There’s one thing a bit of bit magical about audiobooks. Hit play on a title, shut your eyes, and this digital format can take you on a journey anyplace all over the world, impart huge sums of data, make you giggle out loud, and might trigger you to properly up with emotion. And due to a wide range of easy-to-use apps, you’ll be able to take heed to audiobooks wherever you may have your smartphone and a pair of headphones. Whether or not you wish to take heed to an audiobook in your commute, within the gymnasium, whereas doing mundane family duties, or just mendacity in mattress at evening, we now have an app that can show you how to achieve this.

Credit score: Screenshot / Apple
Audible may be credited with popularizing digital audiobooks. The platform remodeled {the marketplace}, from cassette tapes and DVDs to easy downloads that might sit in your MP3 participant or smartphone. Right now, Audible, now owned by Amazon, is america’ largest audiobook producer and retailer.
The Audible app, accessible for each iOS and Android, is as full-featured as you’d count on from such a pioneer within the market. The app presents a helpful widget that makes it fast and straightforward to get again into your final hear with easy entry from the house display. There’s additionally the power to hear offline by downloading, relatively than streaming, titles. While you’re signed in along with your Amazon account you’ll be able to get pleasure from cross-device listening with “Whispersync.”
Look to sound high quality and battery life when searching for new headphones
Whereas the Audible app is a free obtain, you want a membership plan to take heed to content material. An Audible Plus membership prices $7.95 a month(opens in a brand new tab) and will get you entry to podcasts, some meditation packages, and a number of free titles. You may then select to buy further content material.
For a month-to-month value of $14.95(opens in a brand new tab) you’ll be able to get pleasure from Audible Premium Plus membership which will get you into the bonus materials within the Audible Plus catalog, and one title a month from a number of greatest sellers and new releases. Presently, Amazon Prime members get any two titles free with an Audible Premium Plus trial.
Audible is accessible for obtain on the Apple App Retailer(opens in a brand new tab) and the Google Play Retailer(opens in a brand new tab).

Credit score: Audiobooks / Apple
Audiobooks.com just isn’t as properly generally known as Audible but it surely’s a complete audiobook platform that provides a properly designed web site, and respectable iOS and Android apps. Audiobooks.com has been going since 2012, is predicated in Canada, and is run by “a bunch of e-book and tech nerds,” based on its web site.
It’s the identical value as an Audible Premium Plus membership — $14.95 — however for that month-to-month payment you get not one, however two audiobooks: one from Audiobooks.com’s whole library of over 300,000 titles, and a second is from their “VIP” library, which adjustments every month.
An Audiobooks.com membership additionally will get you entry to solely curated audio information, audio magazines, audio summaries, and sleep and meditation content material within the apps. It’s additionally a extremely sturdy participant within the podcast market, providing its members limitless entry to over 100+ million podcast episodes.
You may flick through the hundreds of e-book titles accessible, and seek for, and take heed to, podcasts immediately. Audiobooks.com’s patent-pending syncing expertise means you can begin a e-book in your smartphone, stick with it studying it in your laptop computer, after which learn it at dwelling on a pill. We notably just like the app’s customizable sleep timer for bedtime studying.
Audiobooks.com is accessible for obtain on the Apple App Retailer(opens in a brand new tab) and the Google Play Retailer(opens in a brand new tab).

Credit score: Screenshot / Apple
NOOK was developed by Barnes & Noble as an Android-based e-reader platform, launched in late 2009. Barnes & Noble nonetheless produces NOOK gadgets, however the model has branched out to supply software program and content material.
If you happen to obtain the Nook app, you’ll be able to immediately discover over 75,000 free eBooks and greater than 10,000 free audiobooks. For premium content material, you’ll have to enroll in the paid “B&N Audiobooks” service. It is a month-to-month subscription that prices $14.99 and will get you one month-to-month audiobook credit score.
As soon as you have downloaded the audiobook of your alternative, it is going to sync to your NOOK app and you can begin listening through the in-app participant right away. If you happen to do have a standalone NOOK gadget, the app and your e-reader will keep synced whilst you hear. The app is CarPlay-compatible, presents bookmarking skills, the choice to arrange sleep timers, and might change the velocity of the narration.
Barnes & Noble NOOK is accessible for obtain on the Apple App Retailer(opens in a brand new tab) and the Google Play Retailer(opens in a brand new tab).

Credit score: Screenshot / Apple
Google Play Books for iOS(opens in a brand new tab) and Google Play Books & Audiobooks for Android(opens in a brand new tab) are free apps that require no month-to-month dedication. This implies they’re strongly advisable apps for anybody who solely often listens to audiobooks, simply when on vacation for instance, or for anybody who is not positive they will benefit from the audiobook expertise and desires to strive it out with out signing up for a membership.
With no month-to-month subscription required, you’ll be able to browse the audiobooks accessible and select to pay to obtain particular person titles. For the iOS app, you want to buy the titles on the Google Play Books webstore and they’ll sync to your cellular gadget.
The apps are easy and make it straightforward to see what titles you may have downloaded. The audiobooks themselves sync throughout all of your gadgets, together with within the automobile with CarPlay. Anybody who makes use of the Google Play Books iOS app can get pleasure from integration with Siri; you should use Siri Shortcuts, similar to “Hey Siri, play my audiobook.”
A function we like throughout the apps is the power to skip again or ahead 30 seconds — very helpful should you missed just a few phrases due to exterior noise, for instance. There’s additionally a wise sleep timer operate which you could set for one hour, half-hour, quarter-hour, or till the top of the present chapter.
Google Play Books is accessible for obtain on the Apple App Retailer(opens in a brand new tab) and the Google Play Retailer(opens in a brand new tab).

Credit score: Screenshot / Apple
The Kobo Books platform is one other that began with {hardware}; the unique Kobo eReader was launched again in 2010. Rakuten Kobo nonetheless makes digital studying tablets, however the apps, accessible for iOS(opens in a brand new tab) and Android(opens in a brand new tab), can be utilized as standalone software program in your current smartphone.
Kobo Books is at the moment the bottom priced of the massive audiobook platforms, however regardless of the extra inexpensive month-to-month value, presents over six million eBooks and audiobooks. A Kobo Books membership will value you $9.99 a month after an preliminary 30-day free trial. Every month, your month-to-month payment of $9.99 will get you one credit score to make use of on a brand new audiobook, no matter its listed value.
While you browse the Kobo Books web site you’ll be able to view titles by conventional classes, however Kobo Books additionally presents some attention-grabbing curated collections, similar to “Audiobooks that can change your life”, “Audiobooks that come alive via voice”, and, “Thrilling audiobooks for teenagers.” As soon as you have purchased an audiobook through the positioning, it is going to sync to your cellphone.
Kobo Books’ audiobook participant has a clear and uncluttered design. App options embrace the power to regulate listening velocity, the choice to set a sleep timer, and a fast faucet operate to skip again or forwards ten seconds.
Kobo Books is accessible for obtain on the Apple App Retailer(opens in a brand new tab) and the Google Play Retailer(opens in a brand new tab).
Originally posted 2022-06-16 09:00:00.