A modern audiobookshelf client with a card-based player experience.
- Card-based player — full-screen "Absorbing" cards replace the traditional player screen
- Audiobookshelf integration — connects to your self-hosted audiobookshelf server
- Offline playback — download books for listening without a connection
- Podcast support — chaptered podcasts with rich HTML descriptions
- Backup & restore — export all settings to a
.absorbfile and import on any device, with optional account credentials for seamless device migration - Multi-account — sign into multiple servers and switch between them
- Sleep timer with visual fill bar countdown, auto-sleep scheduling, and shake-to-reset
- Playback speed control with fine-grained slider and per-book speed memory
- Auto-rewind — configurable rewind after pausing based on how long you were away
- Equalizer — built-in audio EQ with bands and presets
- Bookmarks — save and jump to moments in any book
- Chapter navigation with dual progress bars (book + chapter)
- Search & filtering — full-text search, filter by progress/genre/series, multiple sort modes
- Audible ratings — see star ratings from Audible on your books
- Auto-play next — automatically continue to the next book in a series or next podcast episode
- Android Auto — browse and listen from your car
- Chromecast — cast playback to Google Cast devices
- Material You theming with dynamic color support
- Custom headers — add custom HTTP headers for reverse proxy setups
- OIDC/SSO login — OpenID Connect support alongside standard auth
- Server admin — manage users, backups, and podcasts from the app
- Listening stats — track your listening history
GitHub Pre-Releases (Alpha) - Frequent updates with new features and bug fixes. In Obtainium you can toggle pre-releases on or off.
GitHub Full Releases (Beta/Stable) - Once a pre-release is solid, it gets promoted to a full release. These match what's pushed to Google Play and TestFlight.
Internal testing matches GitHub pre-releases. Open testing and production releases match GitHub full releases. Once open testing is approved, more users will be accepted into the internal testing group for alpha builds. Join the Discord to request access.
Public TestFlight matches GitHub full releases. Join the TestFlight. Core functionality works, but some features are still Android-only or in progress.
Absorb supports Android Auto for browsing and listening from your car. To use it, you'll need to enable unknown sources in Android Auto:
- Open Android Auto settings on your phone
- Tap Version at the bottom repeatedly to enable Developer mode
- Tap the three-dot menu (top right) and select Developer settings
- Enable Unknown sources
This is required because Absorb is not distributed through Google Play's production track.
If any of these aren't working as expected, please open an issue.
- Library browsing, search, filtering, sorting
- Streaming and offline playback
- Downloads (app sandbox storage)
- Podcast support
- Sleep timer, bookmarks, chapter navigation - Shake to add or reset wil be fixed soon
- Playback speed with per-book memory
- Auto-rewind after pause
- Bluetooth media controls (play/pause, skip, rewind)
- Background audio
- Lock screen / Control Center controls
- Multi-account and server switching
- Backup & restore
- Dynamic theming
- OIDC/SSO login
- Custom headers
- Listening stats
- Auto-pause on Bluetooth disconnect
- Equalizer
- Chromecast
- CarPlay (Android Auto equivalent)
- Home screen / Lock Screen widgets
- Audio output device switcher
- Custom download location (iOS sandbox only)
- An audiobookshelf server (self-hosted)
- Android 7.0+ / iOS 16+