The latest articles on DEV Community by Asadullah Hil Galib (@asadullah_hilgalib_3ae00). https://dev.to/asadullah_hilgalib_3ae00 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4221655%2F8c6aa399-8b27-4381-9093-b683efda841d.jpg https://dev.to/asadullah_hilgalib_3ae00 en Asadullah Hil Galib Mon, 02 Nov 2026 06:39:44 +0000 https://dev.to/asadullah_hilgalib_3ae00/i-built-quicktube-an-open-source-android-video-music-downloader-in-jetpack-compose-5b18 https://dev.to/asadullah_hilgalib_3ae00/i-built-quicktube-an-open-source-android-video-music-downloader-in-jetpack-compose-5b18 <p>I wanted one Android app that could search, watch and save videos and music without ads or accounts. Nothing I tried did all of that, so I built <strong>QuickTube</strong>, and it's free and open source (GPL-3.0).</p> <p><strong>Download:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/devgalib/QuickTube/releases/latest" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/devgalib/QuickTube/releases/latest</a><br> <strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/devgalib/QuickTube" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/devgalib/QuickTube</a></p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F70kp2nuxq7m5vjk40e3x.jpg" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F70kp2nuxq7m5vjk40e3x.jpg" alt="QuickTube banner" width="800" height="400"></a></p> <h2> What it does </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>Search and watch</strong> YouTube with live suggestions, a trending feed, a music feed, comments and an inline player.</li> <li> <strong>Download</strong> from YouTube and 1,800+ other sites, from 144p up to 4K, or audio only as M4A / Opus.</li> <li> <strong>Share to download</strong>: "Download with QuickTube" shows up in every app's share sheet, and the format picker pops up right over YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and other apps.</li> <li> <strong>Built-in browser</strong> that spots the video on any page and shows a Download bar, even before you press play.</li> <li> <strong>Playlists and channels</strong>: download all of them, or pick the videos you want, in one batch.</li> <li> <strong>Background playback</strong>, a gallery for your downloads, and themes with accent colours.</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fafuszervbzxw8vm95t3x.jpg" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fafuszervbzxw8vm95t3x.jpg" alt="Home" width="800" height="1422"></a><br> <a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F50jcr1krynhcehlqyfhz.jpg" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F50jcr1krynhcehlqyfhz.jpg" alt="Download formats" width="800" height="1422"></a><br> <a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fbd3n6cfov4dovjk93uic.jpg" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fbd3n6cfov4dovjk93uic.jpg" alt="Browser" width="800" height="1422"></a></p> <h2> The interesting technical bits </h2> <p><strong>Merging on the phone without re-encoding.</strong> YouTube serves high-quality video and audio as separate streams. QuickTube downloads both and remuxes them into one MP4 on the device, so a 1080p download doesn't burn the battery transcoding.</p> <p><strong>HLS to MP4.</strong> Many sites play video through <code>blob:</code> players fed by <code>.m3u8</code> playlists, sometimes AES-128 encrypted. The app fetches the segments, decrypts them where the page provides the key, and stitches them into a normal MP4.</p> <p><strong>Finding the video in a WebView.</strong> The browser reads the page's own player data, including iframe-embedded and shadow-DOM players, so the Download bar can offer every quality the page has.</p> <p><strong>The stack:</strong> Kotlin, Jetpack Compose with Material 3, a multi-module Gradle build, NewPipe Extractor for YouTube and yt-dlp for other sites.</p> <h2> Try it </h2> <p>Grab the APK from the <a href="https://github.com/devgalib/QuickTube/releases/latest" rel="noopener noreferrer">latest release</a> (Android 7.0+). It updates itself after the first install. Bug reports, ideas and pull requests are welcome on <a href="https://github.com/devgalib/QuickTube" rel="noopener noreferrer">GitHub</a>.</p> <blockquote> <p>Only download content you own or have permission to save, and respect each site's terms of service. QuickTube doesn't bypass DRM and isn't affiliated with YouTube or Google.</p> </blockquote> android kotlin jetpackcompose opensource