Listen Audiobook Player for Android
I like audiobooks a lot and prefer to listen to them instead of listening to music. While there is nothing wrong with music, (mostly) non-fictional audiobooks not only entertain me but also educate me at the same time.
I used to play audiobooks with the built-in Android music player and while that works just fine, it is lacking in several regards.
There is for instance no option to remember the play position of multiple audiobooks which often resulted in me having to use the position slider to find the position I stopped listening the last time.
Listen Audiobook Player for Android is not free -- it costs €0.99 -- but it is reasonably priced in my opinion. Plus, the app itself as a consequence does not feature ads or any form of in-app purchases for monetization. If you prefer a free alternative, check out Material Audiobook Player instead.
When you first start the application it asks you to pick a root audiobook folder on your device. It is recommended that each audiobook is in its own directory in that root folder, and if you want, you can exclude the books from being picked up by other media players on the system.
All audiobooks are then displayed in the main interface afterwards. For each, the total playtime, current position and percentage are displayed.
Covers get picked up automatically if stored in the same folder. The first time you tap on an audiobook without cover, you get the option to download it from the Internet.
This displays image search results that you can select an appropriate cover from with a tap.
The controls are basic but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The current position, play time and remaining play time is displayed at the top. You can long press here to jump to another position. The controls at the bottom allow you to go back and forward, while a tap anywhere else on the screen toggles play and pause.
Chapter navigation needs to be enabled in the settings before it becomes available. If you enable it, you find chapters listed under the forward and backward buttons then.
The options menu displays features related to the current audiobook. Here you can enable sleep mode which stops playback after a set period of time, change playback speed or playback volume.
The sleep settings alone fill more than a screen and include interesting options such as resetting the timer by shaking the device, enabling auto-sleep or setting the sleep time itself.
Especially the speed option can come in handy as you can speed up playback slightly to decrease the time it takes to listen to the audiobook.
The author of Listen Audiobook Player has built several other features into the application that improve playback. You can save bookmarks for example or access a position history which get synced across your devices. For that, it is necessary to link a Dropbox account as it is used by the app for the synchronization.
Automatic behaviors are available as well. The app will rewind automatically if the book has been on pause for a specific amount of time, or start to play automatically when it recognizes a bluetooth headset connection. It will furthermore pause if the headset is disconnected and displays options to configure auto resume (or not) after phone calls.
Verdict
Listen Audiobook Player is a great audiobook player for Android that ships with a rich set of features that leaves little to be desired.
In fact, there is only one feature that I can think of that it does not offer yet, and that is the ability to set multiple root folders for audiobooks.
I’ve been getting along fine with the free version of Smart Audiobook Player for android.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ak.alizandro.smartaudiobookplayer
I’ll also point out that I fall asleep listening to audiobooks, and sometimes half-remember bits of story after jumping back 30 minutes or so ;)
Hello,
I’m the author of Listen Audiobook Player. I also listen at night, which may explain why I have so many sleep setting options. One option is to set a custom amount to rewind after using the sleep timer. I personally use a 10 minute countdown timer, so that I have to be awake enough to shake the device for it to keep playing more that 10 minutes. And I use a 13 minute rewind after sleep (customizable), so the next morning when I press play it automatically rewinds 13 minutes and is usually pretty close to the last I remember from the night before.
I have nothing against Smart, it is a very good player and if you don’t use any of its pro features it is also free. However, if you listen to a lot of audiobooks, it might be worth to keep an open mind and check out my app as well. If you don’t like it, I have a generous refund policy. I’ve put over two years of work into it so far and feel like I’m still just getting started… my todo list is longer today that when I first started.
Hello, your application truly sounds like the app everyone is looking for, with loads of features. My question is this: I have about 4 different Android devices, would I have to purchase the app for each device or would the cost be a one time payment, so the app can be used on each device? Thanks for a response.
Smart Audiobook for me also, i tried around 10 of these others, and settled for Smart.
