Audible - purchasing and listening to audiobooks using the Audible app with VoiceOver on iPhone and iPad

The Audible audiobook service

Audible is the audio book service owned by Amazon.  It is accessed through an Amazon account.  The Audible app is the best way to use the service on an iPhone or iPad. Within the app, purchased books can be read and the huge Audible library can be searched for titles which can then be added to your wish list or purchased. Audible books can be purchased in one of two ways.  You can  purchase individual books at list price when you want them but list prices for audio books can be high. Alternatively, you can subscribe to buy one or more credits monthly. A credit can be used to purchase any audio book regardless of its list price. When last checked, April 2024, the one credit per month rate is £7.99 per month. The subscription can be ended or later resumed as you wish within reasonable limits. Unless all the books you want to buy cost less than £8 I strongly suggest that you consider subscribing. Lower prices are available if you commit for a longer period or more books per month. Please check audible.co.uk for current subscription details and for the range of books available. Credits can be stored as long as you like while you remain a subscriber but they must be used to purchase books before your subscription ends if you decide to cancel your subscription.

The Audible app

The Audible app is fully accessible using VoiceOver. You will need to sign in to the app with an Amazon account. Books may be purchased at list price using the app or if you have opted for one of the  subscription schemes then you will also be able to buy books with credits in the app. One credit buys one book irrespective of the book's list price.

When books are purchased they will appear in your personal library. They will remain your property even if you cease a subscription service.  Your library is stored on Audible's servers and books only need to be downloaded to your phone or tablet when you want to read them and can be removed from your phone or tablet when finished.  Audible also offers many free books in what is called the Plus Catalogue which are available only to subscribers.  These can be streamed, that is played without downloading, but this requires an internet connection whenever you read the book.  However, free books from the Plus Catalogue may be added to your library and downloaded for reeding and I recommend that you do this so you can be sure to be able to read your book when you don't have a good or unlimited internet connection. If you cancel your subscription then free Plus Catalogue books will no longer be available and must be purchased at list price if you wish to read them.

Quick tour of the Audible app for blind users

There are occasional minor changes to the layout of the Audible app and the way VoiceOver controls it. I try to keep the notes current, but I may have missed some changes.  If my instructions don't match precisely what happens, then please experiment and use your judgement.

The Audible app has two screens, the main screen and the player screen.  

The app's main screen offers several functions including browsing through book recommendations, searching for specific titles, authors or genres, , purchasing books, managing your library and selecting your next book to download and start reeding. The main screen also offers a mini player section with basic book playing controls. 

The player screen offers the full set of controls for the playback of your current book including, play / pause, jump back and forward, navigation by chapters, narration speed change and a sleep function which limits the duration of the playback to your selected time to avoid missing too much of the book if you fall asleep while listening. 

The main screen

The main screen has four tabs at its base on iPhone and four corresponding buttons in a side bar on iPad. These are Home, Library, Discover and Profile. These tabs display four different pages with different functions.

Books can be discovered using the search button at top right of all the pages of the main screen. Books may also be found using the recommendations on the  Home page or Browse page (see below). When you locate a book that interests you, double tap and this will open the book's information page. You can swipe through this page and you will find options including purchasing the book for 1 crredit or for the full list price. Choose your option and complete the payment if you chose to pay full price. The book will appear shortly in your library.

Let's look at the first tab which displays the Home page.

The Home page will offer several sections preceded by headings which may include headings like "recommended for you", "top picks for you", "bes tsellers" and so on.

You may find it helpful to skip through the headings using the rotor and then swipe right through the list that follows.

The second tab displays the Library page which offers several ways of viewing your library of purchased and Plus Catalogue books. If you have a small library, you can ignore the viewing options but they can be very helpful for navigating large libraries. 

The first button at the top of the Library page is a search button which may be used to search Audible's catalogue. Books already in your library will show up under an "in your library" heading.

