One of the main New Year resolutions I talked about in a previous post is listening to audiobooks. Each time you go for a walk, drive to work,  hit the treadmill, fly somewhere, you name it, audiobooks are the best companion.  If you are not used to them it will take you some time till you do but once you do they become an addiction, a good one though. 


Unlike print books, audiobooks can be accessed anywhere anytime and on the go. And because they are stored stored on the cloud (or on an app), you have nothing to carry around only your mobile device. You can actually have all of you library right in your pocket. Besides convenience, there is also “a sense of comfort to be found in spending hours with a voice and a story”. This is the ‘very human pleasure of being read to’.

In this post, I share with you four of the best audiobook apps to use to listen to audiobooks on your mobile devices.  You can use these apps to build your library, access your favourite audiobooks, create and save listening bookmarks, and many more.


1. Audible 

Audible is my favourite of them all. I have been using it for few years now and I love it. To start using Audible, you need to get a subscription. There are Audible Plus and Audible Premium Plus. Audible Plus allows you to listen to audio titles from the Plus Catalog without the need for credits. Audible Premium Plus offers way more features.

Besides getting free access to the Plus Catalog (contains tons of audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals), Audible Premium Plus offers 1 credit per month , an extended selection of best sellers and new releases, and a permanent library. Audible app has a bookmarking feature which allows you to bookmark the parts you like in an audiobook or podcasts and access them anytime you want. It also includes a sleep timer and several other features. 

Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 12+

2- LibroVox  

LibroVox offers access to a huge library of audiobooks that you can stream over the internet or download and listen to anywhere anytime. LibroVox materials are provided for free and its work is based entirely on the work of volunteers who record, edit and distribute books. You can search for audiobooks by genre, author, title, key word, etc. 


Each time you open and start listening to an audiobook, the app remembers where you stopped and you can resume listening later on. The app also offers other interesting features such as sleep timer, unlimited bookmarks, and many more. 

Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+


3- Audiobooks.com 

Audiobooks.com is another good audiobook app to use to access and listen to audiobooks on your mobile device. It allows you to ‘claim credits on titles, access your audio book wishlist, view your library, and play your audio books without ever having to visit the website’. New audiobooks are added to the catalog every single week and there are over 7000 audiobooks available for free access. Also, Audiobooks.com offers your first premium audiobook for free!


Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free  / Age: 4+

4. Kobo Books  

Kobo Books offers access to millions of ebooks and audiobooks covering various genres. You can purchase audiobooks from Kobo and they will automatically be added to the app. Some of the features offered by Kobo Books app include: the ability to customize the way you read (e.g., edit the style and size of the text you read, try night mode, etc), schedule your player to turn off after a set period of time, start reading on any device and pick up on another, supports several languages, and many more.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free / Age: 12+
This post originally appeared in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning ( www.educatorstechnology.com ).