There’s something a bit magical about audiobooks. Just hit play on a title, close your eyes, & this digital format will take you on a journey anywhere around the world, convey vast sums of knowledge, make you laugh out loud, & can connect you to well up with emotion. Thanks to some Best Audiobook Apps, you can listen to these audiobooks wherever you have your smartphone & a pair of headphones.
If you want to listen to an audiobook while traveling, in the gym, while doing routine household tasks, or simply lying-in bed at night, you will find an app to help you do so.
Best Audiobook Apps for Android & iPhone
1. Audible
Audible can be rightly credited with popularizing digital audiobooks. The platform changed the marketplace from cassette tapes & DVDs to simple downloads that could play on your MP3 player or smartphone. Today, Audible, now owned by Amazon, is the USA’s largest audiobook producer & retailer.
The audible app, available for both iOS & Android, is as full-featured as you can expect from such a leader in the marketplace. The app provides a useful widget that makes it quick & easy to get back into your last listen with easy access from the home screen. There is also the ability to listen offline by downloading than streaming.
While the Audible app is a free download, you require a membership plan to access the content. An Audible Plus membership costs $7.95 a month & offers you access to various podcasts, some meditation programs, & a collection of free titles. You can then purchase additional content if you like.
2. Google Play Books
In this list of Best Audiobook Apps, we must pay attention to Google Play Books, an excellent platform offering many audiobooks to cater to your taste. Available for free on Android as well as iOS devices, you can find audiobooks of different genres, along with ebooks, textbooks, & comic books, which is an added benefit.
The app is equipped with quite a few features that help augment the users’ audiobook experience on several devices. Users can recommence the audiobooks from the place they left off on any device of their choice. Unlike other apps, you can preview the audiobook before buying it from the marketplace, which helps you understand whether it is worth it.
3. Audiobooks.com
Audiobooks.com is not as famous as Audible, but it’s an all-inclusive audiobook platform that offers a nicely designed website, & good iOS & Android apps. It has been in the market since 2012, is based in Canada, & is run by “a bunch of book & tech nerds,” described by its website.
It is the same price as an Audible Premium Plus membership – $14.95 – but in exchange for that monthly fee, you will get not one but two audiobooks: one from Audiobooks.com whole library of over 300,000 titles, & a second is from their “VIP” library, which updates every month.
An Audiobooks.com membership also offers access to exclusively curated audio news, audio magazines, & sleep and meditation content in the apps. It is a strong player in the podcast marketplace, offering its members unlimited access to over a hundred million podcast episodes.
4. Kobo Books
The Kobo Books is another platform that started with hardware; the original Kobo eReader was launched in 2010. Kobo Books is at present the lowest priced among the big audiobook platforms, but despite the more affordable monthly cost, it offers over six million eBooks & audiobooks.
A Kobo Books membership will cost you $9.99 monthly after an introductory 30-day free trial. Each month, your monthly fee of $9.99 gets you one credit to use on a new audiobook, not considering its listed price.
When you browse the site of Kobo Books, you can view titles by traditional categories. Still, Kobo Books also offers some interesting curated assortments, like “Audiobooks that will change your life,” “Audiobooks that come alive through voice,” etc. Kobo Books’ audiobook player has a clean & organized design. App features include the capacity to adjust listening speed, the option of setting a sleep timer, & a tap function to skip back or forwards ten seconds.
5. Nook Audiobook by Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble presents Nook Audiobooks, which can be downloaded from Google Play Store & Apple App Store. The app offers a library containing more than 300,000 titles for several genres categorized by dedicated book lovers.
Rather than imposing a subscription, Nook lets its users only pay for the audiobooks of their choice. Users can download their favorite audiobooks & listen to them from the app on smartphones & tablets, which perfectly syncs your digital content across all devices.
The app offers handy features like multiple page styles, audio speed, customized bookshelves, & social sharing tools that can personalize the user’s experience.
6. Apple Books
Undoubtedly, this one is the Best Audiobook app for iPhone. Apple’s Books app comes preinstalled on every device running iOS & macOS. So, it’s the natural & best choice for people who operate within Apple’s network. It’s not a bad choice for audiobooks & ebooks. Moreover, it syncs your digital bookshelf across your devices effortlessly.
Apple’s online bookstore is a place you buy books with money. There are no previews or catalogs of included titles. There are no monthly subscription plans available either.
7. LibriVox Audio Books
LibriVox, an entirely free audiobook app, needs no introduction. This famous app offers an extensive collection of 50,000 audiobooks & is an official partner of Project Gutenberg & Internet Archive to host audio files for free.
Most of the audiobooks here range from classic bestsellers to literature & can be accessed publicly without paying anything. You can search the collection based on the title, author, or genre, access any audiobooks and bookmark locations, & enable a sleep timer. You can download the app from Google Play Store & App Store and listen to the books on the go.
8. Libro
Libro.fm is an audiobook store feedreader that allows you to purchase audiobooks from its vast collection of 150,000 audiobooks that features exclusive content found at the local bookstore. Libro benefits small businesses by splitting the audiobook cost between the autonomous bookseller & the publisher.
While the prices are quite decent on the platform, signing up for the monthly membership plan can get you additional discounts on your purchases. The high-quality narrations of audiobooks on the platform make your favorite audiobook even more pleasant, & Libro suggestions overwhelming audiobooks curated at indie bookstores.
9. Libby by OverDrive
A gift by OverDrive, Libby is a well-known app for listening to books in audio format. The platform is mobile-centric, & you can download its official app for your iPhone or Android devices.
Users need to present their library card details to sign up on the platform to access the massive collection of audiobooks offered by their library. It is possible to connect cards from numerous libraries, access sample audiobooks, & get the books you want.
You can stream the audiobooks, download them for later use, tag popular titles, & sync your present audiobook across different devices using their cloud technology. The UI (User Interface) is clean, & its curated content lists & catalog guide can assist you in finding your next book among the many featured titles.
Conclusion
The audiobook is one of the fastest-growing digital sectors right now because of the thoughtful approach they utilize. It is possible to listen to a book while driving or working out, which else was long forgotten because of our busy schedule.
Numerous user-friendly Best Audiobook Apps have emerged that offer a rich compilation of titles in audiobook format due to the user’s growing interest in audiobooks. You can browse your favorite audiobook & listen to them on several platforms like smartphones, desktops, PC, & more.