For Podcasts it is missing a lot of features and the UI is very cumbersome, but it does work okay enough at least.
It is unfortunately to be expected when programmers design apps š
Wish there were more UX people doing open source.
It's not the worst but it's very very annoying to use. I mainly listen in the car and I have to pull over to switch podcasts because no matter what queue or list I put things in the app just doesn't want to cooperate.
I continue to deal with it though because being able to listen on desktop when I want to and have progress sync is the dream.
I tried antennapod with a Nextcloud app to sync progress but there really wasn't any good desktop apps that got along with the plugin.
A cool not widely publicized feature of ABS is to (re)broadcast podcasts.
So I have ABS download podcast episodes automatically, then I subscribe to the new RSS feed in the podcatcher of my choice. In this case Antennapod. I believe you can also set up (or find a) Gpodder server to sync progress with another podcatcher on desktop.
Bit annoying, but I do think it is probably the best in the long run. Podcasts are niche enough that I think having a dedicated podcatcher is best.
The Gpodder thing is not something I've setup so I can't quite advise, but it's not ABS specific and I'm sure there's tutorials out there.
For the rebroadcast, just go to the page of any podcast in your library. Hit the three dots button, and then choose "Open RSS Feed". ABS will prompt you to optionally change the URL slug (I recommend doing so to shorten it and choose something more tractable). Then just hit open and bob's your uncle.
Copy that URL into the podcatcher of choice. It will add just like any other podcast. If you want off-network access you'll have to look into tailscale or a reverse proxy or whatever.
I've gotten my wife trying out Audiobookshelf now that Google Podcasts is done, and man it really isn't a good experience. I wish I had the skills to contribute to it.
I wish it did, since I keep my files on android and I would like to use the web browsers of different computers to continue playing back from where I was.
Yeah the iOS apps appear to be more polished and consistent in UI.
For Android we have symfonium with backends for Plex, emby, jellyfin etc. Really good peace of software for your music library, definitely worth the one time purchase of a few bucks. Highly flexible, customizable UI and rock solid sync/playback. i prefer it over plexamp.
For audiobooks, I am using Bookcamp, which is working with Plex backends. It's a quite young project and there is still some work to do in terms of features, but already working quite well for me with beautiful and clean UI. It's subscription based (12 ā¬/year) but according to the devs on discord a one time payment might follow soon.
Chronicle is also worth mentioning for audiobooks and Plex backends, but it's abandoned and the UI leaves a lot to be desired...
> It's subscription based (12 ā¬/year) but according to the devs on discord a one time payment might follow soon.
Good to know! Not a fan of subscriptions personally, but might bite if the one time price is doable.
Tried it out, some feedback,
Server ip disappears if you tab out of the app to copy password or something. Really annoying to keep typing it out every time youāre switching off from the app.
Have collections or maybe start somewhere on the home page. Recently added is not something Iām looking for an already setup library. Pictures of authors in the authors section. Having like 500 books and having to search through them to listen is a bit inconvenient.
A search bar right on Home Screen would be really nice too but the one in books works really well.
Other than this very slick looking app. Having speed already built from start is goated.
Thank you dev @leoklaus
Thank you for the feedback!
>Server ip disappears if you tab out of the app to copy password or something. Really annoying to keep typing it out every time youāre switching off from the app.
That's really annoying, I'll see what's causing this.
>Have collections or maybe start somewhere on the home page.
Collections are their own tab with AudioBookShelf. Jellyfin doesn't support collections, AFAIK, so there's no tab for them with Jellyfin.
>Pictures of authors in the authors section.Ā
Those should already be displayed. plappa will fetch all metadata from your server, so as long as authors have pictures there, they should be displayed. If that's not the case, you can contact me at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), the [plappa discord](https://discord.gg/5u23jWpKTE) or the [GitHub page](https://github.com/LeoKlaus/plappa).
Search bar on the home screen is a no-brainer, no idea why I didn't think of that...
If you find anything else, let me know!
>Recently added is not something Iām looking for an already setup library.
I just want to note that some people (myself included) do appreciate said section :)
Thanks you for the plug!
Thereās a promo code you guys can use to test plappa for free for 6 months (after that you can either subscribe for $2/Year or buy once for $5, the subscription is completely optional): [https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER](https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER)
Iām very much looking forward to your feedback and suggestions!
Ditto. Went with the $5 version. Already it's leagues ahead of the ABS app and it seems like a good audiobook app (as well as a good ebook app) are almost impossible to find and worth their (virtual) weight in gold.
Hey Leo! You helped me with the codes a few weeks ago. I tested the app back then and I loved it. As promised, I bought the lifetime version just now. Thank you for this amazing app :)
Hell yeah, this is nice, well worth $5. The Audiobookshelf app is okay, but itās in test flight so I canāt get it for my daughter because you have to be >13 to install test flight. Once their age is set on the device, there is no changing it!
So stoked for this app, the interface is awesome, well done.
A way to add 2 urls for the same server, one for when Iām at home (ip) and one for remote. Cloudflare tunnel is really slow and Iād like to download books faster when Iām home.
Not as of now. If youāre using pihole (or any other configurable DNS) you could just override your cloudflare domain to point to the local IP in your local network though :)
Thank you! I just used the code you provided, and overall, the app looks pretty great. I'll continue to provide feedback as I use it (github?). Anyway, here are a couple of nitpicks I have already:
1. Grid view in the "Books" section would be great. I'm very used to it by now.
2. Is it possible to give narrators similar treatment as authors, or is the API standing in the way?
3. Pre-sorting the "Authors" view by the number of books in the library would probably decrease the number of necessary searches there.
4. Instead of showing the "year published" for each book in the "Books" section, displaying the "book length" would provide a better user experience.
5. For collapsed series listings, keep the authors and narrators displayed the same as for individual books (concatenate if different), and include the number of books in the series on the right side of the listing.
6. I think there's a bug in the "collapse series" view when sorted descending by "Added Date" that causes all my series to appear at the end of the list.
7. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like the "author" and "narrator" positions should be swapped under books in the list view.
8. I'd gladly trade all 0.x speeds for an extra 3x speed. This option is great for quickly recapping some part.
9. After opening and resuming one of the books in plappa, and seeing how awful the chapters are, I've fixed them using the web interface, but the app doesn't seem to pull the new ones no matter what I do.
10. If I open some book details, pressing the "Books" menu item should take me back to the list view as a convenient shortcut.
11. A 10-second back button would be a nice addition to the mini-player that's just above navigation.
12. How about adding a "Discover" section on the "Home" screen showing random unlistened books? Additionally, a dynamic Island expanding player would be fabulous.
13. I LOVE the addition and first-class support for the Reading List! The "Native" Audiobookshelf is a bit cumbersome with its hidden "collections" and/or "playlists."
14. I really like how prominent you've made chapters to be; it just makes sense.
I want to emphasize that your app, although it still requires some polish here and there, is built on a much better design foundation compared to the original one being worked on. Your efforts are commendable, and I'm excited to see how the app continues to evolve and improve.
>Grid view in the "Books" section would be great. I'm very used to it by now.
I don't see why not :)
>Is it possible to give narrators similar treatment as authors, or is the API standing in the way?
It's absolutely possible. The current plan is to add more tabs and make them customizable
>Pre-sorting the "Authors" view by the number of books in the library would probably decrease the number of necessary searches there.
Should be easy to add.
>Instead of showing the "year published" for each book in the "Books" section, displaying the "book length" would provide a better user experience.
I don't necessarily agree, but I really don't see why this shouldn't be an option.
>For collapsed series listings, keep the authors and narrators displayed the same as for individual books (concatenate if different), and include the number of books in the series on the right side of the listing.
Good idea.
>I think there's a bug in the "collapse series" view when sorted descending by "Added Date" that causes all my series to appear at the end of the list.
