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Is it truly impossible?

No fs access has been one of the things stopping me becoming an iOS user, I thought it'd make some things harder, but I didn't realise something so regular seeming (as in I don't have to be a tech nerd to want to open a .zip) would not be possible.

You can save downloads to the Files app, which then has folders for all the storage apps you have installed, like dropbox or icloud or whatever. You can also save to the device local storage, but for some reason only in folders created by other apps.

iOS 13 allows you to store any file on your iPhone and unzip/zip it, without a certain application.

It is of course not impossible, there are unzip apps for iPhone. It’s just a hassle.

Normal people typically don’t want to open zip files on an iPhone and Apple isn’t in the ‘can open any file’ market. They expect others to provide files their devices do open and mostly that strategy works.

Maybe install an app that lets you open zip files?

Save it to Files, tap ‘preview content’ then swipe over to the second document.