How do I open an HTML file on Android, and how do I send one that opens?

A classmate emails a quiz made with ChatGPT. A friend drops a game from Claude into WhatsApp. You tap the .html file on your Android phone and get a screen of code, or a page whose buttons do nothing. This guide covers both ends: how to open a file you received so it runs, and, if you're the one sending, how to send a page that opens with one tap.

The quickest way on any Android phone: open Convika's free HTML viewer in Chrome, tap Choose an .html file, and pick the file from Downloads. Your browser reads the file, and it isn't uploaded. If someone sent you a file you weren't expecting, ask them first, and turn off Run scripts before you choose it.

Sending a page you made? The upload box at the top of this page turns your file into a preview link without an account. That preview runs no scripts, so a quiz or game won't respond there yet: it's for checking the layout on your own phone. Click Keep this page — free, no card and sign up, and the page moves into your account, where its scripts run and you can publish it.

What happens when you tap an .html file on Android

Android hands the file to an app, and the apps it offers depend on the phone. Google's Chrome help says only where downloads go: "To find all the files that you've downloaded to your device, open the Files app."

We tested it on October 21 and 22, 2026, on Android 16 in Google's Android Emulator (a Medium Phone device, API 36, Chrome 133). We saved a test page in Downloads and tapped it in the Files app. Android showed Open with, listing Chrome and HTML Viewer, with Just once and Always under them.

• HTML Viewer showed the text and the CSS written inside the file. It ran no JavaScript: a line the script should have rewritten stayed as it was, and the button did nothing. It loaded nothing from the web either. Tailwind from a CDN, a Google Fonts font, and an image from an https:// address all failed.
• Chrome ran the whole page: the script, the button, Tailwind, the web font, and the image. Its address bar showed an address starting with content://com.android.providers.downloads.documents/. That address points into your own phone, so nobody else can open it.

After the first open, the sheet named the app used last, Open with HTML Viewer, and offered Use a different app under it. We tested only the emulator's own Files app. Files by Google, Samsung's My Files, and other phone makers' file apps may list different apps, and we didn't test them or a physical phone.

An app that shows the code itself is reading the file as plain text, not as a page. Open it in Chrome instead.

Open an HTML file on Android in 4 steps

These steps open the file in Chrome, where its scripts run. Nothing is uploaded.

1. Save the file to your phone

In Gmail, open the email and tap Download on the attachment, as Gmail's Android help describes. In WhatsApp or another chat app, open the file and save it with that app's own button. We didn't test those apps, so the button's name may differ.

2. Open the Files app and tap the file

Open Files, go to Downloads, and tap the .html file. On some phones the app is Files by Google or the phone maker's own file app.

3. Choose Chrome, then Just once

In Open with, tap Chrome, then Just once. Always makes that app open every .html file without asking, so pick it only for Chrome. The page opens in Chrome with its scripts running.

4. If Chrome isn't in the list, use the HTML viewer

Open the HTML viewer in Chrome and tap Choose an .html file. In our emulator test, Android's file picker opened on Recent, which was empty: open the menu at the top left, choose Downloads, and tap the file. The page ran inside the viewer with its script, its web font, Tailwind, and its image. The viewer opens .html and .htm files up to 2 MB, and your browser reads them on the phone. Don't open a file you weren't expecting: ask the sender first, and turn off Run scripts before you choose it.

If the code came to you as text in a chat or an email, choose Paste code in the viewer instead, paste it, and tap Show the page.

Ways to open it, compared

Open a file sent by Gmail, WhatsApp, or Messenger

• Gmail. Gmail's Android help gives 3 steps: open the Gmail app, open the email, and tap Download. The same page warns about suspicious attachments, including one that "allows unverified scripts". If you weren't expecting the file, ask the sender before you open it. Then open it from Files with Chrome. To use the HTML viewer instead, turn off Run scripts before you choose a file you weren't expecting.
• WhatsApp. A file sent with WhatsApp's Document option arrives as a document of up to 2 GB, per WhatsApp's Android help. It's a file, not a page. Save it and open it with Chrome. How to send an HTML page on WhatsApp covers the sender's side.
• Instagram and Messenger. Instagram's help lists no files among what a chat can carry. If an .html file goes through on Messenger (Meta's help doesn't say), your phone picks the app that opens it, which may not run its scripts. How to send an HTML file on Instagram or Messenger explains both and what the sender can do instead.

Each of these is a workaround for the person who received the file. A link from the sender skips all of it: you tap it, and the page opens in your browser.