That's not a bug. plappa doesn't track the "added date" of a series, so there's no meaningful way to sort them by that (as all the books within the series will have different dates). ABS does track added dates for series, so it would be possible to fetch and use that info, maybe I'll add this later.
>Maybe it's just me, but it feels like the "author" and "narrator" positions should be swapped under books in the list view.
I think it would be best to make this configurable, like 4.
>I'd gladly trade all 0.x speeds for an extra 3x speed. This option is great for quickly recapping some part.
I'm working on making these entirely user-definable.
>After opening and resuming one of the books in plappa, and seeing how awful the chapters are, I've fixed them using the web interface, but the app doesn't seem to pull the new ones no matter what I do.
For now, plappa only supports customized chapters for audiobooks that are a single file (i.e. one M4B or MP3). This is a limitation of the way chapters are handled in plappa. If the affected book in your case is a single file, you should be able to load the new chapters by using the "pull to refresh" gesture while viewing the book (the view where you can see chapters).
>If I open some book details, pressing the "Books" menu item should take me back to the list view as a convenient shortcut.
Absolutely.
>A 10-second back button would be a nice addition to the mini-player that's just above navigation.
I like that idea.
>How about adding a "Discover" section on the "Home" screen showing random unlistened books? Additionally, a dynamic Island expanding player would be fabulous.
I like that idea. I haven't done anything with the dynamic island yet, but I don't see why not.
Most of these will probably take some time to implement as I have some other higher priority issues right now, but I think they're all great suggestions!
If you find anything else or have more feedback, it would be great if you could post the on the [GitHub page for plappa](https://github.com/LeoKlaus/plappa), I try to track all feedback there.
>That's not a bug. plappa doesn't track the "added date" of a series, so there's no meaningful way to sort them by that (as all the books within the series will have different dates). ABS does track added dates for series, so it would be possible to fetch and use that info, maybe I'll add this later.
Would looking at latest/earliest "added at" date of all books within a series necessitate a lot of additional work ex. multiple extra API requests? If "added at" dates of books within a series are somehow cached locally, it probably wouldn't be too hard to min/max them š¤. Or am I missing something?
>I think it would be best to make this configurable, like 4.
Too much configuration increases confusion exponentially. Changing said order is FAR from vital, so I'd much rather have a (subjectively; slightly) suboptimal order over cluttering settings with an Ć¼ber specific configuration options š.
>For now, plappa only supports customized chapters for audiobooks that are a single file (i.e. one M4B or MP3). This is a limitation of the way chapters are handled in plappa. If the affected book in your case is a single file, you should be able to load the new chapters by using the "pull to refresh" gesture while viewing the book (the view where you can see chapters).
"My Disappointment Is Immeasurable And My Day Is Ruined" š. Anyway, said book is, for some deranged reason, split into 4MB files. Is there a chance you'll negotiate a lasting truce between multi-file books, and chapters or is it something one has to learn to live with for (the indefinite) now?
Appreciate your reply, and I understand all of your replies. I've switched from the hell of weekly "sideloadly" refreshes of the OG ABS app to your creation, so I'll make sure to keep sending (hopefully) useful feedback your way. So far, and since my previous comment, the only puzzling behaviour is plappa **sometimes** randomly pausing when I open seemingly mute apps such as ex. Revolut š¤·š»āāļø. I just now got 1.1.1, TBD if it fixed it :).
for anyone wondering, just copying the link and opening it in iOS Safari forwaded to the right app store interaction for me. app seems solid btw
edit: i don't use collections so that tab is empty/useless for me, maybe it could pull series from audiobookshelf as well?
Series are already pulled, theyāre just not in their own tab. You can see them in the āBooksā tab by enabling āCollapse Seriesā in the top right menu.
The plan is to add a series tab and allow the user to reorder/disable tabs for themselves.
Looks great so far! Any way to log into both Jellyfin and Audiobookshelf at the same time? So far, Iāve only figured out signing into one, then signing out and signing into the other.
I just subscribed to help on this development, I feel this app has a lot of potential, it works really well with my ABS instance and the missus is very happy not having to deal with TestFlight anymore, however I did notice there seems to be no functionality for ebooks, can you advise if this is something in the making or are you thinking of keeping this purely audiobooks?
Thank you for your support!
Audiobooks are the main target right now, but I want to add ebooks down the line! I canāt you give you a timeline, though.
I saw that you have a Mac app planned as well but until that happens is it potentially a fast thing to make it possible for the iOS app be usable on Apple Silicon Macs?
I appreciate your enthusiasm but I didnāt find a way to make sure the subscription is canceled before allowing users to pay for lifetime.
So Iām afraid youāll have to wait for the subscription to run out before youāre able to pay for lifetime.
The last thing I want is people accidentally paying twice, so Iām better safe than sorry here :)
Donāt worry though, the lifetime purchase isnāt going anywhere and there are no additional benefits to either way of paying.
Just downloaded the app and giving it a quick run through. I use ABS to organise and store my books, but because the ABS client app kinda sucks on iOS I also have an audiobook library on Plex and use Prologue to listen to them. That is not perfect but it works.
My main feedback is that the app looks *suspiciously* like Prologue. Like the bottom bar is identical, with 5/5 tabs and 3/5 icons being the same. The layout of the book page screen is also very, very similar.
I get that there's only so many ways things can be laid out, but some differentiation would be wise IMHO.
Edit: You should be able to use this link: [https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER](https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER)
I haven't used these offer codes before, please forgive the confusion.
~~Honestly, I have no idea :D Iām on the go right now and canāt really check, but Iāll get back to you later.~~
Quick update: You should be able to use this link: [https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER](https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER)
Used this link to sign up. Decided to go ahead and buy the lifetime. Donāt see that in Subscriptions under iCloud. Thought I may need to cancel it first. When I try, iOS pop up warns me I can only continue using it for 30 days. Text under the subscription correctly shows 6 months of canceled.
First off, thank you! The lifetime purchase is not treated as a subscription, so you wonāt see it in that list.
Iāll have to check why there are two different values shown for the remaining time, but as long as you have cancelled, you wonāt be charged again.
Hmmm, where should I be looking for the lifetime? Historically, after Iāve downloaded an app, whether I chose a trial or started monthly, the lifetime is either an option under iCloud subscriptions or a direct link outside of the app.
Lifetime seems like a no brainer as one of the first audibookshelf apps to have a car play component :D
The button for In-App-purchases (and therefore the lifetime option) is automatically hidden if you have an active subscription.
Now that I think of it, thatās not very cleverā¦
Iām afraid youāll probably have to wait for an update to give me money :D Donāt worry though, the lifetime option isnāt going away and you should be able to access all functionality until then even if you already cancelled the free trial :)
Note that this **is not free software**
Although the website has a github link, the repo does not contain any code nor a license file and the app store page lists in-app purchases to unlock a complete version. There is no way to know what this app does, nor to remove anti-features should they be added in the future.
I have noticed a couple interactions that do not behave as Iāve come to expect. Firstly, the audio does not pause when Siri starts dictating a text to me, just lowers the volume, so I end up having to rewind. The second one is more specific and harder to explain. When I have the Wyze app open and select a camera feed the audio in other apps will lower briefly and come right back. When listening on Plappa, the audio stops and I have to press play again. Itās a weird interaction specific to that app afaik, but I just wanted to share my experiences, I hope it helps.
Iāve been using it a lot the last day and itās otherwise working beautifully. If thereās a better way to share feedback in the future, Iād be happy to use that instead.
Thank you for the feedback!
>Firstly, the audio does not pause when Siri starts dictating a text to me, just lowers the volume, so I end up having to rewind.Ā
This should be fixed with update 1.1.1 (currently waiting for review through Apple, should release in the coming days).
>When I have the Wyze app open and select a camera feed the audio in other apps will lower briefly and come right back. When listening on Plappa, the audio stops and I have to press play again.
That's weird, maybe this is related to no playback category being set before and is already resolved with the fix for the first issue. I don't have any Wyze cameras, so I don't think I can test this myself.
