July 31, 2026
Zero perms, maximum side-eye
Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions at all
The no-permission Android app has privacy fans cheering and skeptics side-eyeing hard
TLDR: Gander is a new Android file viewer that opens lots of file types while asking for no permissions and having no internet access. The crowd loved the privacy-first idea, but the biggest debate was whether “no internet permission” really means an app is truly sealed off.
A tiny Android app called Gander just strutted onto Hacker News with a bold pitch: open your files without asking for any permissions at all. No ads, no tracking, no internet, no cloud detours—just one app for PDFs, Word docs, spreadsheets, slides, photos, video, audio, and more. For anyone tired of their phone acting like every file needs a chaperone, this was basically catnip. One early reaction was pure fan energy: “Tried it and I love it. Good work!” Another immediately asked for more, with the classic open-source compliment-disguised-as-a-feature-request: can it also handle LibreOffice formats so they can ditch yet another app?
But the real popcorn moment came from the trust debate. One commenter basically said, wait, can an Android app truly be unable to talk to the outside world, or is that just a comforting bedtime story? Then they escalated by consulting Gemini, which only added to the suspense. That kicked off the thread’s main tension: privacy dream app or “sounds too good to be true” challenge? Meanwhile, practical folks were already asking for F-Droid hosting and easier installs, because sideloading still gives many users the same emotional energy as downloading a cursed attachment from 2007. The vibe overall: impressed, curious, slightly paranoid—which, in privacy circles, is practically a standing ovation.
Key Points
- •Gander is an open-source Android file viewer that the article says operates fully offline with zero permissions and no INTERNET permission.
- •The app supports a wide range of formats including PDF, .docx, .pptx, spreadsheet formats, images, video, audio, Markdown, text, and code.
- •Folder access is handled through Android system grants such as the Storage Access Framework and ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT_TREE rather than broad storage permissions.
- •Document rendering uses specific offline components including Pdfium, docx-preview, SheetJS, PPTXjs, Media3 ExoPlayer, marked, and DOMPurify.
- •The project is distributed as downloadable APK releases, can be updated through Obtainium from GitHub releases, and can also be built from source with JDK 17+ and Android SDK platform 35.