What is a 3GP file? Named after its creator, The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), 3GP is a video file format supported in 3G enabled devices. It contains video streams of H. 263 or H. 264 codec and AMR or AAC based audio streams, which are perfect for lossy compression of video data.

Although there may be some limitations, most mobile devices are almost always able to natively play 3GP/3G2 files. If you do want a separate mobile app for playing 3GP files, OPlayer is one option for iOS, and Android users can try MX Player or Simple MP4 Video Player (it works despite its name).

3GP is a video container tailored for mobile devices. Use this format if you're aiming to save storage space on mobile or send videos via messaging apps. Given its lower quality and smaller resolution, it's not recommended for professional use. However, it's great for sharing multimedia between devices.

The 3GP file format stores video streams as MPEG-4 Part 2, H. 263, or MPEG-4 Part 10 (AVC/H. 264), and audio streams as AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AMR-WB+, AAC-LC, HE-AAC v1 or Enhanced aacPlus (HE-AAC v2).