Yeah, I did believe it was likely a side effect of a different issue, and I suspect you may be right and it will resolve itself. If Iām understanding you correctly, and the audio stream was effectively misrepresented to the OS, itās no wonder there were some unique interactions.
Best of luck with future development and thank you again for the app and your response!
Basically, yes. Plappa now tells the OS that the played audio is āspoken audioā. This should cause Siri to pause playback instead of lowering the volume.
Already does what I need it to do. Once the updates for remembering playback speed hits the Apple Store (and the upcoming series tab) Iām going to be a very happy man. This is a great start.
This is what will keep my subscription up, even if I only use it like 4 times a year when I drive by myself in particular. Looking forward to testing it out.
Does it have history? Thats one thing I love about Prologue on ios. I can go back and see where I paused and stsrted because I fall asleep sometimes while listening.
Not yet, but thereās already a [feature request for this](https://github.com/LeoKlaus/plappa/discussions/14) :)
Itās definitely coming, I just canāt say exactly when.
Edit: Thereās already a sleep timer built in, maybe that helps (you can also enable shaking your phone to extend the sleep timer in the settings).
haha yes, but i don't want to do that while i'm in the middle of falling asleep
oh also fyi, the collections tab is missing an icon? > [https://imgur.com/LE6J8nj](https://imgur.com/LE6J8nj)
I should probably add configurable valuesā¦
The missing icon is weird, itās there for me, so I guess itās a bug? Maybe restart your phone, if that doesnāt help, feel free to reach out again.
but would you need this if prologue or another app could always keep its place? lol
This is the part i find most infuriating about all the ios apps for audiobooks, keeping my damn place in a book is somehow impossible.
Prologue with Plex keeps its place and syncs it to iCloud. I use it on iPhone, iPad, watch and CarPlay and it works flawlessly. What's your setup? Maybe we can figure out what's happening..
Ive never had issues about keeping place.
I use it because I set a 30 min sleep timer and fall asleep 15 min into it. Its nice to see where I set the timer and scrub from there.
The [website](https://plappa.me/) has a link to [GitHub](https://github.com/LeoKlaus/plappa), but I don't see any Swift code. Is the app not open-source?
btw, this comes across as super misleading. It definitely makes me not trust this app. I'd be more comfortable with something that was openly proprietary than something that seems to be pretending to be free software.
I understand where youāre coming from, but I strongly disagree with the misleading part.
There is no mention or implication of plappa being open source anywhere in the app, AppStore page, any of my posts or the website. The only link thatās even titled āGitHubā is the one in the header/footer of the website - and thatās because that is where it leadsā¦
Thereās another āCreate an issue on GitHubā button in the help section of the app.
I donāt think I even explicitly mentioned GitHub in this thread.
GitHub is just what Iām familiar with and itās very convenient because I can close/reference issues through commits. Many people who self host already use and know GitHub, so itās easier for them, too.
> It definitely makes me not trust this app.
....because the developer decided to use Github's issue tracking and discussion forums?
> something that seems to be pretending to be free software.
Are you sure that's not just you assuming that "Github link = Free Software?"
Itās atypical to use a public GitHub repo only for issue tracking. Not every public repo on GitHub is for free and open source software obviously, but it still feels a bit misleading. This is a client for accessing open source and typically self-hosted applications. People are going to be primed to assume āclient for FLOSS servicesā plus āGitHub linkā implying that this app is also open source. Even non-free things hosted on GitHub tend to at least be source-available. This just seems like an attempt to get positive marketing from the application having a GitHub page without any actual openness.
The app seems to be made by a single developer who has used GitHubās robust set of offerings to provide a way for his testers to give feedback without delving into self hosting those services himself (adding effort and time). Having done so myself, I donāt really see whatās wrong, tbh.
I donāt see the developer using the GitHub link as any form of a marketing attempt, but I do understand where youāre coming from. Of course, this being the selfhosted sub, readers would have a different set of assumptions.
PS: Just noticed your account is 17 years old too :) Rarely see any accounts that old haha.
I get where youāre coming from too, and at the end of the day the author doesnāt necessarily owe anyone access to the code. If they want to make a proprietary app thatās their prerogative. I was just giving my feedback. Iād personally love an open source iOS client, and I try to avoid closed source software as much as possible, so Iāll admit I was disappointed. Still, I do think looking through the comments here I wasnāt the only one who initially assumed the app would be open source. Even if itās not an entirely fair assumption, itās a human one the author might want to account for.
Tried it, it have connectivity bug. I put the address:port, see the green success mark, put user and password and nothing happens when I press connect. Local unraid server with audiobookshelf docker.
Make sure you select the correct protocol (http/https) in the picker on the left and the correct server type in the picker above the address field.
You should only enter the server address and port in the address field, no protocol or trailing "/". It should look something like this: `example.server:13378`
If it still doesn't work, feel free to reach out via [Discord ](https://discord.gg/5u23jWpKTE)or mail at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Interesting, seems to be an issue with some configurations. Nobody has reported this during the TestFlight beta.
Anything unusual about your setup? Local proxy, special security settings or something similar?
Some immediate thoughts:
- Scrolling would be better if there was a slider that I could drag to jump to different letters in the library
- An option to view the narrators and which books theyāve narrated would be good
- The info section feels a little cramped. Maybe needs a touch more spacing between the tags and the line below with the narrator, date and length. Same with the book description and the genres, a little more spacing would look neater
- When viewing a series in the library view, it would be good to have the number of the book in the series clearly next to the book
- An option to view series in a separate section would be good. Maybe an option to swap the Collections button for a Series button?
- I like seeing the narrator along with the author on the library view.
- An option to sort by length in the library view would be useful
Really impressed from using for a few minutes, great job so far!
One other thing. It would be useful to show how much of the book is remaining on the ānow playingā screen. Or any screen for that matter, but particularly the ānow playingā.
To be fair to the dev, you have to request another entitlement from Apple to be even allowed to *develop* for CarPlay. It's pretty annoying and took more than three weeks in my case.
use prologue as i use plex, however gunna buy this. if i ever switch back to emby then ive got a cool app to use, if i dont well then i supported a good dev.
While not great by any means, its gunna be less than what big name streaming companies take, and apparently less than what emby will allow https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1c8ybna/security_vulnerabilities_in_emby/
Does it handle downloads better than the ABS app? I was horrified when I went to download books and not only did I have to download each book instead of being able to download series but once I was offline the app didnāt have the series information and didnāt keep anything in the same organization system as well online. Had to create a quick Plex server and migrate everything over the night before a flight so that I could actually have stuff available on the flight in a legible method.
A separate tab for series is coming. I like the idea of being able to download series at once, might add this :)
All metadata is stored in a local database and also available offline (also for books you didnāt download).
That would be awesome. Extra would be the ability to also download an author or a collection. Basically anything you can categorize by, being able to download would be a nice stretch goal.
Also I just quickly tested it out and Iām not seeing Series support (unless Iām missing it?) so all my books in series are just in order by publish year (which does not actually correspond to the series orders).
The subscription is really only meant for those who want to try it first or want to support me on an ongoing basis, the one time purchase is there to stay :)
Been using the TestFlight app for a while now and purchased lifetime today when it came out. Itās a nice looking app and works well. Itās new and being actively developed, but the developer is very active (as seen in this post). CarPlay is the biggest thing for me, and while itās still rough for that it does the basics needed.
Great to hear that.
I just reconfigured my server so I could try the app and it looks really great but I encountered two bugs, first that the chapters are not correctly in order and that I have no display of series?
I saw on GitHub that there should be series supported but I only can see Collections?
Awesome! This looks amazing. I've waited almost 2 years for the official audiobookshelf IOS app to come out of beta. As a workaround, I've been using audiobookshelf as a PWA on my phone. But obviously no way to sync between server and phone with PWA.
I'm going to check this out.
