This one little iOS 26 characteristic makes me jealous as a Pixel person

The Pixel 10 telephones include a slew of sensible options — every thing is AI-driven and feels futuristic, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. In distinction, iOS 26 for iPhones is much less about AI and extra about visible upgrades. I don’t thoughts Liquid Glass, truthfully — I may play with the refraction all day lengthy, if the heavy animations don’t eat into the battery earlier than that.

However there’s one helpful little software in iOS 26, borrowed straight from the Mac, that I’ve grow to be a strong fan of. If Google ever introduced one thing just like Android and Pixels, I’d personally go to Mountain View to shake Sundar Pichai’s hand.

Preview has lengthy been a Mac staple that’s now ingrained in my workflow. Its greatest feat is that I can press the spacebar to immediately preview any file — PDFs, photographs, movies — with out ready for a separate app to load. It simply sits within the background, prepared everytime you want it.

Notably for PDFs, it’s an absolute gem of a software. You’ll be able to mark up, fill types, add textual content, insert shapes, and extra. What I depend on most is its digital signature software. It’s not some random handwriting font you sometimes discover on PDF editors, however my precise signature that I drew on the trackpad. At this level, I actually can’t stay with out it. It’s indispensable, given what number of paperwork I’ve to e-sign every month.

Apple has now ported the identical Preview app to iPhones, and I had a second of happiness after I first noticed it in motion. On iOS 26, it’s restricted to PDFs alone, however that’s nonetheless an enormous win. It’s layered with the brand new Liquid Glass design, with minimal menus unfold neatly throughout the highest and backside. You get a great deal of helpful options, like pressured darkish backgrounds, cropping PDFs, including textual content packing containers for types, and extra.

If you happen to haven’t guessed already, the very first thing I checked was if it had the signature software — and it did. What a second of reduction it was! I solely want iOS imported my saved signatures from the Mac (a lot for the bragged ecosystem), however creating a brand new one must be simply as simple. In spite of everything, a Mac trackpad and a telephone touchscreen are each simply capacitive glass slabs.

My greatest reduction comes from the truth that I can now skim PDFs and signal them on my telephone with out switching gadgets. Usually, I’d need to seize my Mac, re-download the file from e-mail or WhatsApp, and signal it there. None of that’s required anymore.

As a bonus, Preview on iOS additionally has a built-in doc scanner, one thing that beforehand meant leaping to the Notes app. It’s already turning out to be an on a regular basis workhorse for me.

Naturally, the following factor I did was to check this with what my Pixel affords, and let’s simply say I wasn’t almost as happy. On my Pixel 10, opening a PDF with the default viewer will get me a barebones markup software that appears prefer it hasn’t been up to date in a decade.

Positive, you’ll be able to spotlight textual content or scribble one thing in your individual handwriting — and sure, Google deserves credit score for the way nicely it handles pure swipes and curves drawn along with your finger (take a look at the final screenshot above). However do I actually wish to recreate my signature from scratch each time I have to signal a doc? Completely not.

It might be much more sensible if I may simply retailer totally different variations of my signatures as soon as and drop them into paperwork in seconds. If that wasn’t sufficient, Google’s various additionally lacks any type of form-filling choices. Come on, it’s 2025, and Android’s native PDF viewer nonetheless can’t fill types with out requiring you to dig by the Play Retailer to seek out an app that does? That’s simply embarrassing.

We’ve all no less than as soon as reached that time the place Adobe Acrobat Reader’s restrictions bug you adequate to search for strong alternate options. Many individuals accept some random on-line software within the second, however I dug deeper for a extra everlasting repair. And that’s how I found this gem of an app known as PDFGear.

It’s surprisingly fashionable, however I hadn’t heard of it till not too long ago, and now I beat myself up for not switching earlier. It’s free, ad-free, and stacked with options. It has signature help, file conversion to and from PDF, web page enhancing, fillable textual content packing containers, and even the choice to take away passwords from PDFs. Principally, every thing you’d need a PDF editor to do.

And sure, it’s on Android too. With slightly setup to make it your default PDF app, it’s simply the most effective PDF expertise you’ll get immediately on Android, in all probability a lot better than what Preview brings to iOS.

However right here’s why I hold insisting on a greater native PDF viewer and editor on Android: most individuals don’t fiddle with default apps, not to mention search out a third-party one except they really know what they’re lacking out on. If Google actually desires to look previous the flashy AI methods on Pixels and polish the necessities, it ought to take a cue from Apple’s Preview on iOS. Higher but, it may one-up Apple by studying a trick or two from PDFGear. What’s stopping it?