ABS Down
Paste, pick, done.
The Android downloader that just works — video up to 4K, audio as MP3, Instagram reels and entire playlists, from 1,800+ sites. Free, ad-free, no account.
ABS Down for Android
One APK · runs on every phoneA single file that installs on any Android phone — 64-bit and 32-bit alike. No versions to choose between; just download and install.
- Every phone from 2014 onwards — new and old
- Android 7.0 (2016) and up
- Nothing to pick — the right engine is chosen automatically
- Signed & open source — verify the checksum below
Not live yet. The build is finished and signed — it's being uploaded to the download server. The checksum below is already final, so you can verify the file the moment the link opens.
Before you install
Updating from an older version? Install the new APK over the old one — your history and settings are kept. Don't uninstall first, or you'll lose your download history.
Every screen you'll see, in order
Android warns you before installing anything that didn't come from the Play Store. That warning appears for every app installed this way — it means “Google hasn't checked this file”, not “something harmful was found”. Here is the whole flow, about two minutes. Wording differs slightly between phone brands (Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme…), but the order of the screens is always the same.
Illustrations of the real Android dialogs
Download the APK
Tap the download button on this site. Chrome will warn you that “this type of file can harm your device” — this appears for every APK ever downloaded in a browser, regardless of what it is.
Open the file — Android blocks it once
Tap the download notification, or open Files → Downloads and tap
ABS-Down.apk. The first time, Android stops and says the app you're
installing from isn't allowed to install unknown apps.
Turn on “Allow from this source”
Android opens the Install unknown apps screen for whichever app you tapped the file from — Chrome, Files, Drive or your file manager. Flip the single switch on, then press Back.
You are giving that one app permission to install things — not giving ABS Down any power. You only do it once, and you can switch it back off afterwards.
Tap Install
You come straight back to the installer, now showing the ABS Down name and icon. Tap Install and give it a few seconds — the file is about 106 MB, so it isn't instant.
Play Protect: “More details” → “Install anyway”
Google Play Protect may step in with “Unsafe app blocked” or “app isn't recognised”. Read what it actually says: Play Protect doesn't recognise the developer. That is a statement about reputation on the Play Store — no malware was found.
The dialog hides the install option by default. Tap More details first, and only then does Install anyway appear.
Some phones instead offer “Send app for scanning”. You can let it scan — it costs a few seconds and changes nothing about the app.
Open it and allow notifications
Tap Open. On the first launch ABS Down asks for notification permission — that's what powers the live progress bar and the tap-to-open download notification. Allow it.
The first launch also unpacks the bundled engine, so give it a moment before the first download. After that, sharing a link into the app is instant.
Check the file is the real one
A SHA-256 checksum is a fingerprint of a file's contents — change one byte and it changes completely. Each download above prints the fingerprint of the published file.
sha256sum <file>.apkcertutil -hashfile <file>.apk SHA256shasum -a 256 <file>.apkTurning the setting back off: after installing, you can go to Settings → Apps → Special app access → Install unknown apps and switch Chrome (or Files) back off. ABS Down keeps working — the permission was only needed for the install itself.
Common install problems
“App not installed” at the end
Almost always one of three things: not enough free storage (the app needs roughly 400 MB during setup), an older copy signed with a different key still installed (uninstall it first), or an incomplete download — download the APK again and check the size is about 110 MB.
There's no “Install anyway” button
It's hidden behind More details on the Play Protect dialog. Tap that first. On some Xiaomi/MIUI phones you also have to turn off Settings → Privacy protection → Special permissions → Install via USB / MIUI optimisation style toggles first.
My phone says the app is “harmful” and removes it
A few OEM security suites (Xiaomi's, Samsung's Device Care) auto-remove unrecognised sideloaded apps. Add ABS Down to that scanner's allow-list, or disable “scan apps” for the install, then reinstall. If you'd rather not, verify the checksum first so you know the file is the published one.
Chrome won't let me download it at all
Tap the blocked-download notification and choose Download anyway, or long-press the download button and use Download link. As a fallback, download it on a computer and copy the APK across.
The app installs but every download fails
Open it once while connected to the internet — the yt-dlp engine updates itself in the background at launch. Also check free storage: the engine unpacks itself on first run, and an interrupted unpack used to break downloads (fixed in v0.1.6, which repairs it automatically).
Three taps, start to finish
No sign-up, no account, no upload queue. Everything happens on your phone.
Share or paste the link
Hit Share → ABS Down inside YouTube, Instagram or your browser — or paste in the app; the clipboard is detected for you.
Pick video or audio
A compact sheet floats over the app you were in. Choose quality up to 4K, or an audio format and bitrate. The Download button is always in reach.
Watch it land
A live bar with percent, ETA and Cancel appears on the home screen. Finished files go to the ABS Down folder — visible in your gallery and music app.
Pretty much anything you can watch
One app instead of five sketchy websites. Here's the actual list.
- Videos up to 4K2160p, 1440p, 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p — or Best to always take the highest the site offers.