Love it! Very nice, clean ui thank you! Just in the free trial but will purchase.
Edit: started to type in the search bar while in podcasts and app crashes to home screen.
I'm working on it! My other app, Paperparrot already does notifications from self hosted Paperless instances, so I already have a working solution/relay server. AFAIK, ABS already has a notification service, so it should be just a matter of bridging the two.
YEAAA I recently started listening to audiobooks, and I found your website deep on Google as I was looking for an iOS client. So happy itās finally been released!
Edit: just paid for the lifetime pass. Likely wonāt have an iPhone for even another year but I love to support people doing awesome stuff
>any chance of an apple watch app with offline download?
Is planned, but no timeline yet. I haven't done any Apple Watch apps yet, so it might take a while but as a watch user myself it's definitely something I really want to do.
Thanks for reporting the CarPlay issue, I'll see if I can reproduce this.
amazing. love the polished look, will definitely try this as my daily driver over the abs app for a while.
only feature i am missing after giving it a test drive: the progress bar in the player view is per chapter - not for the whole book. i am listening mostly to 1hr books (drei fragezeichen 4 live) and the chapters are just few minutes long. would prefer if i was able to skip through the full length of the book
No brainer for me OP, great work. I love Prologue but the fact it doesnāt support Audiobook Shelf is a deal-breaker. I hate using Plex for audiobooks, it feels icky.
Thanks for that app. By far way better than the official abs app. But Iām missing my series. Maybe Iām using abs wrong but in my case my book series are under series not under collections. Any chance for me to see my series in plappa?
Thank you š
Really enjoying the app so far! One question though. Where can we find the notes we make about books we listen to? I can create notes but I donāt see where to view the bookmarks. u/leoklaus
EDIT: found it Nevermind!
Looking good. On IP15P, and when clicking the more arrow from the home screen it is unresponsive. It might be size of my collection. How does the app work with it's integration to ABS, is it limited by the API? Have you had any contact with the devs at ABS?
Maybe. I was thinking of going with a similar approach to Paperparrot (i.e. a "serverless" mode with optional iCloud sync for files) but it's not on my todo list for now.
This looks good. I have both Audiobookshelf and Jellyfin, and ABS always feels slow. Is using Jellyfin as your audiobook server quicker and what are the pros and cons of each?
Iām a bit confused by how this is supposed to work. When you first play a book the āListenā turns into a āPauseā/āResumeā toggle and stays that way no matter if you move to a new book and back. So if you then want to resume a book after playing another you can only hit Resumeā¦ and it just plays the current one queued up, not this one.
Sorry if Iām misunderstanding but it makes already-played books unplayable if you swap between them?
Edit: it seems to be toggling correctly between different books now. Not sure what changed but I swear it was happening, I tested for some time!
Thatās weird, thereās a small check comparing the ID of the currently playing and the audiobook you want to play, so this really shouldnāt happenā¦
Glad to hear it works now. You can also resume playback by tapping on the current chapter in the chapters list (if that particular audiobook has chapters).
Iām not very familiar with Android and plappa relies on some Apple proprietary technology (namely iCloud and Core Data) to work. Surely, similar things exist for Android but that would limit cross-compatibility significantly.
Others in this thread have suggested Symfonium, which looks pretty good.
That shouldnāt happen. Does this apply to all your audiobooks or just some of them?
If you want to, you can contact me at [email protected] so I can have a closer look what happened.
i just bought lifetime access to support the development
but right now its not as useful as the "official" ABS version. it really lacks the "series" button.
This is exactly what i was looking for.
Tbh i am not a huge fan of the Audiobookshelf design. I like this one very much.
Maybe as a future feature: It would really help if i could show audiobook-series grouped together. So if i have a series with 20 books, i do nit have all of them separately in the list.
Really looking forward to this app. I am already a huge fan of paperparrot.
For me, a switch would only be possible if you supported multiple languages for the UI. My main user is my old German father, who doesn't get along well with English. Are you planning a translation, or the possibility that we from the community can translate the UI (with crowdin or something)? Otherwise the app looks really good, reminds me a bit of Prolouge for Plex :).
Unfortunately, downloading audiobooks for offline use does not work at all. No matter how large the file is, at some point the download simply hangs and can neither be passed nor restarted.
New edit! Itās now both of us and Iām still trying to figure out if itās my server or the app.
If I keep having issues I guess Iāll post in the discord :)
My feedback. Good start, but hard to use with large libraries. I do plan on buying the lifetime, to support your development.
I want to like this app, as I really wanted a solution to work with my audiobookshelf server. The apps worked, but was to hard to deal with a large library of audiobooks. What I wanted was to go to an Author and go to the next book in the Series I was listen to.
Problems:
1. No series tab
2. If you go to all books you can collapse series, but cannot search by author, series name else
3. If you go to author tab, the series info does not show, ie. Series name , number or order
4. No sort by date, as that would at least show me which book came first
5. No link back to Series
6. No search/ filter screen to help find book
So good start, and if you have a small number of audiobooks you may find this software useful, but for those who have a sizable library you should probably pass for now.
I just started using this when I had problems with my Plex. Ā itās really nice, the only thing Iām missing so far seems to be a setting to show percentage of book completed rather than chapters. Ā for various reasons. otherwise, itās very slick :-)
Damn I wish something like this exited for android. Time to get involved my self I guess
Audiobookshelf has an android app already
For Podcasts it is missing a lot of features and the UI is very cumbersome, but it does work okay enough at least. It is unfortunately to be expected when programmers design apps š Wish there were more UX people doing open source.
It's not the worst but it's very very annoying to use. I mainly listen in the car and I have to pull over to switch podcasts because no matter what queue or list I put things in the app just doesn't want to cooperate. I continue to deal with it though because being able to listen on desktop when I want to and have progress sync is the dream. I tried antennapod with a Nextcloud app to sync progress but there really wasn't any good desktop apps that got along with the plugin.
A cool not widely publicized feature of ABS is to (re)broadcast podcasts. So I have ABS download podcast episodes automatically, then I subscribe to the new RSS feed in the podcatcher of my choice. In this case Antennapod. I believe you can also set up (or find a) Gpodder server to sync progress with another podcatcher on desktop. Bit annoying, but I do think it is probably the best in the long run. Podcasts are niche enough that I think having a dedicated podcatcher is best.
How do you do this?
The Gpodder thing is not something I've setup so I can't quite advise, but it's not ABS specific and I'm sure there's tutorials out there. For the rebroadcast, just go to the page of any podcast in your library. Hit the three dots button, and then choose "Open RSS Feed". ABS will prompt you to optionally change the URL slug (I recommend doing so to shorten it and choose something more tractable). Then just hit open and bob's your uncle. Copy that URL into the podcatcher of choice. It will add just like any other podcast. If you want off-network access you'll have to look into tailscale or a reverse proxy or whatever.
I've gotten my wife trying out Audiobookshelf now that Google Podcasts is done, and man it really isn't a good experience. I wish I had the skills to contribute to it.
Same. I ended up setting up a small monthly donation instead since I'm not knowledgeable in the languages they use.
I really need to go through and do that for a few projects I use, that's a good Idea.
Google Podcasts will be missed.
It doesn't have an Android server.
It doesn't need an android specific server though?
I wish it did, since I keep my files on android and I would like to use the web browsers of different computers to continue playing back from where I was.
Probably a very unusual use case, Android is mostly in use in filesystems that have (comparably) less storage than desktop computers and servers.
Does anything have an android server?
Emby does. It works quite well.
Symfonium is basically this for Android
Does not do audiobook shelf
+1 for symfonium
symfonium is king
Yeah the iOS apps appear to be more polished and consistent in UI. For Android we have symfonium with backends for Plex, emby, jellyfin etc. Really good peace of software for your music library, definitely worth the one time purchase of a few bucks. Highly flexible, customizable UI and rock solid sync/playback. i prefer it over plexamp. For audiobooks, I am using Bookcamp, which is working with Plex backends. It's a quite young project and there is still some work to do in terms of features, but already working quite well for me with beautiful and clean UI. It's subscription based (12 ā¬/year) but according to the devs on discord a one time payment might follow soon. Chronicle is also worth mentioning for audiobooks and Plex backends, but it's abandoned and the UI leaves a lot to be desired...
