FAQ

Frequently asked

Is it free, and do I need an account?
It's free and there's no account. Paste a public link and the file downloads straight to your device. The free tier allows 3 downloads every 6 hours (a Cloudflare bot check keeps it from being abused). Optional paid tiers are planned but aren't billing yet. See pricing.
Do I need an account, and will the poster know?
You don't need a socials.download account, and you don't sign in to the source platform through us, so there's no follow, like, or profile visit tied to you. We can't promise a download is invisible to the platform: what a platform records on its own side is outside our control and can change without notice. Rate limiting uses a one-way hash of request signals rather than your raw IP, but that's pseudonymous rather than anonymous, and standard security logs (which can contain IP addresses) are kept for about 30 days. The Privacy Policy has the full data flow. It's also not a way to see private or followers-only content: if a post needs a login to view, we can't reach it either.
Who is this for?
Anyone who wants to save social media content reliably: creators backing up their own posts, fans archiving favourite accounts, parents preserving family content, and hobbyists collecting reference images. Heavier-duty forensic tooling (a metadata sidecar, hash verification, an audit-logged archive) is planned and not yet available — none of it exists in the product today. See pricing.
Do I need authorization to download content?
Yes. By submitting a download you attest that you have a lawful basis in your jurisdiction. That includes your own content, public-record material, journalistic work product, court-authorized discovery, your client’s authorized investigation, or another lawful basis. Unauthorized capture is prohibited and your sole liability. Full terms.
What quality do I get? Are there watermarks?
We don't intentionally transcode or recompress the file returned by the source endpoint, and we don't add a watermark of our own. For most platforms the file is passed through as served, with the only change being a Content-Disposition: attachment header so your browser saves it instead of playing it. Two honest caveats: a platform may serve several different encodings of the same post, so "the original" isn't always a single thing; and VSCO videos are delivered as a stream that we rebuild into one MP4, so that file is assembled rather than copied byte-for-byte. Whether a file already carries platform or creator branding is up to the platform, not us.
Does it work with private accounts, paywalls, or log-in walls?
No. We capture public artifacts only. We do not bypass paywalls, log-in walls, friend-only privacy controls, or DRM. If a post requires login to view it, we won’t see it. If the account is private, we won’t capture from it.
What platforms does it cover?
Working today (10): Instagram, TikTok, VSCO, Reddit, X (Twitter), Pinterest, Threads, Tumblr, Bluesky, and Vimeo. All of these work in the browser, with no extension.

Not available right now: Instagram stories aren't available in the web app. TikTok livestream recording isn't available. The browser extension isn't publicly released, so nothing here depends on having it.

Not supported yet: Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Mastodon, Twitch, Bilibili, Rumble, Substack.

Support can change whenever a platform updates its site or delivery system, so treat this as current rather than permanent.
How does the case archive work?
Today every download streams through the worker and is delivered straight to your browser; nothing is persisted server-side. The audit-logged case archive (30-day retention on Pro, 90-day on Studio) is in development and will land with the rest of the Pro / Studio feature set. When it ships, captures and sidecars will be retained, re-downloadable, and deletable per your plan’s retention window.
Can I use these downloads in litigation or as evidence?
We don't intentionally transform the file, but we can't certify it as a pristine original — a platform may serve several encodings, and some formats (VSCO video) are rebuilt on our side. We provide no chain of custody, no timestamping, and no hash today. For evidentiary use you should hash and timestamp the file on receipt yourself (e.g. shasum -a 256 file.mp4 > file.sha256) and document your own chain of custody. The metadata sidecar that would automate this is planned, not shipped. Whether a specific download is admissible in a specific proceeding is always a question of law and procedure for counsel in your jurisdiction; we don't provide legal advice.
How do you handle DMCA and takedown requests?
We review complete notices promptly. Timing depends on the notice and circumstances. We don't publish a guaranteed turnaround, because we don't run a monitored service level that would let us honour one consistently. The full procedure and the counter-notification process are documented at /legal/dmca. Note that the live free tier has no accounts, so there is no account to suspend or terminate; we host no content, and each download is processed on demand rather than stored.
How do I reach a person on the team?
contact@socials.download for general questions. contact@socials.download for takedown notices. contact@socials.download for subpoenas, preservation requests, and counsel correspondence.