Comparison

File Viewer vs Boatlink

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

File Viewer

Easily open and view over 100 different file types, including documents, images, videos, and archives. Browse files stored on your device or in iCloud Drive. This app also identifies unknown files and displays detailed file information.

Highlights
  • Open 100+ file types
  • Browse device and iCloud Drive
  • Built-in readers for Office, PDF, and images
  • Extract compressed archives
  • Identify unknown files
  • View file information and metadata
Features
Read full description

File Viewer is an easy-to-use file viewer opens over 100 file types, including PDFs, Office documents, images, videos, audio, and compressed archives. Browse and view files on your device or iCloud Drive with ease. Key Features - Open 100+ file types with a single app - Browse files on your device and iCloud Drive - Bookmark favorite locations including iCloud and device storage - View documents with the built-in DOCX reader, DOC reader, PDF viewer, PPTX viewer, PPT viewer, and CSV viewer - Extract compressed archives with the Zip file extractor and Tar Gzip extractor - Identify unknown files with the built-in file identification technology - Show file information including properties and hidden metadata Supported File Types - Documents: PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, PAGES - Spreadsheets: XLS, XLSX, NUMBERS - Presentations: PPT, PPTX, PPSX, KEY - Images: JPEG, PNG, AVIF, JXL, HEIC, PSD, SVG - Videos: MP4, MOV, AVI, 3G2, M4V - Audio: M4A, MP3, WAV, AIF, AC3 - Archives: ZIP, GZ, TAR, TGZ - Camera Raw: ARW, CR2, CR3, DNG, NEF - Source Code & Web: HTML, C++, Java, Python, JSON, XML - And many more! File Viewer is brought to you by https://fileinfo.com - a trusted source for file format information.

About

Boatlink

Facilitates hands-free communication among crew members on a boat, even in noisy environments. It creates a private, local network that requires no internet or phone signal, ensuring secure and reliable communication.

Highlights
  • Hands-free crew communication
  • No internet or phone signal required
  • Local network creation
  • Encrypted communication
  • Individual volume control
  • Direct ringing feature
Features
Read full description

A boat is a loud place. The engine is running, the wind takes your voice away, and the person you need is at the other end of the deck with a line in both hands. Boatlink puts the crew on one line. Every phone and tablet aboard talks to every other one, hands-free, so "ready on the bow" is heard at the helm in a normal voice. It needs no internet and no phone signal. On a boat with wifi, the router carries it. With no router, one person turns on Personal Hotspot in iOS Settings and the crew join that. Boatlink cannot switch a hotspot on for you — iOS does not let any app do that — so somebody has to do it by hand. GETTING ABOARD One person hosts. Their screen shows a QR code; everyone else points a camera at it and they are on. If a camera will not do the job — rain, dark, glare, a cracked screen — the host reads out a four-letter code instead, and the crew type that in with the boat's address. TALKING Open mic by default: speak and the crew hears you. Or switch to VOX, which opens the line when you start talking and closes it when you stop. Mute is one large control, sized to be hit with a glove on and found without looking. If someone is not answering, ring them. Their phone chimes, vibrates and flashes its camera light. They answer or they decline. LEVELS The ICS panel gives you a level for each person on the line, plus a master. Every level is yours alone. Turning the foredeck down on your phone changes nothing for anybody else, and the person you turned down is never told. MUSIC Everyone plays music in their own app. Boatlink can show the crew what you have on, as text, so they can put the same thing on. Boatlink plays no audio itself, and it cannot read your music app — you type the track in. PRIVACY Nothing leaves the boat. No account, no sign-up, no server, no analytics, no tracking, no ads. Traffic between phones is encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a key derived from the boat's own code, so a phone in the next berth can neither join the line nor read what is on it. IF THE HOST GOES DOWN If the phone that is hosting runs its battery flat or goes over the side, the rest of the crew re-form around another phone in about three seconds. Nobody types anything in again. WHAT IT NEEDS Two devices, at least. One phone on its own shows an empty "find the boat" screen, because there is no boat to find. All devices on the same network — the boat's wifi, or a Personal Hotspot somebody has turned on. Permission to use the local network, which iOS asks for the first time you host or join. WHAT IT DOES NOT DO YET It does not relay from phone to phone. If there is no router and no hotspot, there is no line. It does not reach anyone who is ashore or otherwise off the boat's network. Ringing does not wake a locked phone the way an incoming call does. It has no alarms of any kind. Man overboard, anchor watch and alarm handling belong to the full Sea Glass Cockpit product, not to this app. There is no chat, and no music service is connected to it. Boatlink is free, and it stays free.

Screenshots

File Viewer4 screens
Boatlink4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Boatlink at 100% against File Viewer's 38%. Boatlink also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.4) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 6 months). File Viewer's advantage is ratings volume (5 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Boatlink holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: File Viewer has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of File Viewer's written reviews are positive against 100% of Boatlink's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

File Viewer ships an update every 6 months, Boatlink fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
File Viewer versus Boatlink: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFile ViewerBoatlink
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.4 (5 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews37.8% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.5 — better
Further details — not scored
Size20 MB42 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSharpened ProductionsRobert wood

Customer experience

File Viewer

All ratings5 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative40.0%
Written reviews90 reviews
Positive37.8%
Neutral6.7%
Negative55.6%

Boatlink

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

File Viewer

No in-app purchases

None

Boatlink

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is File Viewer free?
File Viewer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Boatlink free?
Boatlink is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, File Viewer or Boatlink?
Boatlink is rated higher. File Viewer averages 3.4 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while Boatlink averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do File Viewer or Boatlink have ads?
Neither File Viewer nor Boatlink shows ads.
Which is updated more often, File Viewer or Boatlink?
File Viewer ships an update every 6 months, and Boatlink fortnightly. Most recently, File Viewer was updated on October 7, 2026 and Boatlink on September 30, 2026.

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