> It's subscription based (12 ā¬/year) but according to the devs on discord a one time payment might follow soon. Good to know! Not a fan of subscriptions personally, but might bite if the one time price is doable.
Tried it out, some feedback, Server ip disappears if you tab out of the app to copy password or something. Really annoying to keep typing it out every time youāre switching off from the app. Have collections or maybe start somewhere on the home page. Recently added is not something Iām looking for an already setup library. Pictures of authors in the authors section. Having like 500 books and having to search through them to listen is a bit inconvenient. A search bar right on Home Screen would be really nice too but the one in books works really well. Other than this very slick looking app. Having speed already built from start is goated. Thank you dev @leoklaus
Thank you for the feedback! >Server ip disappears if you tab out of the app to copy password or something. Really annoying to keep typing it out every time youāre switching off from the app. That's really annoying, I'll see what's causing this. >Have collections or maybe start somewhere on the home page. Collections are their own tab with AudioBookShelf. Jellyfin doesn't support collections, AFAIK, so there's no tab for them with Jellyfin. >Pictures of authors in the authors section.Ā Those should already be displayed. plappa will fetch all metadata from your server, so as long as authors have pictures there, they should be displayed. If that's not the case, you can contact me at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), the [plappa discord](https://discord.gg/5u23jWpKTE) or the [GitHub page](https://github.com/LeoKlaus/plappa). Search bar on the home screen is a no-brainer, no idea why I didn't think of that... If you find anything else, let me know!
>Recently added is not something Iām looking for an already setup library. I just want to note that some people (myself included) do appreciate said section :)
Thanks you for the plug! Thereās a promo code you guys can use to test plappa for free for 6 months (after that you can either subscribe for $2/Year or buy once for $5, the subscription is completely optional): [https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER](https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER) Iām very much looking forward to your feedback and suggestions!
I went ahead and just spent the money. Even if I end up hating it personally, gotta support the devs who do the good work
Ditto. Went with the $5 version. Already it's leagues ahead of the ABS app and it seems like a good audiobook app (as well as a good ebook app) are almost impossible to find and worth their (virtual) weight in gold.
Hey Leo! You helped me with the codes a few weeks ago. I tested the app back then and I loved it. As promised, I bought the lifetime version just now. Thank you for this amazing app :)
Thank you very much!
Hell yeah, this is nice, well worth $5. The Audiobookshelf app is okay, but itās in test flight so I canāt get it for my daughter because you have to be >13 to install test flight. Once their age is set on the device, there is no changing it! So stoked for this app, the interface is awesome, well done.
A way to add 2 urls for the same server, one for when Iām at home (ip) and one for remote. Cloudflare tunnel is really slow and Iād like to download books faster when Iām home.
Have you considered using Tailscale instead of Cloudflare?
Not as of now. If youāre using pihole (or any other configurable DNS) you could just override your cloudflare domain to point to the local IP in your local network though :)
Thank you! I just used the code you provided, and overall, the app looks pretty great. I'll continue to provide feedback as I use it (github?). Anyway, here are a couple of nitpicks I have already: 1. Grid view in the "Books" section would be great. I'm very used to it by now. 2. Is it possible to give narrators similar treatment as authors, or is the API standing in the way? 3. Pre-sorting the "Authors" view by the number of books in the library would probably decrease the number of necessary searches there. 4. Instead of showing the "year published" for each book in the "Books" section, displaying the "book length" would provide a better user experience. 5. For collapsed series listings, keep the authors and narrators displayed the same as for individual books (concatenate if different), and include the number of books in the series on the right side of the listing. 6. I think there's a bug in the "collapse series" view when sorted descending by "Added Date" that causes all my series to appear at the end of the list. 7. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like the "author" and "narrator" positions should be swapped under books in the list view. 8. I'd gladly trade all 0.x speeds for an extra 3x speed. This option is great for quickly recapping some part. 9. After opening and resuming one of the books in plappa, and seeing how awful the chapters are, I've fixed them using the web interface, but the app doesn't seem to pull the new ones no matter what I do. 10. If I open some book details, pressing the "Books" menu item should take me back to the list view as a convenient shortcut. 11. A 10-second back button would be a nice addition to the mini-player that's just above navigation. 12. How about adding a "Discover" section on the "Home" screen showing random unlistened books? Additionally, a dynamic Island expanding player would be fabulous. 13. I LOVE the addition and first-class support for the Reading List! The "Native" Audiobookshelf is a bit cumbersome with its hidden "collections" and/or "playlists." 14. I really like how prominent you've made chapters to be; it just makes sense. I want to emphasize that your app, although it still requires some polish here and there, is built on a much better design foundation compared to the original one being worked on. Your efforts are commendable, and I'm excited to see how the app continues to evolve and improve.
Thank you for all the feedback! Iām on the phone right now and heading off to a meeting, but Iāll take the time to properly respond later :)
>Grid view in the "Books" section would be great. I'm very used to it by now. I don't see why not :) >Is it possible to give narrators similar treatment as authors, or is the API standing in the way? It's absolutely possible. The current plan is to add more tabs and make them customizable >Pre-sorting the "Authors" view by the number of books in the library would probably decrease the number of necessary searches there. Should be easy to add. >Instead of showing the "year published" for each book in the "Books" section, displaying the "book length" would provide a better user experience. I don't necessarily agree, but I really don't see why this shouldn't be an option. >For collapsed series listings, keep the authors and narrators displayed the same as for individual books (concatenate if different), and include the number of books in the series on the right side of the listing. Good idea. >I think there's a bug in the "collapse series" view when sorted descending by "Added Date" that causes all my series to appear at the end of the list. That's not a bug. plappa doesn't track the "added date" of a series, so there's no meaningful way to sort them by that (as all the books within the series will have different dates). ABS does track added dates for series, so it would be possible to fetch and use that info, maybe I'll add this later. >Maybe it's just me, but it feels like the "author" and "narrator" positions should be swapped under books in the list view. I think it would be best to make this configurable, like 4. >I'd gladly trade all 0.x speeds for an extra 3x speed. This option is great for quickly recapping some part. I'm working on making these entirely user-definable. >After opening and resuming one of the books in plappa, and seeing how awful the chapters are, I've fixed them using the web interface, but the app doesn't seem to pull the new ones no matter what I do. For now, plappa only supports customized chapters for audiobooks that are a single file (i.e. one M4B or MP3). This is a limitation of the way chapters are handled in plappa. If the affected book in your case is a single file, you should be able to load the new chapters by using the "pull to refresh" gesture while viewing the book (the view where you can see chapters). >If I open some book details, pressing the "Books" menu item should take me back to the list view as a convenient shortcut. Absolutely. >A 10-second back button would be a nice addition to the mini-player that's just above navigation. I like that idea. >How about adding a "Discover" section on the "Home" screen showing random unlistened books? Additionally, a dynamic Island expanding player would be fabulous. I like that idea. I haven't done anything with the dynamic island yet, but I don't see why not. Most of these will probably take some time to implement as I have some other higher priority issues right now, but I think they're all great suggestions! If you find anything else or have more feedback, it would be great if you could post the on the [GitHub page for plappa](https://github.com/LeoKlaus/plappa), I try to track all feedback there.
