If you got used to LibreOffice for Windows and LibreOffice for Mac, then it would seem only natural to install LibreOffice Viewer on your Android device. However, the app might unpleasantly surprise you. Even though LibreOffice Viewer allows you to open a wide range of file formats on your Android phone or tablet, it doesn’t offer the same functionality as its full-fledged desktop versions.
LibreOffice Viewer for Android is supposed to read documents just like its desktop versions since it comes with the same engine as LibreOffice for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Besides viewing functionality, LibreOffice Viewer provides you with basic editing tools to change words and select font styles, but you should be noted that editing options need to be enabled separately in the settings and are still an experimental feature.
Supported file types
LibreOffice Viewer handles such file formats as Open Document Format (odt, ods, and odp); Microsoft Office 2016, 2013, 2010, 20107 (docx, xlsx, and pptx); Microsoft Office 2003, XP, 2000, 1997 (doc, xls, and ppt).
LibreOffice vs. alternatives
Due to its stability issues, LibreOffice Viewer loses to most of its rival Android office tools. It often breaks documents and occasionally fails to open even Libre Office files transferred from PC. Some of the most popular alternatives include MS OfficeSuite, Google Drive Office Suite, and WPS Office, but even these top productive apps come with minor issues. Even though MS OfficeSuite for Android is free to download, it is still very basic and is full of in-app purchases. Google Drive Office Suite might open converted Office files with slightly different formatting and WPS Office displays intrusive ads on the list of documents.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, LibreOffice Viewer for Android still remains a rather unstable and uncooked app. It is very slow at opening files, occasionally fails to detect documents, offers no zooming for spreadsheets, has difficulties tracking changes when collaborating on the same documents, and supports very few languages.
