Phones make documents awkward. A PDF arrives on WhatsApp, a scan is needed for a form, an assignment has to go out as one file instead of nine photos, and each job seems to want a different app.
This guide walks through those jobs one at a time. Fold, the free Android app from Unique AppSites, handles all of them, so the steps below use it — but the explanations work whatever app is installed.
Free to install. The Play listing states that the app contains ads.
Fold: PDF Reader & Scanner
Unique AppSites, for Android
One app instead of four
Tap the PDF wherever it arrived — a chat, an email, or the Downloads folder — and choose a PDF reader to open it with. Android asks only the first time if you pick “always”.
The same way as a PDF: tap the file and pick an app that reads office formats. Fold opens DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX and TXT files alongside PDFs and images, so one app covers every attachment.
Use a scanning app rather than the plain camera: it captures each page and saves the set as one PDF, instead of leaving you with loose photos.
Pick the images and convert them into a single PDF. This is the usual fix when an assignment or form has to be submitted as one file but exists as a handful of photos.
Combine them in a PDF tool that runs on the phone itself, so the files never have to be uploaded to a website.
Split takes one PDF and produces several, which is how you send a single chapter instead of a book.
Compressing a PDF reduces its file size so it fits an upload limit or an email attachment. Scans are usually the biggest files, because every page is a photograph.
A document app with a file browser is faster than hunting through Downloads: it lists recent files and lets you search, rename and delete them in one place.
Documents already saved on your phone open without an internet connection, for basic reading and file management. Useful on a train, in an exam hall corridor, or whenever the data runs out.
From the Google Play listing, checked 8 Nov 2026.
The questions people ask first, answered from the Google Play listing as checked 8 Nov 2026. Features can change with app updates.
Yes. Fold is free to install from Google Play, and the listing states that the app contains ads.
Yes. The Google Play listing says the app contains ads. Unique AppSites doesn't claim the app is ad-free or that it shows fewer ads than any other app.
Documents already saved on your phone open without an internet connection, for basic reading and file management.
No. The Google Play listing says no account is needed.
Fold covers all three: reading PDFs and office files, scanning paper with the camera, and making, merging, splitting or compressing PDFs.
PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, TXT and image files, according to the Google Play listing.
No. Fold is currently listed for Android on Google Play only.
Check the Data safety section on the Google Play listing, which is written by the developer. That section, not this page, is the authoritative statement about how data is handled.
Read, scan, convert and organise documents on Android, without signing in to anything.
