Apple is finally bringing its longtime Mac staple, the Preview app, to iPhone and iPad with iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the mobile version of Preview will come preinstalled as part of the OS updates, giving users a built-in solution for managing, editing, and annotating PDFs without needing third-party apps.
The app will reportedly look and feel similar to its macOS counterpart, with a launch screen design that mirrors other iWork apps like Pages and Keynote, featuring a prominent Preview logo and a document picker interface.
Preview has been part of macOS since its early days, originally built into NeXTSTEP before becoming a default tool for viewing and editing PDFs, images, and a wide range of file types. While the iPhone and iPad already support PDF viewing in Safari and the Books app, this will be the first time Apple offers a native, all-in-one editing experience for PDFs across its mobile platforms.
On Mac, Preview can handle everything from annotations and signatures to basic image adjustments. It’s not yet clear how much of that editing functionality will carry over to iOS and iPadOS, or whether the mobile version will support the same variety of file formats.
What’s confirmed so far is that the Preview app won’t be a separate App Store download. It will ship as part of the OS and should be available to all users when iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 roll out later this year. Apple is expected to officially unveil the app during its WWDC 2025 keynote on June 9, where it will also showcase a broader redesign across its software platforms. iOS 26 is rumored to introduce a new glass-like UI theme with more transparency and depth, as well as updates to core apps like Safari, Phone, Messages, and Camera.
While the Preview app’s arrival might not seem headline-grabbing on its own, it fills a notable gap in Apple’s mobile ecosystem. For anyone who regularly works with PDFs, especially on the iPad, having a dedicated, Apple-built tool is long overdue. If the company delivers a version that mirrors even part of the macOS experience, Preview could become one of the most practical additions to iOS in years.
(via Bloomberg)
