How to open a .skill file on Android

Open a .skill file on Android, step by step

1. Find the file. Google says files you download in Chrome are in the Files app; in Chrome, More > Downloads lists them too. In the Claude app, Download opens the file in the system preview or in another app, so save it to your phone from there.
2. Open the viewer at aiskillpod.com/skill-file-viewer in Chrome.
3. Tap Choose a file and pick the .skill file.
4. Read it. You see the name, the description, the instructions and the list of files. Tap any text file in the list to read it, such as a script or a reference sheet.
5. Copy or keep it. Copy SKILL.md puts the instructions on the clipboard. Keep it and share it with your team saves them to AI Skill Pod, and that button is the only thing on the page that sends anything.

Why Files by Google may not open it

Google's help for Files by Google is short on this: "Only .zip files are supported." Anthropic's skill-creator writes a .skill file as a ZIP of the skill's folder, named after the folder, such as intake-notes.skill. The contents are a ZIP; the name isn't. We haven't tried a .skill file in Files by Google, so this page doesn't promise what it does with one. The viewer reads the ZIP inside whatever the file is called, so there's nothing to rename on the phone.

If it came by email, Slack or WhatsApp

Save the attachment to your phone first, then pick it in the viewer. Before you install a skill someone else wrote, read all of it: Anthropic's docs say to use skills only from sources you trust and to check every bundled file, scripts included, for network calls, file access or anything that doesn't match what the skill says it does. On a phone, the viewer's file list is the quickest place to do that.

Install it in Claude afterwards

Anthropic's help describes the upload in Customize > Skills, then +, + Create skill and Upload a skill, and Customize is on claude.ai and in the desktop app. The help doesn't mention the Android app, so do it on a computer. Claude's help asks for a ZIP of the skill folder and doesn't mention .skill; if the picker won't take the file, rename it to end in .zip, since that's what it is inside. The steps for each computer are in how to open a .skill file on Windows and on a Mac.

A worked example: checking a skill before a client call

Illustration: a made-up business. Omar is a physiotherapist with a small clinic. A colleague sent him intake-notes.skill on WhatsApp, saying it turns a voice note into the clinic's intake form. On his Android phone he opened the viewer in Chrome and picked the file:

Files in this skill
intake-notes/SKILL.md
intake-notes/scripts/upload_to_drive.py

---
name: intake-notes
description: Turns a spoken or typed intake note into the clinic's
  intake form. Use when a therapist pastes notes from a first visit.
---

The script's name didn't match what he'd been told, so he tapped it and read it: it sent the finished form to a Google Drive folder. Patient notes leaving through a script was a question for the clinic's owner, so he asked before anyone installed it.

Next step: share the skill, not the file

Each attachment is one person's copy. When the author fixes the skill, everyone who installed the old file keeps the old version. How to send a skill file to a coworker compares email, Slack and Teams, and the link that replaces the file: in AI Skill Pod the skill sits in one pod, and each person reaches it from their own Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT (Pro, Business, Enterprise). Free covers up to 3 members and 10 skills.

Questions

How do I open a .skill file on Android?

Open the free .skill file viewer in Chrome, tap Choose a file and pick the .skill file. The page shows the skill's instructions and every file in it. Nothing is uploaded.

Why might Files by Google not open my .skill file?

Google's help says Files by Google unzips only .zip files. A .skill file is a ZIP inside, but its name ends in .skill, so read it in the viewer, which doesn't care about the ending.

Where are files I downloaded in Chrome on Android?

Google says to open the Files app to find them. In Chrome, More > Downloads lists them too, with Share, Delete and Rename.

Can I install a .skill file in the Claude app on Android?

Anthropic's help describes uploading skills in Customize > Skills, which is on claude.ai and in the desktop app, and doesn't mention the mobile apps. Upload it from a computer.