If you have a zip file on your Android phone that you want to unzip, you’re in the right place. Because in this article, I’m going to show you the best and easiest way to do just that!
There are other ways to open a zip file on an Android device, but I think the one I’m about to show you is by far the simplest and easiest. And better yet, it should work on any Android device regardless of the brand.
Prefer to watch a video about how to unzip files on an Android phone? Click here.
How To Open A Zip File In Android
To do this method, we’re going to by using an app called “Files By Google”. If you are using a certain Android phone (like a Google Pixel), this app might already be pre-installed on your device.
If it is, you will be able to skip the first step of installing it and just open it up ready for step two. But if you don’t already have the app, you’ll need to go to the Google Play Store to install it.
Step 1.
Open up the Google Play Store, and tap in the search bar at the top of the screen.
Then, in the search, type “Files By Google”, and tap on the search key on your phone’s keyboard to search for the app.
It should be the very top result in the search results, so just tap the green “Install” button near the top right-hand corner and the app will begin installing.
I’m using a Google Pixel phone so the app is already installed on mine, but if you don’t have the app installed, the install button will be in the top right instead of the open button.
It should take less than a minute to download and install the app, and once it’s finished, you’ll see a green “Open” button where the install button used to be. Tap the “Open” button and the app will open.
When you open the app for the first time, you will get a popup message welcoming you to the app. Just tap the continue button to proceed.
And you will then most likely get some sort of message asking if you want to allow Files By Google to access the files on your device. The message will look a bit different depending on your phone but it will be something like this and you’ll need to tap allow in order to continue.
Step 2.
Now that you’re finally in the app and ready to go, you will probably be on the “Clean” tab. This section of the app allows you to remove some of the files from your phone to free up space.
It’s a handy feature, but it’s not what we’re trying to do today, so to continue on with unzipping your file, you’ll need to tap on the “Browse” button in the bottom right-hand corner.
You will now see all the different categories of files on your phone. You’ll need to find your zip file somewhere in here in order to unzip it. Most likely, it will be in downloads which is where my file is so I’m going to tap on downloads. But if your file is somewhere else, you can go into a different category to find it.
Tip: If you’re struggling to find it in the categories, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and tap on “Internal Storage”, and you’ll then be able to see every folder that’s on your phone.
Step 3.
Once you’ve found your zip file in the Files By Google app, tap on it.
Step 4.
And you will then see a list of all the files inside it, and below that will be a blue button labeled “Extract”. Tap on Extract and it will begin extracting all the files from the zip file.
Step 5.
If all that’s inside the zip file is just a few images like mine, it should be finished within a matter of seconds. But if there are a lot of large files in your zip file, it could take a few minutes.
But regardless of how long it takes, once it’s done, you’ll see a message that says ““File Name.zip” extracted“.
Within the box that appears, you will also have the option to delete the zip file now that the files are extracted. This is probably a good idea, so if you want to delete the zip file, tick the checkbox near the bottom of the popup.
And then, whether or not you checked the checkbox, tap done, and the process will be complete.
Now all the files that were in the zip file, will be there in your downloads folder (or wherever your zip file was).
And that’s really all there is to it, you now have all your files out of the zip file.
