A compressed file contains one or more files that have been reduced in size, which makes them easier to transfer or store. Zip files are created through the process of file compression. They may include images, audio, video, and more. Zip files are not limited to a single type of data. They archive encoded information that is unusable by other applications until it is extracted from the file and decompressed. Zip files are just one of many ways to archive files (other examples include ARC, ARJ, RAR, and CAB), but they are not the most common. In the example above, you would need to attach and send one file, which the receiver would open to view the entire zip file’s contents. Once zipped, these files act like one file. To make file sharing easier, you can create a zip file, which is a way of grouping (also called “archiving”) multiple digital files. One option is to attach each file individually, but this can easily become cumbersome and inefficient. Imagine you would like to send multiple files (e.g., Microsoft Word documents or photos) to someone via email. In this article, we discuss the value of file compression, its uses for businesses and employees, and how to open zip files on mobile iOS devices. With so much data being generated and shared, institutions and individual users rely upon zip files and file compression to securely and quickly share information. A zettabyte is one sextillion bytes––1,000 bytes to the seventh power––and has 21 zeros. The World Economic Forum estimated the amount of global digital data to be 44 zettabytes. It can be difficult to comprehend the amount of digital data we generate via social media platforms, online marketplaces, medical facilities, and through government, education, and financial institutions.Īt the start of 2020, the number of digital bytes worldwide was 40 times the number of stars in our observable universe.

Can you open zip files on iphone