How to open .WEBM files (WebM videos) on Android, Windows and Linux

WebM files tend to turn up by accident. You record your screen with a browser-based tool, save a clip from a website, or download a meeting recording, and the file ends in .webm. It plays in the browser, but your phone’s gallery ignores it and Windows’ player might complain.

WebM is an open, well-supported format; it just lives mostly on the web. Folders’ video player, built on mpv, opens .webm files on Android, Windows and Linux, for free and offline.

What is a .WEBM file?

WebM is a royalty-free video format that Google launched in 2010 for HTML5 video. Technically it’s a cut-down version of Matroska, the format behind MKV, limited to a few open codecs:

• Video: VP8, VP9 or AV1.
• Audio: Vorbis or Opus.
• Subtitles: WebVTT text.

Because nobody has to pay to use it, browsers and websites adopted it widely. You’ll meet WebM in:

• recordings made in a browser, such as screen recorders and online meeting tools, which save WebM because browsers record it natively;
• videos saved from websites, including some video-hosting sites that stream VP9 or AV1;
• short clips and animated stickers in chat apps (Telegram’s video stickers are WebM);
• exports from open-source tools that prefer open codecs.

A WebM with only sound is often named .weba instead.

How to open a .WEBM file with Folders

On Android

1. Download Folders from the download page, install it and allow file access.
2. Go to where the WebM was saved, usually Download, or search for its name.
3. Tap the file and it plays in Folders’ video player.
4. If the WebM is in another app, use Open with → Folders from that app’s share or open menu.

On Windows and Linux

1. Install Folders and open the folder containing the WebM.
2. Double-click the file.
3. On Windows, the right-click Open with menu in File Explorer lists Folders for WebM files once it’s installed.

What you can do with it in Folders

• Play, pause and seek, with resume: Folders remembers where you stopped, and the Video player library in the Toolbox lists the WebMs you haven’t watched yet.
• Speed control, useful for long meeting recordings. Play at a faster speed to get through them quicker.
• Subtitles: a WebVTT track inside the file, or a .vtt or .srt file with the same name beside it, loads in the subtitle menu. Search online… can find subtitles for films and series, and you can set the delay, size and colour.
• Zoom in on part of the picture: pinch on a phone, Ctrl + mouse wheel on a computer. Handy for reading small text in a screen recording.
• Audio track and audio delay, if a recording’s sound runs ahead of the picture.
• Picture in picture on Android (a small always-on-top window on a computer), so a recording keeps playing while you take notes.
• HW, HW+ (Android only) and SW decoding, worth switching if an AV1 or VP9 file stutters.

Folders plays WebM files but doesn’t edit, trim or convert them.

Other ways to open .WEBM files

• Your web browser: Chrome, Firefox and Edge all play WebM; drag the file into a tab.
• VLC: free, on Windows, Linux and Android.
• Windows’ Media Player, which plays WebM using Microsoft’s VP9 and Web Media extensions from the Store; these are often already installed.

Problems opening a .WEBM file?

• No length shown, and seeking jumps around. This is the classic browser-recording problem. Browsers write WebM live, so the file often has no duration or seek index. The video is fine; it just can’t be navigated well. Rewriting it fixes that without touching the quality: ffmpeg -i recording.webm -c copy fixed.webm, or remux it in MKVToolNix.
• It stutters on an older phone. AV1 especially is heavy to decode, and only recent chips decode it in hardware. Try SW or HW in the player’s decoder menu; if it’s still choppy, the device may simply be too slow for that file.
• The recording stops early. If the browser tab or app crashed, the file may end abruptly. What’s there will usually play; what wasn’t written is gone.
• A transparent background shows as black. WebM can store transparency (used for stickers and overlays), but most video players ignore it and show a plain background.

Questions people ask

Can I open a WebM file on Android? Yes. Some built-in gallery apps skip it, but Folders plays WebM files directly on Android.

How do I convert WebM to MP4? Use HandBrake or ffmpeg, both free. Folders doesn’t convert video. Note that converting VP9 or AV1 to H.264 re-encodes the picture, so keep the original.

Is WebM better than MP4? Neither is simply better. WebM is open and royalty-free and common on the web; MP4 works on more devices and in more editing software. See how to open MP4 files.

Is a .webm file safe? Yes, it’s video data. As with any download, be wary of a file whose real name ends in .exe.

Got a WebM audio file? See how to open MKA and WEBA files, or browse all 382 file types Folders opens.