- Music as MP3Or M4A, OPUS, FLAC and WAV, at 64 to 320 kbps, with cover art and artist tags embedded.
-
Whole playlists & channelsEvery item, auto-numbered
001 - title, each saved the moment it finishes. - Instagram reels & postsSign in with your own account inside the app and save anything you can already see.
- Shorts, TikToks and status videosShort-form clips from every supported platform, at full quality rather than a screen recording.
- Live streams and Twitch VODsRecorded streams and past broadcasts, wherever the platform still serves them.
-
Just a clip, not the whole videoTrim on the way in — set Start
0:30and End1:45and only that part is saved. - Subtitles in any languageDownload or embed them, auto-captions included, as SRT, VTT or ASS.
- Thumbnails and cover artEmbed the cover inside the file, and optionally save it as a separate image too.
- Videos without the sponsor bitsSponsorBlock can mark sponsor, intro and outro segments — or cut them out of the file entirely.
What it can't do, on purpose: DRM-protected services — Netflix, Spotify Premium, Hotstar VIP, Prime Video. ABS Down does not circumvent DRM, and never will.
The parts other downloaders get wrong
Powered by yt-dlp with ffmpeg conversion and aria2 multi-connection speed — all bundled, nothing to install separately.
Resumable and kill-proof
Close the app halfway through a 40-song playlist and reopen it — finished items are skipped and the half-done one continues. Nothing restarts from zero.
The engine updates itself
YouTube changes its player constantly. ABS Down refreshes yt-dlp in the background on launch and retries a failed download once with the newest build — you never touch a thing.
History that's actually useful
Real thumbnails and the saved file name — never a raw link. Tap one to play it. Search it, retry a failure right on the row, and see the real error text when something breaks.
Live progress, not a spinner
Percent, ETA and a Cancel button that works, right on the home screen. Tap the download notification and you land straight on it.
Saves to the SD card
Pick a card folder once and everything lands there. Card unplugged? It falls back to internal storage instead of failing — a download is never lost.
Quick Download sheet
From the share sheet a compact charcoal panel opens over the source app. Everything fits one screen — no scrolling to find the Download button.
Pure black, no clutter
An AMOLED-dark Material You interface that shows what's happening instead of hiding it.
Home — paste, tap, and watch the live bar with speed, ETA and Cancel.
Quick Download — the share-sheet panel, floating over the app you shared from.
History — real thumbnails and file names. Tap one to play it in your usual app.
Interface illustrations — the real app looks like this in pure AMOLED black
Nothing leaves your phone
No account, no analytics, no telemetry, no ads. Your links, your history and your Instagram cookies stay on the device — the app has no backend to send them to. It talks to the sites you download from, and nobody else.
If yt-dlp can read it, ABS Down can save it
A few of the most-used ones. The engine updates itself, so support keeps working as sites change.
What each choice in the app does
When you paste or share a link and tap Download, a panel appears. Here is what everything in it means — no jargon.
en, hi. Leave blank for no subtitles.
0:30, End 1:45. Leave both blank for the whole thing.
001 - title, so they stay in order.
Saving to the SD card
Go to Settings → Download location → Choose SD card folder and pick a folder once. From then on every download — in-app and from the share sheet — lands in an ABS Down subfolder there, and the choice survives restarts.
The folder is checked as writable the moment you pick it, so a bad choice is caught immediately rather than at download time. If the card is ever unplugged or permission is revoked, the download falls back to internal storage instead of failing — you never lose a file. Use internal storage switches back at any time.
Downloading Instagram reels and posts
Instagram requires a session for most content. ABS Down has an in-app sign-in that uses your own account; the cookies stay on your device and are never uploaded anywhere. Once signed in you can save the reels and posts you can already see. Age-restricted or login-required content is handled with a clear message rather than a cryptic failure.
Progress, History and retries
Every running download shows its title, a real percent bar, an ETA and a working Cancel button on the home screen; tapping the download notification takes you straight there. Finished downloads appear in History with the saved file name and a real thumbnail — a frame from videos, the embedded cover art for audio — plus a small Video or Audio tag. Tap a thumbnail to play the file in your usual player.
If something failed, History shows the actual error text, and the retry button re-downloads in that same row: the progress bar appears there, the button becomes Cancel, and the row updates in place when it finishes — no duplicate entries.
If a download fails
- Wait and retry. YouTube changes its player often. The app refreshes the yt-dlp engine in the background on launch and retries a failed YouTube download once with the newest build, so most failures fix themselves.
- Be online at launch. The engine update check only runs when you have internet.
- Check free storage. The engine unpacks itself into app storage; if that unpack is interrupted, the app now detects it on startup and re-extracts automatically — but it still needs the space.
- Sign in for Instagram. Reels and posts that need a session will fail until you sign in inside the app.
- DRM content will never work. Netflix, Spotify Premium and Hotstar VIP are deliberately out of scope.
Still stuck? The install page covers the common problems, including failed downloads and engine errors.
Get ABS Down
Version 0.1.9, about 106 MB, Android 7.0 and up. Free, ad-free and yours to keep.
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