Opens PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, photos, video, audio, Markdown and code, all rendered on the device. About 5 MB, one build for every processor, Android 8.0 and up.
Search works in every document type. PDF text selects, copies and reads aloud to a screen reader, and there is a night mode that turns the paper black and leaves most photographs alone.
Its permissions page is empty and the manifest has no INTERNET so it can’t open a network connection. Files reach it through the system picker, an Open-with intent, or a folder you grant once. The About screen asks Android what the app requests and shows you the result.
Not an editor. Legacy .ppt does not open. Complex PowerPoint renders approximately.
I will be in the comments today, so ask away, including why it isn’t on F-Droid yet.
The empty permissions page is weaker evidence than people in here are taking it for. That screen only lists runtime permissions, so INTERNET, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE and the rest never show up there whether or not an app has them. Plenty of apps with a blank page can still open sockets.
The manifest line is the actual claim, and it’s a much stronger one. Anyone who wants to check it without taking your word or mine: on the Play listing, About this app → App permissions → See more is extracted from the uploaded build, not written by the developer. Or
aapt2 dump permissionson the apk. Both show the normal permissions that the on-device page hides.The README is full of slop, what about the code?
Fair question. A lot of it(the README and code) was written with AI assistance under my direction, and every push runs with a the test suite in CI.
The no-permissions claim doesn’t depend on trusting that tho… the build fails if a permission is added, the About screen on the app also shows what Android says the app requests(isnt hardcoded), and it’s open-source MIT licensed, so the code is there to read.
If you find something bad in it, you can open an issue and I’ll definitely be there to look into it.
So it’s AI code. Got it.
So it’s AI
codeslop. Got it.So
it’s AI codethe people saying it’s slop are slop. Got it.
Ok then, why not on F-Droid yet?
F-Droid is the one I actually want. The request has been open since July (https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp/-/issues/4138) but nobody from F-Droid has reviewed it yet, which seems to be normal there.
The one thing I expect review to bring up is that the renderers are vendored as minified JavaScript, and I’ve offered to swap in unminified copies or build them from source. Meanwhile, the APK on GitHub releases works with Obtainium.
Put a “Get it on Obtainium” button on the README
Done, thanks! The README’s install section now has a one-tap link to add Gander to Obtainium: https://github.com/mokshablr/gander#install
That’s better than nothing, but what I meant is you have a “Get it on Google Play” button at the very top of the README, right next to which you could have an equivalent “Get it on Obtainium” button button.
Hey, this thing is pretty great!!
Legit no permissions! Very neat
Thank you! Gander was built with a privacy-first approach since the beginning.
Good idea but AI slop. Good luck mantaining it
System TTS or built in?
Any root functions?
System. Gander has no TTS of its own… it uses TalkBack or whichever screen reader you’re on to read the document, PDF text included.
And no root functions, it’s a viewer and asks for no permissions at all!
