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Microsoft Replaces Microsoft Edge PDF App With Adobe Acrobat

The freemium model is a risky choice for Microsoft

Feb 9, 2023 05:36 GMT  ·  By
Adobe Acrobat making its way to Edge
   Adobe Acrobat making its way to Edge

I don’t know about you, but the built-in PDF viewer in Microsoft Edge has always been more than enough for my basic PDF needs.

But for some reason, Microsoft believes that going for a risky approach is the much better option, as the company is giving up on its very own PDF reader to integrate Adobe Acrobat into the browser.

You can probably see where this is going. With Adobe Acrobat, only some features will remain free, while others will become available once you get a subscription.

Microsoft says upgrading your account will be possible right from Microsoft Edge, and I’m genuinely afraid that the browser would eventually become a platform to enforce Adobe Acrobat onto users. It remains to be seen how intrusive the subscription prompts are going to be, but I expect Microsoft to face quite a lot of criticism for this idea.

“Together, the two companies are updating the PDF experience and value users have come to expect in Microsoft Edge by powering the built-in PDF reader with the Adobe Acrobat PDF engine. This will give users a unique PDF experience that includes higher fidelity for more accurate colors and graphics, improved performance, strong security for PDF handling, and greater accessibility—including better text selection and read-aloud narration. These capabilities will continue to be free of cost,” Microsoft says.

Microsoft says the transition from its otherwise very solid PDF reader to Adobe’s solution will take place in stages, with managed devices allowed to opt-in when the process kicks off.

However, the company wants the current built-in PDF app to go dark by March 2024.

“Users who want more advanced digital document features—such as the ability to edit text and images, convert PDFs to other file formats, and combine files—can purchase an Acrobat subscription that enables access to these features anywhere, including directly inside Microsoft Edge via a browser extension. Microsoft Edge users with existing Adobe Acrobat subscriptions can use the Acrobat extension inside Edge at no extra cost,” Microsoft says.