How to open or unzip ZIP and RAR files on Android

ZIP and RAR files they are still very popular. They are frequently used to share multiple files at once or to reduce their size. Currently, they can also be opened and unzipped from any mobile device. In this guide we tell you how to manage your ZIP and RAR easily from Android.

Open and unzip ZIP files on Android with Files

One of the advantages of ZIP files is that they have very good compatibility on all operating systems. Therefore, they can be opened and unzipped with most browsers. This is the case of Files, the official Google file manager.

Download

After locating the ZIP file, all you have to do is click on it.

Open ZIP file

In a pop-up dialog the contents of the compressed folder will be displayed. Press the button Extract to extract the content.

ZIP content

After extraction, it is possible to ask Files to delete from ZIP archive by checking the box Delete ZIP file. To finish, tap on Donate.

Finish extraction

As you can see in the following screenshot, you already have the ZIP content in a new directory.

Decompression finished

Open and unzip ZIP files on Android with WinZip

The process is very similar if you use a specific tool, like WinZip. Get the installation file right from here below if it is the tool of choice in your case.

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After installing it on your device, locate the ZIP file with its built-in explorer and tap on the three vertical dots to open the context menu.

Open context menu in WinZip

Then, click on Unzip.

Start decompression

Select the destination. Use the button Storage to extract the content in the internal memory of the terminal.

Unzip to internal memory

Once the corresponding folder is located, press the button Unzip here to start decompression.

9 Confirm decompression start

Again, the contents of the ZIP will be housed in a separate folder.

Unzip finished with WinZip

Access it to view the files included in the compressed folder.

Open and unzip RAR files on Android with RAR

The RAR files they do require a specific application to be opened. In this case, we have opted for the one developed by the creator of this format. Its name leaves no room for doubt: RAR.

Download

The operation is very similar to WinZip. First, find the RAR file that you want to open and from which you want to extract content. Select its box and tap on the top decompression icon.

Unzip RAR file

Choose a route for extraction and tap OK.

Select destination

RAR acts in a similar way to the rest of the applications that we have mentioned in this article, creating a folder with the contents of the compressed file.

Unzipped RAR

Open the directory to see the extracted files.

Other apps to unzip on Android

The applications that we have shown you here are the best known and most functional tools to extract the content of a ZIP or a RAR. However, they are not the only ones. There is a great variety of software that allows you to manage compressed folders on Android. Likewise, most alternative file browsers also support the ZIP format.