RAR

RAR

Price: $

It's pretty strange that Android smartphones are sold without innate support for archive files such as .rar or .7zip. Zip files are available by default but you still need an app to manage other file formats. There are many different apps to choose from so let's take a look at one of them!

RAR is available for free for Android. The app can be used to create RAR and ZIP archives but it can unpack RAR, ZIP, TAR, GZ, BZ2, XZ, 7z., ISO, and ARJ. After you open it, you will see a file explorer which you can navigate to locate archive files. After you open a folder that contains archive files, they are placed at the top of the list for easier access.

You can open the archive to view and extract individual files or you can tap and hold the archive file for options to extract in the same location or to extract to a folder of your choice. When it comes to creating archives, there is a checkbox next to files and folders inside the app, and you can use it to select multiple items and add them to a new archive.

There are plenty of useful options such as setting up a password which must be entered to access the archive in the future. You can also store the archive in several parts for easier sharing and copying. Besides that, you can repair or test archives on your phone to see if all files inside are working properly. It's a shame though that you can't select files from different folders and add them in an archive all at once.

There is a work around for adding files from different folders to an archive, and that is by creating a single archive and then adding files one folder at a time. The app otherwise supports ads which only appear when extracting or creating an archive. You can disable them inside the app for $1.06/year, which is definitely a low price.