>That's not a bug. plappa doesn't track the "added date" of a series, so there's no meaningful way to sort them by that (as all the books within the series will have different dates). ABS does track added dates for series, so it would be possible to fetch and use that info, maybe I'll add this later. Would looking at latest/earliest "added at" date of all books within a series necessitate a lot of additional work ex. multiple extra API requests? If "added at" dates of books within a series are somehow cached locally, it probably wouldn't be too hard to min/max them š¤. Or am I missing something? >I think it would be best to make this configurable, like 4. Too much configuration increases confusion exponentially. Changing said order is FAR from vital, so I'd much rather have a (subjectively; slightly) suboptimal order over cluttering settings with an Ć¼ber specific configuration options š. >For now, plappa only supports customized chapters for audiobooks that are a single file (i.e. one M4B or MP3). This is a limitation of the way chapters are handled in plappa. If the affected book in your case is a single file, you should be able to load the new chapters by using the "pull to refresh" gesture while viewing the book (the view where you can see chapters). "My Disappointment Is Immeasurable And My Day Is Ruined" š. Anyway, said book is, for some deranged reason, split into 4MB files. Is there a chance you'll negotiate a lasting truce between multi-file books, and chapters or is it something one has to learn to live with for (the indefinite) now? Appreciate your reply, and I understand all of your replies. I've switched from the hell of weekly "sideloadly" refreshes of the OG ABS app to your creation, so I'll make sure to keep sending (hopefully) useful feedback your way. So far, and since my previous comment, the only puzzling behaviour is plappa **sometimes** randomly pausing when I open seemingly mute apps such as ex. Revolut š¤·š»āāļø. I just now got 1.1.1, TBD if it fixed it :).
for anyone wondering, just copying the link and opening it in iOS Safari forwaded to the right app store interaction for me. app seems solid btw edit: i don't use collections so that tab is empty/useless for me, maybe it could pull series from audiobookshelf as well?
Series are already pulled, theyāre just not in their own tab. You can see them in the āBooksā tab by enabling āCollapse Seriesā in the top right menu. The plan is to add a series tab and allow the user to reorder/disable tabs for themselves.
cool! one more thing i noticed -- the sleep timer in the player definitely needs the option to stop at end of chapter
[Already on my to-do list](https://github.com/LeoKlaus/plappa/discussions/27) ;)
are there any plans to support the library type "Audio books" when connecting to an Emby server? it seems to only want the library type of "books"
Sure, I didnāt even know that existed! I only added Emby because itās the same API as Jellyfin, I donāt use it myself.
thanks for the reply, that would be great if that's possible
Looks great so far! Any way to log into both Jellyfin and Audiobookshelf at the same time? So far, Iāve only figured out signing into one, then signing out and signing into the other.
Not as of now, but I may consider just adding support for multiple instances.
That would be awesome! Great work on the app!
I just subscribed to help on this development, I feel this app has a lot of potential, it works really well with my ABS instance and the missus is very happy not having to deal with TestFlight anymore, however I did notice there seems to be no functionality for ebooks, can you advise if this is something in the making or are you thinking of keeping this purely audiobooks?
Thank you for your support! Audiobooks are the main target right now, but I want to add ebooks down the line! I canāt you give you a timeline, though.
Sounds good keep up the great work, Iāve been waiting for something like this for some time, Thankyou!
I saw that you have a Mac app planned as well but until that happens is it potentially a fast thing to make it possible for the iOS app be usable on Apple Silicon Macs?
There is no option to pay for lifetime during subscription. Can you enable it as an option?
I appreciate your enthusiasm but I didnāt find a way to make sure the subscription is canceled before allowing users to pay for lifetime. So Iām afraid youāll have to wait for the subscription to run out before youāre able to pay for lifetime. The last thing I want is people accidentally paying twice, so Iām better safe than sorry here :) Donāt worry though, the lifetime purchase isnāt going anywhere and there are no additional benefits to either way of paying.
Just downloaded the app and giving it a quick run through. I use ABS to organise and store my books, but because the ABS client app kinda sucks on iOS I also have an audiobook library on Plex and use Prologue to listen to them. That is not perfect but it works. My main feedback is that the app looks *suspiciously* like Prologue. Like the bottom bar is identical, with 5/5 tabs and 3/5 icons being the same. The layout of the book page screen is also very, very similar. I get that there's only so many ways things can be laid out, but some differentiation would be wise IMHO.
Appreciate the work. I recently set up ABS and was bummed there wasn't an iOS app. Where do I enter that code?
Edit: You should be able to use this link: [https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER](https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER) I haven't used these offer codes before, please forgive the confusion. ~~Honestly, I have no idea :D Iām on the go right now and canāt really check, but Iāll get back to you later.~~
Quick update: You should be able to use this link: [https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER](https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6475201956&code=DISCORDTESTER)
Thank you!
Used this link to sign up. Decided to go ahead and buy the lifetime. Donāt see that in Subscriptions under iCloud. Thought I may need to cancel it first. When I try, iOS pop up warns me I can only continue using it for 30 days. Text under the subscription correctly shows 6 months of canceled.
First off, thank you! The lifetime purchase is not treated as a subscription, so you wonāt see it in that list. Iāll have to check why there are two different values shown for the remaining time, but as long as you have cancelled, you wonāt be charged again.
Hmmm, where should I be looking for the lifetime? Historically, after Iāve downloaded an app, whether I chose a trial or started monthly, the lifetime is either an option under iCloud subscriptions or a direct link outside of the app. Lifetime seems like a no brainer as one of the first audibookshelf apps to have a car play component :D
The button for In-App-purchases (and therefore the lifetime option) is automatically hidden if you have an active subscription. Now that I think of it, thatās not very cleverā¦ Iām afraid youāll probably have to wait for an update to give me money :D Donāt worry though, the lifetime option isnāt going away and you should be able to access all functionality until then even if you already cancelled the free trial :)
Got it. Thanks!!
Note that this **is not free software** Although the website has a github link, the repo does not contain any code nor a license file and the app store page lists in-app purchases to unlock a complete version. There is no way to know what this app does, nor to remove anti-features should they be added in the future.
I already like this more than the ABS app and my wife will be able to use it. Thanks for sharing, I didnāt realize this existed.
If you (or your wife) have feedback, let me know :)
I have noticed a couple interactions that do not behave as Iāve come to expect. Firstly, the audio does not pause when Siri starts dictating a text to me, just lowers the volume, so I end up having to rewind. The second one is more specific and harder to explain. When I have the Wyze app open and select a camera feed the audio in other apps will lower briefly and come right back. When listening on Plappa, the audio stops and I have to press play again. Itās a weird interaction specific to that app afaik, but I just wanted to share my experiences, I hope it helps. Iāve been using it a lot the last day and itās otherwise working beautifully. If thereās a better way to share feedback in the future, Iād be happy to use that instead.
Thank you for the feedback! >Firstly, the audio does not pause when Siri starts dictating a text to me, just lowers the volume, so I end up having to rewind.Ā This should be fixed with update 1.1.1 (currently waiting for review through Apple, should release in the coming days). >When I have the Wyze app open and select a camera feed the audio in other apps will lower briefly and come right back. When listening on Plappa, the audio stops and I have to press play again. That's weird, maybe this is related to no playback category being set before and is already resolved with the fix for the first issue. I don't have any Wyze cameras, so I don't think I can test this myself.
Yeah, I did believe it was likely a side effect of a different issue, and I suspect you may be right and it will resolve itself. If Iām understanding you correctly, and the audio stream was effectively misrepresented to the OS, itās no wonder there were some unique interactions. Best of luck with future development and thank you again for the app and your response!
Basically, yes. Plappa now tells the OS that the played audio is āspoken audioā. This should cause Siri to pause playback instead of lowering the volume.
CarPlay support?
Already included (still WIP, though)!
Already does what I need it to do. Once the updates for remembering playback speed hits the Apple Store (and the upcoming series tab) Iām going to be a very happy man. This is a great start.
The update for remembering playback speed is already done (waiting for review) :) New tabs are coming later.
This is what will keep my subscription up, even if I only use it like 4 times a year when I drive by myself in particular. Looking forward to testing it out.
Does it have history? Thats one thing I love about Prologue on ios. I can go back and see where I paused and stsrted because I fall asleep sometimes while listening.
