New

Files open in a viewer with a download button

·1 min read

A two-page PDF called Q3 report open in the browser from a host0 link, with a slim dark bar along the bottom showing “Q3 report.pdf”, Download and “Hosted on host0”.

When someone opens a shared PDF, image, video, audio file or text file (.txt, .csv, .md, .json) in a browser tab, host0 now shows it in a viewer page instead of handing over the raw file.

The file fills the window. Under it, a slim bar shows the file name, a Download link and "Hosted on host0". The bar never covers the file.

On a computer, PDFs use the browser's own viewer. On phones they're drawn with a built-in reader, so a long PDF scrolls page by page and you can still select, copy and search its text.

The same PDF on a phone: pages stacked full width with the file name, Download and Hosted on host0 in a bar at the bottom.

Everything that uses the file as a file still gets the original bytes: an <img> or <video> in a page, embeds, fetch(), curl, link previews and search engines. Add ?download to any file URL to download it directly.

Other files, such as zips, fonts, scripts and stylesheets, are served as before. Since 16 October, apps on Pro serve every file without the viewer bar.

All updates