Android is crippled.

compressedgas2• 4 years ago

By not including extensions in Android Chrome, they eliminated Ad blockers.

izacus• 4 years ago

Probably to keep the Chrome download size down - pdfium is a pretty sizeable library.

PDF viewer (as default handler) is part of Google Drive app and was probably deemed redundant to add it to Chrome.

nonasktell• 4 years ago

maybe because pdf vulnerabilities are found so often that it would unleash one zero day a month

hulitu• 4 years ago

This is a good thing. The first thing i do on Win/Linux is to disable this crappy behaviour.

amadeuspagel• 4 years ago

Also, why does Chrome on ChromeOS not open PDFs? It's irritating not only because of the downloads folder, but also because it usually makes more sense to have a PDF in a tab, rather then its own window. For example, if an HN submission is a PDF, I want to open both the PDF and the comments in new tabs, and have those tabs next to each other.

joshxyz• 4 years ago

same way chrome on android does not support extensions, they are entirely different underneath.

firefox on android allows extensions but firefox on ios doesnt.

Ask HN: Why does Chrome on Android not open PDF files like Chrome on Windows?

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