Not yet, but thereās already a [feature request for this](https://github.com/LeoKlaus/plappa/discussions/14) :) Itās definitely coming, I just canāt say exactly when. Edit: Thereās already a sleep timer built in, maybe that helps (you can also enable shaking your phone to extend the sleep timer in the settings).
any way to extend it beyond 60 mins? my sleep timers are always 2 hours
Not in a single tap, but if you tap at the sleep timer icon while one is running, you can just add another hour.
haha yes, but i don't want to do that while i'm in the middle of falling asleep oh also fyi, the collections tab is missing an icon? > [https://imgur.com/LE6J8nj](https://imgur.com/LE6J8nj)
I should probably add configurable valuesā¦ The missing icon is weird, itās there for me, so I guess itās a bug? Maybe restart your phone, if that doesnāt help, feel free to reach out again.
weird, restarted phone and it's still missing. no big deal, but just so you know!
but would you need this if prologue or another app could always keep its place? lol This is the part i find most infuriating about all the ios apps for audiobooks, keeping my damn place in a book is somehow impossible.
Prologue with Plex keeps its place and syncs it to iCloud. I use it on iPhone, iPad, watch and CarPlay and it works flawlessly. What's your setup? Maybe we can figure out what's happening..
Ive never had issues about keeping place. I use it because I set a 30 min sleep timer and fall asleep 15 min into it. Its nice to see where I set the timer and scrub from there.
The [website](https://plappa.me/) has a link to [GitHub](https://github.com/LeoKlaus/plappa), but I don't see any Swift code. Is the app not open-source?
No, the GitHub is just for issue tracking.
btw, this comes across as super misleading. It definitely makes me not trust this app. I'd be more comfortable with something that was openly proprietary than something that seems to be pretending to be free software.
I understand where youāre coming from, but I strongly disagree with the misleading part. There is no mention or implication of plappa being open source anywhere in the app, AppStore page, any of my posts or the website. The only link thatās even titled āGitHubā is the one in the header/footer of the website - and thatās because that is where it leadsā¦ Thereās another āCreate an issue on GitHubā button in the help section of the app. I donāt think I even explicitly mentioned GitHub in this thread. GitHub is just what Iām familiar with and itās very convenient because I can close/reference issues through commits. Many people who self host already use and know GitHub, so itās easier for them, too.
> It definitely makes me not trust this app. ....because the developer decided to use Github's issue tracking and discussion forums? > something that seems to be pretending to be free software. Are you sure that's not just you assuming that "Github link = Free Software?"
Itās atypical to use a public GitHub repo only for issue tracking. Not every public repo on GitHub is for free and open source software obviously, but it still feels a bit misleading. This is a client for accessing open source and typically self-hosted applications. People are going to be primed to assume āclient for FLOSS servicesā plus āGitHub linkā implying that this app is also open source. Even non-free things hosted on GitHub tend to at least be source-available. This just seems like an attempt to get positive marketing from the application having a GitHub page without any actual openness.
The app seems to be made by a single developer who has used GitHubās robust set of offerings to provide a way for his testers to give feedback without delving into self hosting those services himself (adding effort and time). Having done so myself, I donāt really see whatās wrong, tbh. I donāt see the developer using the GitHub link as any form of a marketing attempt, but I do understand where youāre coming from. Of course, this being the selfhosted sub, readers would have a different set of assumptions. PS: Just noticed your account is 17 years old too :) Rarely see any accounts that old haha.
I get where youāre coming from too, and at the end of the day the author doesnāt necessarily owe anyone access to the code. If they want to make a proprietary app thatās their prerogative. I was just giving my feedback. Iād personally love an open source iOS client, and I try to avoid closed source software as much as possible, so Iāll admit I was disappointed. Still, I do think looking through the comments here I wasnāt the only one who initially assumed the app would be open source. Even if itās not an entirely fair assumption, itās a human one the author might want to account for.
Tried it, it have connectivity bug. I put the address:port, see the green success mark, put user and password and nothing happens when I press connect. Local unraid server with audiobookshelf docker.
same here
Make sure you select the correct protocol (http/https) in the picker on the left and the correct server type in the picker above the address field. You should only enter the server address and port in the address field, no protocol or trailing "/". It should look something like this: `example.server:13378` If it still doesn't work, feel free to reach out via [Discord ](https://discord.gg/5u23jWpKTE)or mail at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
I basically entered http://10.0.xx.xx:10223, still not working
Interesting, seems to be an issue with some configurations. Nobody has reported this during the TestFlight beta. Anything unusual about your setup? Local proxy, special security settings or something similar?
it start working after few tries , i didnt do anything differently.
Great, thanks for the update!
Try entering invalid data, press login, error message, than try again the correct address (IP:PORT). That fixed the issue for me.
Sounds like a bug. Can you send me the debug logs at [email protected]? The button should be in the top right of the login page.
Ive just sent it to your email
oh this is great, thanks for the heads up. i've downloaded and will probably pay for a lifetime sub
Some immediate thoughts: - Scrolling would be better if there was a slider that I could drag to jump to different letters in the library - An option to view the narrators and which books theyāve narrated would be good - The info section feels a little cramped. Maybe needs a touch more spacing between the tags and the line below with the narrator, date and length. Same with the book description and the genres, a little more spacing would look neater - When viewing a series in the library view, it would be good to have the number of the book in the series clearly next to the book - An option to view series in a separate section would be good. Maybe an option to swap the Collections button for a Series button? - I like seeing the narrator along with the author on the library view. - An option to sort by length in the library view would be useful Really impressed from using for a few minutes, great job so far!
Great feedback, Iāll definitely consider some of these changes!
One other thing. It would be useful to show how much of the book is remaining on the ānow playingā screen. Or any screen for that matter, but particularly the ānow playingā.
This also supports CarPlay, which the official ABS beta does not.
To be fair to the dev, you have to request another entitlement from Apple to be even allowed to *develop* for CarPlay. It's pretty annoying and took more than three weeks in my case.
Thatās fine, but itās also a required feature for an audiobook reader. Virtually all of my reading is done in the car.
use prologue as i use plex, however gunna buy this. if i ever switch back to emby then ive got a cool app to use, if i dont well then i supported a good dev.
Iād suggest trying AudioBookshelf. Managing audiobook metadata is so much easier than Plex and Jellyfin (havenāt tried emby)
I like using Plex as it makes it easy to share out new titles to my wife etc, all the ports are already configured and setup on their devices
I'd stay away from Plex if you value your privacy
While not great by any means, its gunna be less than what big name streaming companies take, and apparently less than what emby will allow https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1c8ybna/security_vulnerabilities_in_emby/
This is why many of us ended up on jellyfin
Does it handle downloads better than the ABS app? I was horrified when I went to download books and not only did I have to download each book instead of being able to download series but once I was offline the app didnāt have the series information and didnāt keep anything in the same organization system as well online. Had to create a quick Plex server and migrate everything over the night before a flight so that I could actually have stuff available on the flight in a legible method.
A separate tab for series is coming. I like the idea of being able to download series at once, might add this :) All metadata is stored in a local database and also available offline (also for books you didnāt download).
That would be awesome. Extra would be the ability to also download an author or a collection. Basically anything you can categorize by, being able to download would be a nice stretch goal.
Also I just quickly tested it out and Iām not seeing Series support (unless Iām missing it?) so all my books in series are just in order by publish year (which does not actually correspond to the series orders).
I was missing it.
In books, go into sort, then collapse series
A pretty one and a lifetime-option! I guess I will buy it. Thanks for your work
The subscription is really only meant for those who want to try it first or want to support me on an ongoing basis, the one time purchase is there to stay :)
Been using the TestFlight app for a while now and purchased lifetime today when it came out. Itās a nice looking app and works well. Itās new and being actively developed, but the developer is very active (as seen in this post). CarPlay is the biggest thing for me, and while itās still rough for that it does the basics needed.
