How to Annotate a PDF on Android (Highlight and Comment)
Add highlights, comments, and sticky notes to a PDF on Android in Chrome or using built-in tools — no app download required.
Android's built-in PDF viewer (in Files by Google and other apps) is mostly read-only. For annotations, you can use Chrome's basic markup or FixMyPDF's comment tool in the browser — no annotation app subscription required.
Method 1: Adobe Acrobat Reader Free (Best Native App)
Adobe Acrobat Reader for Android is free and includes highlighting, sticky notes, and text underline. Install from the Play Store, open your PDF, tap the pencil icon → Comment tool. This gives the most annotation features at no cost on Android.
Method 2: FixMyPDF in Chrome (No App Install)
If you don't want to install Acrobat, go to fixmypdf.in/tools/add-comments in Chrome. Upload your PDF, tap to add comment boxes on any page, type your notes, and download the annotated PDF. Works entirely in the browser.
Method 3: Google Drive's Comment Feature
Upload your PDF to Google Drive. Open it in Drive's PDF viewer. Long-press text to select it, then tap "Comment" in the popup menu. Type your note and tap Post. Drive's PDF viewer supports text-based comments on Android.
Highlighting Text on Android PDFs
In Acrobat Reader: open PDF → tap Highlight tool → tap and drag over text. The text is highlighted in yellow (colour changeable in settings). In the FixMyPDF comment tool, you can add a text comment box positioned over any text as an alternative to direct highlights.
Drawing on PDFs on Android
Adobe Acrobat Reader includes a freehand draw tool for circling, underlining, and marking up diagrams — useful when reviewing design documents or engineering drawings. Tap the pencil icon → Draw Freehand. Choose colour and line weight.
Saving and Sharing Annotated PDFs
In Acrobat Reader, tap the Share icon after annotating to export the annotated PDF to Gmail, WhatsApp, or Google Drive. In FixMyPDF, tap "Download" to save to your Downloads folder, then share from the Files app.
After Annotating on Android
To remove annotations from a copy of the PDF (keeping the original annotated version), use our remove annotations tool. To make annotations permanent before printing, use our flatten PDF tool on Android.
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