A streamlined, easy-to-implement solution from the Jetpack team

Article Image Generated By Akshay Kalola Using GPT

As Android developers, we’ve long relied on third-party libraries for rendering PDFs in our apps — often trading off stability, customization, or ease of integration. But that’s changing. AndroidX PDF Viewer is an emerging native solution that simplifies PDF rendering while aligning seamlessly with Jetpack components and modern Android development practices.

Introduction

A lightweight, native PDF rendering library introduced under the AndroidX namespace. It’s designed to:

• Work out-of-the-box with minimal setup
• Be part of the Jetpack ecosystem
• Replace most third-party solutions for basic PDF needs
• Offer easy-to-use APIs for simple PDF display tasks
• Fully written in Kotlin

⚠️ Why Should You Care?

If you’ve ever added PDF viewing to your Android app, you know it usually means pulling in a bulky third-party library — often overkill for simply displaying a file. The AndroidX PDF Viewer offers a lightweight, native alternative.

Here’s why it’s worth your attention:

• It’s built by the Jetpack team, so it follows modern Android architecture.
• The integration is dead simple — a few lines of code and you’re done.
• You won’t need any third-party licenses or SDK bloats.
• It’s ideal for basic use cases, like showing invoices, manuals, or reports.

But it’s not all perfect (yet):

• The library is still in alpha (1.0.0-alpha09) and under active development.
• Customizations are very limited — no theming, annotations, or advanced interactions.
• It may not be stable enough for production in all scenarios.

In short, if your app just needs to display PDFs without extras, this could be the cleanest, most native way to do it.

⚙️ Time to Integrate

Integrating AndroidX PDF Viewer is quick and straightforward. Just follow these steps:

Add the Dependency

Since the library is still in alpha, make sure you’re using the latest version from the AndroidX release page:

dependencies {
    implementation("androidx.pdf:pdf-viewer-fragment:1.0.0-alpha09")
}

Note: Since it’s in alpha, APIs may change in future releases.

Add Fragment in Your Layout

In your XML file, add the fragment component like this:

<androidx.fragment.app.FragmentContainerView
        android:id="@+id/pdf_fragment"
        android:name="androidx.pdf.viewer.fragment.PdfViewerFragment"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        tools:ignore="NewApi" />

Select PDF File using Document Picker

First, register the document picker and immediately launch it when needed or you can do as you prefer

private val openDocumentLauncher =
    registerForActivityResult(ActivityResultContracts.OpenDocument()) { uri: Uri? ->
        uri?.let { openPdf(it) }
    }

// To trigger the picker (e.g., on a button click)
openDocumentLauncher.launch(arrayOf("application/pdf"))

Load a PDF Using PdfViewerFragment

You can load the PDF by setting the document URI on the fragment instance like this:

private fun openPdf(uri: Uri) {
    val pdfViewerFragment =
        supportFragmentManager.findFragmentById(R.id.pdf_fragment) as? PdfViewerFragment
    pdfViewerFragment?.documentUri = uri
}

Easy, Right?

You can also enable the Find in File feature by activating text search with the isTextSearchActive property, when you need it, like this:

pdfViewerFragment?.isTextSearchActive = true

This allows users to search for text within the PDF document, enhancing the reading experience.

If you want to skip the setup and dive straight into working code, I’ve created a sample project that demonstrates,

This article was previously published on proandroiddev.com.