Why the page looks broken

• The app isn't a browser. In our emulator test, HTML Viewer ran no JavaScript and loaded nothing from the web. Buttons, scores, timers, and anything drawn by a script need Chrome or another browser.
• Files saved next to it didn't come along. Pages often keep styles in style.css, pictures in files like photo.png, and code in a .js file beside the .html file. Email and chat apps send only the one file. In our test on October 13, 2026, in Chromium, a page opened from its own folder loaded all 3 of those files; the same page copied alone to another folder loaded none of them. The HTML viewer lists such files under the page.
• The file is a page from a bigger site. A link to about.html points to another file you don't have, so it goes nowhere.

The sender can fix the last 2. Ask the AI that made the page to put all the CSS and JavaScript inside one HTML file and to use full https:// links for images.

Send a link instead

If you're the sender, a link saves the other person every step above. They tap it in Gmail, WhatsApp, or Messenger, the phone's browser opens the page, and its buttons work. You send one address, and everyone sees the same page, on Android or on an iPhone.

With Convika:

1. Drop your file into the upload box at the top of this page, or paste the code, and click Get my preview link. You get a link in seconds, without an account. It works for 3 minutes, with scripts and forms off, so it's for checking your page, not for sending.
2. Click Keep this page — free, no card and sign up. The page moves into your account, and its scripts run in the dashboard preview.
3. Click Publish. The first time, Convika asks 2 things. Under Who can open this page?, choose Public, the free choice, and click Next. Then pick a plan. Pro monthly is marked Recommended ($12 a month, after a free 7-day trial with a card), and the Pro 1-year pass is $29 with no renewal; both remove the Convika bar, and a paid pick goes live once it's paid. To stay free, pick Free ($0, with a small Convika bar at the bottom), then Publish free.
4. Copy the page's address, such as yourpage.convika.page, and paste it into the chat or the email instead of the file.

On Free, the page is published as Public: anyone with the link can open it, and it may show up in search results and in Convika's gallery. Private link (Pro or pass) keeps it out of both, and anyone with the link can still open it. A password is a Pro feature: see How to password protect an HTML page.

The Free plan gives you 1 published page and 10,000 page views a month, and the dashboard shows how many people opened the page and from where, never who. Publish a second page and Convika asks you to choose: Pro ($12 a month, after a free 7-day trial with a card), or Swap it in for the live page (free), which turns the live page back into a draft whose link stops opening. Nothing is deleted. That rule is for workspaces created on or after October 23, 2026, Japan time; older workspaces keep the plan they signed up for.

To put the page on a classroom screen or a printed sheet, How to turn an HTML file into a QR code covers the code people scan. For the same problem on Apple phones, read How to open an HTML file on iPhone. If the page came from Claude and its own share link asks people to sign in, Claude artifact won't publish or share? goes through the causes.

Frequently asked questions

How to open an html file on Android?

Tap the file in the Files app, choose Chrome in Open with, then Just once. In our Android 16 emulator test, Chrome ran the page's scripts, web fonts, and images. If Chrome isn't offered, open Convika's free HTML viewer in Chrome and tap Choose an .html file. If someone sent you a file you weren't expecting, ask them first, and turn off Run scripts before you choose it.

Why does my html file show code on Android?

The app that opened it read the file as plain text instead of running it as a page. A browser is what turns HTML into a page. Open the file again from the Files app and choose Chrome, or paste the code into Paste code in an HTML viewer and tap Show the page. If the sender can give you a link instead, that opens straight in your browser.

Can I open html files in Chrome on Android?

Yes. Tap the file in the Files app and choose Chrome when Android asks which app to use. In our Android 16 emulator test with Chrome 133, the page ran with its JavaScript, Tailwind, a Google Fonts font, and an image from the web. The address starts with content://, which points into your phone, so you can't send it to anyone else.

How do I save an html file on my Android phone?

In Gmail, open the email and tap Download on the attachment, as Gmail's Android help describes. In Chrome, touch and hold a download link and tap Download link, per Chrome's help. Chrome's help says to open the Files app to find the files you've downloaded. In a chat app, save the file with that app's own button.

How do I send an html file so it opens on a phone?

Send a link to the page instead of the file. Put the file on a host that runs its scripts, then paste the address into the chat or the email. With Convika, the upload box makes a preview link without an account, with scripts off, so you can check the layout. Keep the page on the Free plan and publish it, and the link opens in any phone's browser with its buttons working.

Sources

• Download a file, Android phone & tablet (Google Chrome Help) (checked October 22, 2026)
• Open & download attachments in Gmail, Android phone & tablet (Gmail Help) (checked October 22, 2026)
• How to send media, contacts, or location, Android (WhatsApp Help Center) (checked October 22, 2026)