Ditto Smart Audiobook. I tried a number of them and found it the best
The big problem with non-fiction is most of it is nonsense. People write about topics they don’t have a clue about or get others that don’t have a clue to write their books.
A good example of that is I read 50 books on Web Design. Only 2 were worth buying. One from HTML Goodies had half of its pages missing (not torn out) and none of the examples worked. I bet Dr. Joe Burns was hotter than a firecracker when the book he had someone else write was released.
Fortunately I got these books through our local library’s book borrowing program…free. They can borrow books from any library in the world. Look how much money I would have wasted if I had bought them. :(
I really like non-fiction audiobooks from The Great Courses website: http://www.thegreatcourses.com/
Scrub my last, this is great, tried it loaded it, love it, uninstalled Snart, this is a go go AUdio book player.
Scott that is great, welcome to the club.
Hi Martin, I’m the author of Listen Audiobook Player. Thanks for your great review!
You are welcome ;)
Jared, since you’re watching this article. I just purchased your app. and can’t get a book into my android 4.2.2. Into android it downloaded by default into social media folder and can’t be retrieved. Into PC it downloaded as zip and can’t be opened. What book source do you recommend that is suitable with your player? I was trying booksshouldbefree.com
Maybe my Vista operating system is damaged such that I can’t unzip?
The end goal is to get the unzipped files into your audiobook folder on your Android. If you can’t unzip the file on your pc, then it is likely that the zip file is corrupt. If you’re having trouble opening any zip files, then I’d recommend trying to install a new zip program, I use 7-zip.org. I’ve recommended to people librivox.org, bookshouldbefree.com, or even using the local library to check out mp3 audiobooks (if in the U.S., I’m not which other countries have audiobook lending libraries).
Unzip the book on your computer, then name the folder how you wish it to show in the app’s library, and copy it to the folder you designated to be your audiobook folder when you first ran the app. This is the folder the app will auto scan for new or deleted books to show in the library. If you have any follow-up questions you can contact me directly. [email protected].
“In fact, there is only one feature that I can think of that it does not offer yet, and that is the ability to set multiple root folders for audiobooks.”
Multiple root folders support was added in version 4.1.0. :)
Hi I am thinking to download this app but i would like to know if once you download all the books you want to listen to will you need Internet to listen. As I want to listen on airplane mode when I fly ?
Hi Nicole, no you won’t need the internet, unless the mp3S OF THE BOOKS NEED COVER ART WORK, IN WHICH CASE IT CONNECTS SEARCHES AND PRESENTS YOU A SELECTION FOR YOU TO ASSIGN. nO, THIS AUDIO BOOK PLAYER WILL PLAY LOCAL mp3S OF (Damm you Caps Lock) without needing to connect to the internet, so all good for long car journeys and flight. Enjoy.
Hi I am having difficulty playing a complete book. The player stops each time a track ends, it does not jump to the next. How can I solve this?
Thanks in advance
Hello, It sounds like you probably have a book that contains multiple subfolders. The app uses the “album” tag to try to determine if all the audio in subfolders belongs to the same book. In your case it sounds like all the audio files didn’t have matching album tag so it is treating each folder as a different book. The default behavior is to stop at the end of each book unless you have books in your book queue.
You can fix this by long pressing on the folder that should really be a single book and choose the “combine into single book” option.
Hi Jared. I installed the Calibre eBook server with audiobook plugin. Goal is to get a “plex-like” server solution for my audiobooks. (the Plex clients don’t have the feature to remember the last position of an audio file, where it does this for video).
I was looking for an Android audiobook player that supports connecting to Calibre, that would stream the audio file, not offering it for download. Does Listen Audiobook Player support this?
Hi,
I have had the player for quite some time now and I love it. Up until yesterday I was able to start or stop the player from my phone lock screen but not anymore. Now I get the bar but it says “Contents Hidden”. I can’t seem to be able to find the settings to cancel that.
Please help.
thanks in advance.