Audible app for Windows has been discontinued, company advises users to switch to the Cloud Player or mobile apps

The Audible app for Windows has been discontinued. The popular audiobook streaming platform has sent users an email to inform them about the program's removal.
The app in question, which debuted in 2015, is called Audiobooks from Audible. It was discontinued on January 13th, but the listing for the UWP app is still up on the Microsoft Store, though it does carry a message that mentions the app is currently not available.
Audible app for Windows has been discontinued
What about users who already have the Audible app on their computer? A screenshot of the email message shared by a user, reveals that people who currently have the app installed cam continue to use it until July 31st, 2022. I have it installed in my laptop and it still works.
If you want to side-load the Audible app, you can use the ad-guard website to pull the AppxBundle from the Microsoft Store, and install it manually after enabling the Developer Mode from the Windows Settings app. But there is a caveat. The company will no longer allow users to access their audiobook library through the app beyond the said date.
The audiobook platform is recommending users to switch to the Audible mobile app on iOS or Android, as a means to access their purchased content. The other alternative to it, is to use the Audible Cloud Player, which is the web-based solution offered by the service that you can use from any web browser. The AudibleSync app is available from the official website, you can use it to download your audiobooks and transfer it to other devices.
It seems a little odd for the Audible app to be pulled from the Microsoft Store, considering how other companies have been bringing their apps to the app storefront. Even Amazon, which owns Audible Inc, has brought its app for Windows 11. I can only speculate that the move to discontinue the app could be due to the fact that Windows 11 supports Android apps natively, so users could run the mobile version on their computer, or maybe a newer version will be released in the future. Or perhaps a new DRM is in place via the web-player, that they didn't want to add to the desktop program?
A canned response from an Audible representative was met with criticism from users. It's never a good idea to kill an app without having a proper alternative in place. There are many reasons why people prefer to use a desktop program for their entertainment. In this scenario, you could have the audiobook player running in the background while you work, browse or while playing games, etc. The app offered a simpler and more efficient way to manage the library as well, something which cannot be said of the website, it's quite clunky.
Audible for Windows alternative
Users who are on the lookout for an alternative for the Audible app for Windows, you may try OpenAudible or Libation, both of which are open-source programs. The latter is exclusive to Windows, while the former has versions for Windows, macOS and Linux. Both tools allow you to download audiobooks from your library, convert them to MP3 files and remove the DRM for unrestricted usage.
Do you use the Audible for Windows app? Will you use switch to web player, mobile app, or a third-party tool?


Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.