It took Apple nearly a decade to bring proper file management to the iPhone and iPad with the arrival of the Files app in iOS 11. Over the same period of time, an enterprising third-party developer based in Odessa, Ukraine was busy refining its own file manager app, which outshines Apple's in almost every conceivable way.

Documents 7 is the latest incarnation of the versatile iOS utility that started as clever web app ReaddleDocs, named for the up-and-coming startup who created it. The mobile equivalent of macOS Finder, this jack-of-all-trades allows iPhone and iPad owners to browse, view, and manage files with ease, all from an intuitive user interface that puts Apple's own Files to shame.

Readdle

Documents 7 brings the Plus button to iPhone, making it easier for users to create and import files from almost anywhere.

Although there was little to dislike about the look and feel of prior releases, Documents 7 adds a fresh coat of paint inspired by the company's recent PDF Expert 7, a robust tool for document editing and annotation. The result is a refined UI that makes viewing and organizing files a more organic experience, with support for iOS 13's new Dark Mode and floating keyboard. iPad users can also now open more than one Documents window at a time, great for side-by-side comparison or to drag and drop content between them.

Making its way from iPad to iPhone is the Plus button, a convenient one-tap popup in the lower right corner which speeds up creation of new folders, text and PDF files, scanning new documents, or importing existing files from iCloud Drive, Photos, cloud storage providers, or network-attached sources. Naturally, there's also integration with the built-in Files app for seamlessly accessing content stored there, as well as opening files saved in existing Locations within Documents 7.