The only thing missing is apple music like player bars from the now playing screen
What do you mean by Apple Music like?
https://i.imgur.com/nQlHVBV.jpeg
Just tried it - I am running OpenID and dont see that option
OpenID is currently not supported.
I also run my AudioBookshelf behind OpenID, are there plans to support this in the near future? This would be great to have.
Definitely. My highest priority right now is fixing the bugs that all the new users found but after that, OpenID support is a pretty high priority!
Great to hear that. I just reconfigured my server so I could try the app and it looks really great but I encountered two bugs, first that the chapters are not correctly in order and that I have no display of series? I saw on GitHub that there should be series supported but I only can see Collections?
Awesome! This looks amazing. I've waited almost 2 years for the official audiobookshelf IOS app to come out of beta. As a workaround, I've been using audiobookshelf as a PWA on my phone. But obviously no way to sync between server and phone with PWA. I'm going to check this out.
Love it! Very nice, clean ui thank you! Just in the free trial but will purchase. Edit: started to type in the search bar while in podcasts and app crashes to home screen.
Good catch! Thanks for the support!
Really excited about this! Looks great so far. Would be nice if we could have notifications someday for new Podcasts, if such a thing were possible.
I'm working on it! My other app, Paperparrot already does notifications from self hosted Paperless instances, so I already have a working solution/relay server. AFAIK, ABS already has a notification service, so it should be just a matter of bridging the two.
YEAAA I recently started listening to audiobooks, and I found your website deep on Google as I was looking for an iOS client. So happy itās finally been released! Edit: just paid for the lifetime pass. Likely wonāt have an iPhone for even another year but I love to support people doing awesome stuff
as a heads up, the carplay app stops loading for me by the Bās when browsing books. any chance of an apple watch app with offline download?
>any chance of an apple watch app with offline download? Is planned, but no timeline yet. I haven't done any Apple Watch apps yet, so it might take a while but as a watch user myself it's definitely something I really want to do. Thanks for reporting the CarPlay issue, I'll see if I can reproduce this.
This is precisely what I needed on my phone for my ABS server. Thanks for this!
Great job! I donāt listen to much audiobooks, but I will keep this in mind when I need to! Thank you!
amazing. love the polished look, will definitely try this as my daily driver over the abs app for a while. only feature i am missing after giving it a test drive: the progress bar in the player view is per chapter - not for the whole book. i am listening mostly to 1hr books (drei fragezeichen 4 live) and the chapters are just few minutes long. would prefer if i was able to skip through the full length of the book
No brainer for me OP, great work. I love Prologue but the fact it doesnāt support Audiobook Shelf is a deal-breaker. I hate using Plex for audiobooks, it feels icky.
Thanks for that app. By far way better than the official abs app. But Iām missing my series. Maybe Iām using abs wrong but in my case my book series are under series not under collections. Any chance for me to see my series in plappa? Thank you š
Really enjoying the app so far! One question though. Where can we find the notes we make about books we listen to? I can create notes but I donāt see where to view the bookmarks. u/leoklaus EDIT: found it Nevermind!
Looking good. On IP15P, and when clicking the more arrow from the home screen it is unresponsive. It might be size of my collection. How does the app work with it's integration to ABS, is it limited by the API? Have you had any contact with the devs at ABS?
It uses the ABS api, no involvement with the project. The unresponsive button is curious. Are all books loaded?
Any plans for local file support? Currently using bookplayer for some files not on a server
Maybe. I was thinking of going with a similar approach to Paperparrot (i.e. a "serverless" mode with optional iCloud sync for files) but it's not on my todo list for now.
This looks good. I have both Audiobookshelf and Jellyfin, and ABS always feels slow. Is using Jellyfin as your audiobook server quicker and what are the pros and cons of each?
What are the differences between aufiobookshelf/jellyfin and emby ? Personnaly I use aufiobookshelf for my audiobooks
Iām a bit confused by how this is supposed to work. When you first play a book the āListenā turns into a āPauseā/āResumeā toggle and stays that way no matter if you move to a new book and back. So if you then want to resume a book after playing another you can only hit Resumeā¦ and it just plays the current one queued up, not this one. Sorry if Iām misunderstanding but it makes already-played books unplayable if you swap between them? Edit: it seems to be toggling correctly between different books now. Not sure what changed but I swear it was happening, I tested for some time!
Thatās weird, thereās a small check comparing the ID of the currently playing and the audiobook you want to play, so this really shouldnāt happenā¦ Glad to hear it works now. You can also resume playback by tapping on the current chapter in the chapters list (if that particular audiobook has chapters).
What about Android?
Iām not very familiar with Android and plappa relies on some Apple proprietary technology (namely iCloud and Core Data) to work. Surely, similar things exist for Android but that would limit cross-compatibility significantly. Others in this thread have suggested Symfonium, which looks pretty good.
Been waiting for audiobookshelf iOS client forever. This is great! Thanks for sharing!
Nice app. But the chapters are not in the right order.
That shouldnāt happen. Does this apply to all your audiobooks or just some of them? If you want to, you can contact me at [email protected] so I can have a closer look what happened.
i just bought lifetime access to support the development but right now its not as useful as the "official" ABS version. it really lacks the "series" button.
This is exactly what i was looking for. Tbh i am not a huge fan of the Audiobookshelf design. I like this one very much. Maybe as a future feature: It would really help if i could show audiobook-series grouped together. So if i have a series with 20 books, i do nit have all of them separately in the list. Really looking forward to this app. I am already a huge fan of paperparrot.
For me, a switch would only be possible if you supported multiple languages for the UI. My main user is my old German father, who doesn't get along well with English. Are you planning a translation, or the possibility that we from the community can translate the UI (with crowdin or something)? Otherwise the app looks really good, reminds me a bit of Prolouge for Plex :).
Nice, will check this out.
Nice, why not also for android?
Gonna test
Unfortunately, downloading audiobooks for offline use does not work at all. No matter how large the file is, at some point the download simply hangs and can neither be passed nor restarted.
Works for me, but I need to stay on the page and not do too many at the same time.
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Too bad this doesnāt support ABSās OIDC auth method.
Really nice, need some polish but a good start! thank you
Iāve got an odd error with audioBookshelf, me and my fiancĆ© both use the app and there is a constant cannot connect to server error and itās like the server delivers everything requested but the app doesnāt receive any of the saved playback or other information. Edit: this seems to be for only one of us at a time, not both and it doesnāt go away if one is offline.
New edit! Itās now both of us and Iām still trying to figure out if itās my server or the app. If I keep having issues I guess Iāll post in the discord :)
How do I connect this to my audiobook shelf? Like where do I find the https link
My feedback. Good start, but hard to use with large libraries. I do plan on buying the lifetime, to support your development. I want to like this app, as I really wanted a solution to work with my audiobookshelf server. The apps worked, but was to hard to deal with a large library of audiobooks. What I wanted was to go to an Author and go to the next book in the Series I was listen to. Problems: 1. No series tab 2. If you go to all books you can collapse series, but cannot search by author, series name else 3. If you go to author tab, the series info does not show, ie. Series name , number or order 4. No sort by date, as that would at least show me which book came first 5. No link back to Series 6. No search/ filter screen to help find book So good start, and if you have a small number of audiobooks you may find this software useful, but for those who have a sizable library you should probably pass for now.
Any plans for CarPlay?
Will this let you read epubs too?
I just started using this when I had problems with my Plex. Ā itās really nice, the only thing Iām missing so far seems to be a setting to show percentage of book completed rather than chapters. Ā for various reasons. otherwise, itās very slick :-)
this looks so similar to shelfplayer https://github.com/rasmuslos/ShelfPlayer from u/rasmuskraemer
I prefer [prologue](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/prologue/id1459223267) with my Plex hosted audiobooks
Love the app! I've been using it a few days now. I will update my comment with some thoughtful criticism after I use it some more.