Audiobooks are all the rage right now. You can listen to books almost all the time like while driving or working. These give audiobooks advantages over regular reading and that's why audiobooks are popular. There are a variety of platforms, apps, and services to choose from as well and many large ebook platforms include audiobook support natively now. Here are the best audiobook apps for Android!
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Amazon Kindle
Price: Free / Book prices vary / $9.99 per month
Amazon Kindle is the world's most popular ebook platform and it has native support for Audiobooks. However, Amazon also owns Audible so most of Kindle's audiobook experience ties in with Audible. In any case, you kind of get the best of both worlds with this one. There are millions of audiobooks and millions of regular books as well. Additionally, you can subscribe to Kindle Unlimited for unlimited access to a million or so regular and audiobook titles for $9.99 per month. It's an excellent platform for audiobook fans.
Audible
Price: Free / Book prices vary / $9.99 per month
Audible is the world's most popular audiobook platform. Amazon owns it so you know the selection is good. Plus, you can buy audiobooks on their own or subscribe for some free books and discounts on others. This is a rather unique business model and you can go the way you want to go. The app works well enough on mobile and it's easy enough to listen anywhere else as well. The overall experience is actually very simple. You log in, start buying books, and then listen to them like you normally would. We have very few complaints although updates can occasionally cause some bugs.
Audiobooks.com
Price: Free / Book prices vary / $14.95 per month
Audiobooks.com rivals Audible as one of the big dogs in the audiobook apps space. It works very similarly. You can sign up and just buy books or you can subscribe, get some books for free ever month, and get discounts on others. It boasts a rather large collection of audiobooks along with over 700,000 podcasts for a surprisingly engaging 2-in-1 experience. It also supports downloading for offline listening along with variable playback speed controls. It's a solid overall option even if, like Audible, it's a little bit expensive.
Google Play Books
Price: Free / Book prices vary
Google Play Books only recently added audiobooks to its impressive list of features. Still, it's an excellent platform for both regular reading and audiobook listening. It boasts a ton of audiobooks as well as regular books. Additionally, Google Play uses a super basic model. You simply buy a book and it's yours to read or listen to with no subscription options. The app also lets you preview audiobooks before you buy and it works multi-platform with iOS and the web (Windows, Linux, Mac). You also get offline support and a night mode if you need it.
Kobo Books
Price: Free / Book prices vary
Kobo Books, along with Google Play Books and Barnes & Noble's Nook, is one of Amazon's biggest competitors. The app works a lot like the Amazon Kindle app. You can purchase and download regular books as well as audiobooks. The main focus is regular books but the audiobook thing is getting more and more attention. The app itself has a few bugs here and there, but it's a decent overall alternative to Amazon and Google.
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LibriVox Audio Books
Price: Free / $1.99
LibriVox Audio Books is a small, but decent audiobook platform. It boasts a collection of 24,000 free audiobooks. Admittedly, it's not the biggest collection, but the fact that they're all free makes it a great place to score some cheap entertainment. You can search around, find the books you want, and download them for offline use. The app also features a sleep timer, a bookmark feature so you never lose your spot, and support for Chromecast as well as Android Auto. It ticks all of the boxes for a good audiobook app and it doesn't cost anything. There are ads in the free version, though, and you can pay to get rid of them if you really want to.
MediaMonkey
Price: Free / $2.49
MediaMonkey is an outstanding music player with the capacity to play other types of media. You can watch video content, listen to podcasts, and listen to audiobooks. This isn't an audiobook platform like Kobo or Amazon so you can't buy or download audiobooks with this app. However, you can listen to audiobooks you already downloaded. The app includes support for Android Auto and includes some decent playback controls. The UI is also simple enough to use and the premium version isn't expensive.
OverDrive
Price: Free
OverDrive is an excellent idea for those who want audiobooks on a budget. It's a media platform that lets you rent various media from your local library over the Internet. It has a few good advantages to an old school library. It's available 24/7, you can do it from home, and it doesn't cost you anything. It also finally lets you leverage that library card you haven't used in years. It only works with participating libraries and you need a valid library card, but this is an excellent source of audiobooks. Additionally, the same developer has Libby, an app that removes most of the other content and leaves only audiobooks and ebooks.
Scribd
Price: Free / $8.99 per month
Scribd is an ebook and audiobook platform with some decent upside. Its subscription cost is lower than most competitors and you get more bang for your buck. Additionally, it boasts a collection of over one million titles along with a reasonable amount of playback controls such as a sleep timer. You also get the usual stuff like offline download support. Many of its features are for its ebook side of things, but the audiobook stuff works perfectly fine. Like Kobo, this is a decent alternative to Kindle and Google Play Books.
Smart AudioBook Player
Price: Free / $4.99
Smart AudioBook Player is a lot like MediaMonkey except this one is only for audiobooks. You have to provide your own audiobook files but this app takes care of the rest. The app features variable playback controls, Chromecast support, and progress saving so you don't lose your place. Additionally, we quite like the ability to fill in details about the book online such as the cover art and other info. The premium version adds some extras features such an equalizer, but the free version works quite well in a pinch.
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If we missed any great audiobook apps for Android, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists!
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