The search button is followed by several buttons which may be used to determine the order in which the library is presented and also to restrict the items shown by various criteria. The first button, the "all" button will show all the titles in your library. The other choices are very useful when browsing through a large library. For example, you can restrict the display to include only audiobooks or only podcasts. Other choices include displaying only books that are not started or only books which are downloaded.

Following these buttons, there will be a count of the displayed titles and this is followed by a button that determines how the library is sorted. Choices include recent, length, title and author.

The simplest choice may be to opt for "all", "all titles"  and  "recent". Other choices may be more useful if you have a large purchased library. For example, if you want to decide which purchased book to read next, and you felt like reading a thriller next, you might select "genres" and swipe right to "crime and thrillers" and double tap to reveal the list of purchased thrillers. The choice is yours; either keep it simple or use the tools to refine your search through a large library.

When VoiceOver is focused on a book title in the library list, you can swipe up or down to hear the available actions. These will initially include download. Having located download, double tap to begin the download. After a few seconds, the book will be ready to play. Swipe up again to locate "play" or "activate" and then double tap to begin playback. Once playback has been started, it can usually be paused and resumed with a two finger double tap. The player and mini player offer more playback controls and are described in a later section. 

Now let's look at the third tab at the bottom of the screen which displays the Discover page. This is all about finding your next book to be purchased.

At top right of the page is a search button that can be used to search Audible's huge library of audio books for a book title or an author. Next there is a "discover" heading. This will be followed by several buttons which will take you to lists in various categories, including the free Plus Catalogue for subscribers only. There will also be the occasional heading to help you find your way through this page.

And now let's look at the final tab which displays the Profile page.

This page gives information about your account, the number of unspent credits. One credit buys one book. It also list the number of purchased books you have and the number of badges you have acquired.  Badges are rather silly achievement badges. They don't add a great deal to the Audible experience.  

The player and mini player

On all of the 4 tab pages, a "mini player" is positioned just above the tabs on an iPhone and at the base of an iPad screen. This gives access to the book currently being read. The easiest way to locate it on an iPhone is to slide a finger upwards from the bottom centre of the screen until you hear "mini player" spoken followed by your current book title and your reading position. Swiping right through the mini player you will find a jump back button and a play button. You can double tap the jump back or play buttons or alternatively double tap on "mini player" to open the full version of the player screen., which offers several different ways to control listening. At the top left of the player screen there is a "cloze" button which will close the player screen and return to one of the tab pages. Next is a "more, menu" button. This reveals a menu with several options. An option that may be of interest is the "player settings" button  which lets you change the behaviour of the jump back and forward buttons by specifying either a range of times up to 90 seconds or to jump back or forward by chapters. After the menu button comes the image of the book's cover, followed by a button which displays the chapter you are currently reading. This button can be used to display a list of chapters from which you can select a chapter for listening. The chapter button is  followed by location information. Next come the jump back, play and jump forward buttons which include chapter jump back and forward, which are quite close to the bottom of the screen with play at the centre. The lowest row of buttons are for narration speed, to speed up or slow down the speaker, a "Car mode" button which changes the visual appearance of the player screen to make it easier for drivers to operate, a "sleep timer" button that offers choices of times and also end of chapter for playback to end in case you fall asleep. The final button is "clip" button. This adds a short clip of the book at your current reading position to your personal stored clips. You can return to your clips using the menu button at top right of the player screen.

To summarise, the Audible app offers a lot of sophisticated control for those who want it but many users will overlook all the sophistication and just get on with enjoying the book. A two finger double tap will normally resume and pause book reading. If that doesn't work, open the Audible app and locate the mini player near the bottom centre of the screen and swipe right to find the play button and double tap. Some readers may prefer to open the player screen and leave the app on the player screen while they are reeding a book and cloze it only when they need to acquire or select the next book to read using the main screen. In the player screen, the play button is easily located near bottom centre of the screen.

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