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Android Auto has a PDF app now, but it might be more useful than you think

Beyond music and navigation, there are a lot of apps that might be useful on Android Auto, but a PDF app is maybe the furthest thing from anyone’s mind for an app to use in their car. Yet, Adobe Acrobat is now available on Android Auto.

Available in the latest Adobe Acrobat app update, v26.5.0.45958, there’s now a version of the PDF reader on Android Auto. The new app pops up as a notification on your car’s display and sits in the app drawer alongside any other apps you have installed.

There’s an obvious question here.

Why?

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Adobe Acrobat is a useful app for viewing PDFs, but what purpose could it possibly serve behind the wheel? The answer to that is Acrobat’s “Read Aloud” function. This can convert most PDFs into an audio stream, letting you listen to the content instead of reading it. And that’s why it might actually be useful behind the wheel. Whether it’s an audio version of a book, a document for work, or something you’re trying to study for class, the ability to quickly pull that up via a dedicated Android Auto app might actually prove useful for at least some users. It certainly aligns with the productivity focus we’ve seen arise on Android Auto in recent years, with Google Meet, for example, having been added recently.

In our brief testing, this does not work with every PDF file, but you’ll get a typical Android Auto media player when it does work.

Would you use this?

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Avatar for Ben Schoon Ben Schoon

Ben is a Senior Editor for 9to5Google.

Find him on Twitter @NexusBen. Send tips to schoon@9to5g.com or encrypted to benschoon@protonmail.com.