Absorb

A modern audiobookshelf client with a card-based player experience.

A note on AI: Absorb is developed by a human with AI assistance (mostly Claude Code) helping write, refactor, and review code. It's not "vibe coded" or auto-generated, every change is reviewed, tested, and shipped intentionally. That said, I'm all in on AI as a development tool. It massively speeds up the work and lets a solo developer ship features and fixes at a pace that wouldn't be possible otherwise. I'm sharing this openly so you know what's behind the app.

Screenshots

   

 

Features

• 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 .absorb file 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 & Apple CarPlay — browse and listen from your car
• Chromecast — cast playback to Google Cast devices (Android only)
• 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
• Audnexus metadata — enriched book covers, descriptions, and series info
• Find missing future books — discovers upcoming books in a series via Audible's catalog, so you know what's coming next
• Notes — per book or episode
• Playlists & collections — create, manage, and play from custom groupings
• Recently played — quick access to your listening history
• Real-time sync — progress, library changes, and series updates via socket.io
• Homescreen widgets — now-playing widget on Android and iOS
• Car mode — large-button driving UI for use without Android Auto
• Localization — community translations via Crowdin

Translations

Absorb is translated by the community on Crowdin. Want your language added or improved? Jump in, no coding needed.

Install

Release Tracks

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 the App Store.

Google Play

Open testing is live - join the open beta on Google Play. Open testing and production releases match GitHub full releases. Internal testing (alpha) matches GitHub pre-releases - join the Discord to request access to the internal track.

App Store

Live on the App Store. App Store releases match GitHub full releases. Some features are still Android-only or in progress, see iOS section below.

iOS TestFlight (Alpha)

TestFlight is the iOS alpha track, matching GitHub pre-releases. Builds are more frequent and less polished than the App Store version. Join the TestFlight. If you want stable builds, use the App Store instead.

iOS Alpha (Sideload)

Alpha .ipa files are included in GitHub pre-releases alongside the Android APK. If you know how to sideload IPAs (via AltStore, Sideloadly, etc.), you can grab the latest alpha build from the releases page. For most users, TestFlight is easier - automatic updates and no sideloading setup.

Android Auto

Absorb supports Android Auto for browsing and listening from your car. If you are using the github version, you'll need to enable unknown sources in Android Auto:

1. Open Android Auto settings on your phone
2. Tap Version at the bottom repeatedly to enable Developer mode
3. Tap the three-dot menu (top right) and select Developer settings
4. Enable Unknown sources

This is required because Absorb from Github is not distributed through Google Play's production track.

Requirements

• An audiobookshelf server (self-hosted)
• Android 7.0+ / iOS 16+

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Nathan Poulson

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.