Maximizing your audiobook experience

“WOW I’m so glad I know about these great features!” – You, after reading this article.

Sometimes our customers ask for tips on the best ways to enjoy Audiobooks.com. Sometimes we even get requests for features we already have. So here’s a feature overview that covers what our player is capable of, including some “hidden” gems you may have missed!

The Basics: 

You probably know all about this, but as I’m here I might as well be thorough.

Nav bar:
This displays your progress in the audiobook – how much time has elapsed and how much time remains. You can scrub through the audio using the orange bar, but know that your last point is what is remembered – not you furthest point in the book.

If you’d like to see your listening progress on a per-track basis instead, below the progress bar where the orange circle is highlighted, simply tap the four circles.

Track navigation:
Here you can skip between audio tracks. While tracks sometimes might not correlate with chapters in the book, they’re still a handy way to navigate around. Hit the grey oval to view all tracks and skip to a different section of the book.

Play/pause, skip forward or reverse:
This is your typical play/pause button with navigation arrows to go forward or backwards in the audio. In this image, you move 30 seconds forwards or backwards, but the number of seconds can be adjusted in the settings.


Fine Tuning:


The bottom of our player has four icons, each of which is a very helpful listening tool!

1x (or increments from 0.5x to 2x):
This is where you can adjust playback speed. If you’re the type of listener that uses audiobooks to maximize your day, the narrator may not be relaying information fast enough for you. Tap this icon to change the narration speed and get through your book in record time.

Sleep Timer:
Hit the moon to open our sleep timer. Before settling in for the night, select an amount of time you’d like the audiobook to continue playing. After that time has elapsed, your audiobook will pause and you can nod off without worrying that your book is going to play all night while you snore too loudly to notice.

Bookmarks and Notes:
If there’s a section of the book you’d like to recall or make note of, hit the orange flag icon. You can leave your thoughts about the time you’re on, which gets saved to My Notes. You can navigate to the My Notes section from the main menu.

Connect to a device:
Want to quickly play your audiobook through a device nearby? Tap the speaker icon in the bottom right, which will launch a pop-up asking you to select the device you’d like to connect to. Plus, you can control that specific device’s volume from this pop-up as well. Neat, huh?!


“Hidden” Gems:


Here are some lesser-known features of our app:

Skip Time:
In the Settings menu, there is a section of “Playback Settings.” Here, you can adjust how much you’d like to skip forward and backwards in your audiobook when you hit the arrows on the player screen.

Playback Gestures:
There is also the option to toggle “Playback Gestures” on or off. These playback gestures refer to using the cover of the audiobook as the control. You can tap the cover or swipe it left and right to pause/play and navigate through the book. These are SUPER useful in the car, so you don’t really have to look at the screen!

And that’s that! A rundown of all the Audiobooks.com player features that can bring your audiobook experience from good to magnificent. Happy listening!

Looking for Book Recommendations?

• Here are the audiobooks our members have been loving, along with our staff picks that we’ve been championing.

• Looking to share your love of books? Our handy Book Clubbin’ questions make it super easy to start a book club. Or, Netflix n’ buddy-read with this year’s book-to-screen adaptations (just be prepared for the perennial debate: is the book better than the movie/show?).

• If you’re looking for something extra, we’ve got author and narrator interviews to give you a gleam inside their worlds.

• For the curious-minded, audiobooks can teach you a thing or two, from nature therapy to personal finance. It can even keep the little ones busy so you can steal some time back for yourself.


New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection when you sign up for our one-month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking, and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobooks!