The offline version of Wikipedia on your phone
Nowadays, it's almost inconceivable to not have a mobile signal but there are occasions, like when we're traveling by plane, in which we can't access the Internet. But if we simply want to make a quick query on our favorite online encyclopedia, we can fix this problem thanks to Kiwix, the Android app that grants us access to an offline version of Wikipedia, as well as other reference websites such as Wiktionary or TED Talks.
Access Wikipedia even without an Internet connection.
It's an open-source software project created by Emmanuel Engelhart and Renaud Gaudin back in 2006 and that, after being available on different platforms such as Windows, GNU/Linux or MacOS, has now landed on Android in APK format so that we can read the encyclopedia par excellence under any circumstances.
How Kiwix works
It basically works like a web browser, but instead of accessing online contents we'll access the ZIM files that we've downloaded previously and with which we can read the Wikipedia as if we were viewing it on Chrome or Firefox. However, how much does a downloaded version of Wikipedia weigh? Well, downloading the encyclopedia in just one language and without videos takes up about 80GB so you're going to need plenty of space on your SD card if you want to get hold of a local copy of the full reference book. By the way, it's available in over 100 languages.
Requirements and additional information:
- Minimum operating system requirements: Android 4.0.
- Instructions to install XAPKs on Android
Antony Peel
A Telecommunications Engineer, chance led me to the translation industry, where after a few years, I discovered another side of the world of technology while translating what others were writing about mobile applications and software. That...