Having a reliable file archiving app definitely comes in handy especially when you are frequently dealing with large files such as your mp3 collection and photo slideshows. Aside from the fact that it compresses your files into a single archive, it also reduces your file’s original size so it is much easier to send via Bluetooth, e-mail, etc. While there are already a lot of file compression tools that you can use for free, the B1 Free Archiver app is specifically meant to compress and decompress the files that you have stored on your Android device.

What Is It and What Does It Do

Main Functionality

Created and developed by Catalina Group, Ltd., the B1 Free Archiver is a free application for Android which is designed to compress and decompress your files. In other words, this app is a file archiving tool that can compress files and folders into zip or b1 format. It can also extract or decompress files of various formats such as 7z, zip, rar, tar, arj, apk, jar, iso, rpm and a whole lot more.

Pros

• Simple yet neat and responsive UI, easy to use
• Compresses files in B1 or ZIP format (with password-protect option)
• Can extract the following file formats – 7z, apk, a, ar, arj, bz2, bzip2, cab, deb, gz, gzip, jar, iso, lha, lzh, lzma, mtz, rpm, tar, tar.bz2, tbz, tbz2, tar.gz, tgz, tpz, taz, tar.lzma, tar.xz, tar.Z, xap, xar, xz, Z and zipx
• Can extract password-protected archives in zip, rar or 7z format
• You can preview or browse the files inside your archives without decompressing the file
• Can easily open those multi-part rar and b1 archives
• Has a built-in filter tool so you can easily search for files with a particular file extension
• Allows multiple selection of files and folders
• You can change or update the app’s default settings
• You can bookmark your most commonly used files and folders
• You get to monitor your file’s compression/extraction progress in the notification area; you can also opt to make it run in the background
• It makes it easier for you to copy, paste, delete, rename, move or send your files
• Features a “partial extract” option which means that you can only extract a particular file out of your archive

Cons

• To compress or decompress files, you need to access the B1 Free Archiver app first. It is not integrated with other apps so you cannot directly extract or compress the files on your gallery or file manager
• Only has one viewing mode – you cannot opt to view your files/folders in tiles, list or thumbnail mode
• Does not have a quick search tool so you cannot easily search for files or archives with a specific file name or keyword

Discussion

I’ve already tried a couple of free file archiving apps but most of them are only limited to .zip and .rar files so when I first tried B1 Free Archiver, I was quite pleased that it can actually open a lot of file types which includes 7z, tar, apk, iso, gz, gzip, etc. It can even open a wide range of password-protected archives provided that they’re in .zip, .rar or .7z format. As for its compression tool, it can compress files into .zip or .b1. You also have the option to password-protect your newly compressed archives.

What I like most about this app is that it is easy to use. Its user interface looks simple and neat plus it’s also very responsive. So it’s easy to scroll and browse for specific files and folders. Also, if you long press a specific item, it will show its options for compress, move, copy, rename, etc. On the other hand, a single tap on the item will show its options for viewing and extracting your archives.

Other than the features mentioned above, this app also has a filter tool which is quite useful especially if you want to limit your search results to a specific file format or extension. So if you just want to search for .zip files, just use the filter tool and it will show you all of the files with the .zip extension. Another good feature of this app is its Bookmarks tool. This provides a hassle-free way for you to access your most commonly used folders. You can also make of use of the app’s multi-select tool to select multiple files and folders.

So far, I don’t have any serious issues with this app. As a matter of fact, it works pretty well and it definitely does what it is intended to do. It’s just that it could have been better if this app has a quick search tool so that you could easily search for specific files just by typing its filename or keyword. Also, this app has only one viewing mode so you can’t set its files to be shown in thumbnail or list view.

All in all, I could say that the B1 Free Archiver is one of the most reliable file archiving apps that you can find in the market. Plus, it’s one-hundred percent free so there’s no need for you to upgrade just to access its premium features.

Conclusion and Download Link

The best thing about B1 Free Archiver is that it supports multiple file types; it is not only limited to .zip and .rar files plus it has a built-in password-protect option. I definitely recommend that you try this app if you need this type of functionality.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 0.7.3

Requires: Android 2.1 and up

Download size: 3.7MB

B1 Free Archiver on Play Store