Audible for Android

Summary

Picture this: you come home at the end of a long day, sit down in your favourite armchair with a hot cup of tea (or Hot Toddy, it's winter after all), lean back and drift off into the wonderful world of a good book. Now add to the equation the fact that you've got your eyes closed and rather than reading a book a pleasant voice is reading aloud to you. Pure bliss.

Now open your eyes and keep reading for our detailed review of Audible for Android.

Test device: Samsung Galaxy Nexus
Android version: 4.1.2
Root: No
Modifications: None

Permissions: strike us as being legitimate, though we should point out that the app requests permission to access private data.

Honk if you love books! I love them: entertaining, informative, food for thought and the imagination and a sure means to escape reality for hours on end. That said, I admit to occasionally giving into a state of complete and utter laziness and watching telly rather than diving back into my novel, simply because I'm too beat to read. Recently, though, I've discovered that audio books are perfect for instances when I'm too tired to read myself, or even when I'm pottering about doing chores or out on the go.

In order to use Audible for Android you will need to register at some point (in order to access the extensive data base), thought curious new users can also check the app out without signing up straight away. As an alternative to signing up with the app you can also fall back on your already existing Amazon account... Or so the theory goes; I for one had problems signing in with Amazon, which is why I created and Audible account in the end.

Buying new audio books is a piece of cake. Swipe and access the extensive book store: it's as simple as that. Search for titles, browse bestseller lists or shop by category. Downloading then happens quietly in the background, even when you're already listening to an audio book.

The quality of the audio books is impressive, not least because of the excellent player. The player comes with all basic features such as fast forward and rewind or skip back and forth 30 seconds or entire chapters.

Setting up bookmarks is another cool tool. You can even bookmark your favourite passages within a book.

Check out the Details for more general information on a given book, including the synopsis.

The app provides a number of functions that surpassed my expectations, starting with the different playback modes or rather tempos. This is especially useful if you're learning a foreign language and using Audible to train your ear. This way you can listen to audio books in your target language, but at a slower pace than what a native speaker might choose to listen to. Another feature I really appreciate is the sleep mode: here you can set an interval at which the app automatically stops playback, so that it will stop playing once you've fallen asleep.

But my personal fave is the Navigator, an alternative UI which enable fast and easy access to all key control elements. This means you need only swipe in order to control playback. Cool.

You can set up your own personal library which can be sorted by most recent entry, title, author, duration.
Finally, there's a news feed to help you keep up to speed.

Personalise your user experience via the settings and regulate playback, download and headset options.

Bottom line:

Audible for Android made a good impression on us. The book catalogue is large, the audio quality is good and the application is easy to use. What more could you ask for?

Audible for Android is set up in a straight forward manner that makes the application easy to navigate. The search function makes finding audio books easy-peasy.

The app is easy to use overall, and the Navigator is a great tool for listening to audio books thanks to its useful functions and simple controls.

Audible for Android performed well and without any issues whatsoever. Downloading audio books takes no time at all.

Audible for Android is available for free from our very own AndroidPIT App Center.