Open PDF files with Microsoft Edge Browser on Android Device with Built-in PDF Viewer

With a Built-in PDF Viewer, you can open PDF files with Microsoft Edge Browser on Android devices. Microsoft Edge for Android Browser Built-in PDF Viewer.

Microsoft Edge is one of the premier browsers available, along with Google Chrome. The MS Edge browser is built with Chromium, similar to other browsers in the industry. The Microsoft Edge browser is available on all major device platforms.

iOS and Android are one of the main device platforms that MS Edge browser is available apart from Windows devices. One of the users on Twitter Leopeva64 noticed that Microsoft made this feature available in the Dev and Canary channels of Edge for Android web browser.

HTMD Team tried to test this feature but didn’t get this working for the MS Edge for the Android Dev version. The PDF is getting opened as blank, as shown in the below section of the post. But remember, this is the early version of the built-in PDF viewer for MS Edge.

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Built-in PDF Viewer available in MS Edge for Android

Microsoft started rolling out a built-in PDF viewer with Edge for Android Dev version. As per the initial testing by Leopeva64 shows, the feature is pretty basic (on Dev and Canary).

He also noted that this feature is not available with Google Chrome browsers for Android devices. This gives a smaller advantage to MS Edge over Google Chrome for Android.

The normal behavior of the MS Edge browser for Android is automatically opening the PDF file with a built-in PDF viewer after downloading the file. But it didn’t work for us when we tried to test this. Let us know whether you can make this work.

Open PDF files with Microsoft Edge Browser on Android Device

Let’s see how to open Open PDF files with Microsoft Edge Browser on Android Device. You must install Edge for Android Dev or Canary app from the Google Play store. Once installed, follow the steps below.

• Open the Edge for Android web browser.
• Copy the following URL and paste it into the Edge browser.
  • edge://flags/#edge-miniapp-pdf-viewer

Check the option called Trigger Mini App PDF Viewer from MS Edge for Android Browser app. Ensure that the “mini pdf viewer app” trigger option is enabled, as shown below.

Once enabled is the Trigger option for Mini PDF Viewer App; you need to RESTART the MS Edge for Android web browser application to get these changes into effect.

Built-in PDF Viewer Blank Page Issue with Edge for Android devices

Let’s check why the Built-in PDF Viewer cannot open the PDF files after downloading. The expectation is to download and open the PDF in the browser itself. With MS Edge Dev app for Android devices shows a blank Page, as shown below.

Android Mobile User Experience of Built-in PDF Viewer for Edge Web Browser

Let’s see the Android Mobile User Experience of Built-in PDF Viewer for Edge Web Browser. Again this is the very early stages of this feature, and you must wait for a more stable version.

Even though the HTMD team is not able to test and confirm the functionality of this feature, Twitter user Leopeva64 was able to open the PDF file with a built-in mini PDF viewer app.

Author

Anoop C Nair is Microsoft MVP! He is a Device Management Admin with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. He writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc.