Audible: Audio Entertainment

Category

Description of App

Not enough time for all the books you want to enjoy? Download the app by Audible, an Amazon company, to listen to books on the go.

Immerse yourself in a great story anytime, anywhere, by downloading from a breathtaking range of 100,000+ titles to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad—from best sellers to classics, and everything in-between.

Now you can turn on a good book even when you can’t pick one up—on your way to work, at the gym, while folding laundry, or any other time your eyes and hands are busy.

Features:
• Transfer books to your device over wi-fi
• Chapter navigation, bookmarking, sleep mode, variable narration speed, button-free mode
• Multitasking for background downloading and listening
• Earn badges and keep track of your listening habits
• NEW! Switch between reading and listening with Whispersync for Voice (compatible Kindle app or device required)
• Connect to Facebook and Twitter to let your friends know what you’re listening to
• Get insider information about author events and more with the Audible Newsfeed

Supports Audible.com, Audible.co.uk, and Audible.de

Listening with Audible is always time well spent. Download the free app now and discover a smarter way to use your smartphone.

Let us help you at www.audible.com/help or get in touch on Twitter @audible_com

Version

2.5.2

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

No

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

8.3

Accessibility Comments

This is a very accessible app, if any developer wants to know how an app should work with voiceover, the Audible app provides a good example. All elements are accessible, buttons are clearly labeled, and hints are provided for the different play controls.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Developer's Twitter Username

@audible_com

Recommendations

16 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Maria 6 months 2 weeks ago

Options

Comments

By Ro on Monday, September 21, 2015 - 22:33

I tried the trick someone mentioned about activating the delete toggle and if the delete buttons don't show up, tap the cloud tab and then back to device and voila, the delete buttons appeared and worked. Relieved. Thanks for the tip. :)

By Darren12 on Monday, September 21, 2015 - 22:33

One thing I will say about this update, it seemed to fix the scrolling issues completely for me which is excellent.

By Misty Dawn on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 22:33

It appears that, with the latest version of iBooks, iBooks/Apple have now partnered with Audible to offer the ability to purchase Audible's audiobooks through the iBooks app.

This appears to be completely accessible.

The only problem is, I can't find a way to set bookmarks when I am done reading so I can come back to where I left off later.

If I am reading a book, pause it, and then come back to it a short time later, I am able to resume from where I left off. However, if I don't use the iBooks app fro some time, say, for a few days or so, when I bring the app back up, the book I was reading defaults back to the beginning and looses the position where I left off.

So, is there any way that I can actually set a bookmark in the iBooks app for audiobooks so that I am guaranteed never to lose my position in the audiobook where I left off?

I have heard from other sources there there is not (yet?) a way to do this, so, if this is the case, is there any other app I can use to make bookmarking possible?

I have heard that the Audible app itself allows one to physically mark one's place in an audiobook and that you can look under your iTunes library option within Audible in order to find audiobooks you've downloaded through iBooks? Is this true? Has anyone ever tried it? Does it work reliably?

Also, ifthis is true, how much does downloading the Audible app cost? Do you have to take a subscription to Audible in order to use the app to view individual books you've purchased through iBooks?

Thanks much.

By Misty Dawn on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 22:33

Also, how is accessibility in the very latest version of Audible?

By dvdmth on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 22:33

First of all, the partnership between Apple and Audible is not new, as it has been going on for many years now. The only real change is that you now use the iBooks app to shop for audiobooks instead of going through the iTunes Store.

Regarding iBooks losing its place in an audiobook, I haven't had that happen. For me, even if I haven't used the app in a long time, it picks up right where I left off in an audiobook without any issues.

There is no way to set bookmarks within the iBooks app to my knowledge. However, if the book has chapter marks, you can use the table of contents to jump to a specific chapter, so if you are having problems with iBooks not remembering your place, you can make a note of what chapter you're on and jump to it the next time you open the app.

Audible can be used to play titles from iTunes, which appear in a separate tab in the app. Unfortunately, the bookmark feature in Audible can only be used with titles downloaded directly from Audible within the app itself. If you buy an audiobook from Apple, even if Audible provided the title to Apple, you cannot download the book from Audible without buying it again directly from them.

Going forward, I strongly recommend buying audiobooks directly from Audible instead of getting them from the iTunes Store or from the iBooks app. Even though the Audible website isn't exactly the best when it comes to accessibility, there are many benefits from shopping through Audible. The biggest benefit is that you can download the book as many times as you want, whereas if you make a purchase from Apple, you can only download the title once. Additionally, if you become an Audible member, you can buy books at a much lower cost, so if you are a regular audiobook listener, you will save a boatload of money. Finally, the Audible app has a number of features that can come in handy, including setting multiple bookmarks, syncing across multiple devices, remembering your place even if you delete the book from your device, controlling exactly what happens when you press the next track and previous track buttons, and other things.

The Audible app, for the most part, is accessible, with a few quirks. Occasionally I find that I need to close the app from the app switcher and relaunch it because the list of titles doesn't refresh properly, and the process for deleting audiobooks is a bit tricky at first, but other than that I have no real complaints with the app's accessibility. The benefits of using Audible far outweigh the negatives in my opinion.

By Roxann Pollard on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 22:33

I concur with the above post. The Audible app is the way to go. I have been using this app for many years now and find that the accessibility, for the most part, works just fine. As the above post mentioned, the delete feature is a bit strange but completely dueable. It's just not as intuitive as one might think it should be. The monitary savings via the Audible subscription service is very nice, too. If you are already an Amazon.com user, the user name and pass word for that account is what is used for an Audible account sign in. They merged a couple of years ago.

By DMNagel on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 22:33

If i can't pay through the app via my iTunes account, the app is useless to me as a south african. Our south african iBooks only have public domain books and it sucks.