While the Files app on iOS does offer limited support for opening and creating ZIP files, it doesn’t cover the entire gamut of file compression types out there, nor does it give you very much control over the compression/decompression process itself.

This is where a third-party app like Keka shines beautifully. Just to give you a comparison on file types between the two:

Files supports…

• Compressing ZIP files
• Uncompressing AR, BZIP2, CPIO, RAR, TAR, TGZ, or ZIP files

Keka supports…

• Compressing 7Z, ZIP, TAR, ZSTD, GZIP, BZIP2, and Apple Archive files
• Uncompressing 7Z, ZIP, RAR, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, AAR, XZ, ZSTD, ISO, LZMA, EXE, CAB, MSI, PAX, JAR, APK, APPX, XPI, IPA, CPGZ, CPIO, CPT, XIP, and more

Files looks pretty lame in comparison, right?

In case that alone isn’t enough to convince you, Keka also lets you encrypt (AES-256) and password-protect the 7Z and ZIP files you create with it, as well as split them into multiple volumes of specific size. With several of the other file types, you can also choose a compression “speed” to control the level of compression it can accomplish.

Whether you’re extracting or archiving — both of which can be paused and resumed at your leisure — the app lets you choose exactly where the file will go in your Files directory. You can set it to always point to a specific folder (it uses Keka’s own folder by default) or have it ask every time.

If you’re needing more control and capability over your file extracting and archiving on iPhone and iPad, Keka is the app I’d recommend. It’s just $4 on the App Store and supports a wide variety of languages around the world.

Posted By Chris Gonzales