LibriVox Audio Books

Review by eFreeware

If you listen to a lot of audiobooks, the cost adds up quickly, and that is where LibriVox Audio Books comes in. The app, published by BookDesign, opens up a catalog of more than 40,000 titles that you can stream or download without paying for the books themselves. Install numbers sit above 5 million, and the average rating is 4.6 from 68,146 ratings, which suggests a lot of people have settled into it.

The catalog is the point. It covers novels, history, biography, short stories and poetry, in both fiction and non-fiction, and it also includes thousands of old time radio dramas. Everything comes from LibriVox, where volunteers record, edit and distribute the books, and new releases are prepared daily. If your taste runs to classics, out-of-print material and older literature rather than this year's bestseller list, that mix is exactly what you want.

Two things are worth knowing before you install. The app is free and carries advertising, and it also offers in-app purchases. The recordings themselves are free to stream or download, so nothing about the books requires payment.

Finding something worth listening to

A catalog this large is only useful if you can get to the right book, and the app gives you several routes in. You can look at the most popular titles, browse by title, author or genre, check the new recordings, or search by keyword. There is also a way to find books read by a narrator you like, which matters more here than in a commercial store: with volunteer readers, the voice carrying the book is part of whether you enjoy it.

I would expect the browse-by-genre and new recordings views to do most of the work for regular listeners, with keyword search for when you already know what you want. The recent update mentions better search, including matches on multi-word titles, along with polished headers, artwork and search bar layout. Those are small things, but they are the parts you touch every time you open the app.

The other half of finding your way around is remembering where you were. Favorites, recent books and downloaded books are kept in lists, so picking up an unfinished title does not mean hunting for it again. For anyone working through a long novel in episodes, that is the feature that keeps the whole thing usable.

Listening at night, in the car and around the house

Playback is where an audiobook app either fits your day or does not. A sleep timer lets you stop playback without reaching for the phone, which suits anyone who listens in bed and would rather not lose their place. Each book also supports unlimited bookmarks, so you can mark passages or keep several threads in a collection of short stories or poetry without losing your spot.

You can run it through car speakers, a head unit or a TV or speaker setup at home, and control it from the device you are already using. The latest release notes mention repairs for trouble during playback, such as picking a chapter once casting has started and resuming a rewind after a pause. Details like these decide whether casting feels pleasant or irritating.

There is no cap on how many titles you may keep and play. Between downloaded titles for when you are away from a connection and streamed ones for everything else, the app is built to hold a large listening queue rather than a single book at a time.

What you need before your first book

Setup is minimal. The developer's recent notes mention Google sign-in and account switching, and the update says that side of it is now more reliable.

If you would rather not depend on a connection, you can download titles for later listening instead. Beyond that, the app leans on the hardware you already have: Bluetooth for wireless audio, Android Auto in the car, and Google Cast for sending playback to another screen or speaker.

The app was released in June 2018 and was last updated in October 2026, and the changelog for that update covers smoother transitions when opening books and expanding shelves, a tidier mini player, and general stability and performance work. It reads like maintenance rather than a redesign, which is what you want from something you rely on for long listening sessions.

Who gets the most from a volunteer-read catalog

This app is built for listeners who care more about range than about new releases. If you work through nineteenth-century novels, history, biography, essays, poetry and short fiction, the collection is deep and the price of admission is nothing. The old time radio dramas add a second kind of listening entirely, and they sit alongside the books rather than behind a separate purchase.

It also suits people who listen in long stretches. The sleep timer, bookmarks and the favorites, recent and downloaded lists are all aimed at someone who treats the app as a library they return to rather than a single title they dip into. The narrator search is a genuine draw for anyone who has found a reader they trust and wants more of that voice.

The trade-off is the source. These are volunteer recordings, so the experience varies from book to book, and the catalog is weighted toward older and public-domain material rather than current bestsellers. Advertising and in-app purchases are part of the free app as well. If you want the newest titles read by professional narrators, this library is not where you will find them; if you want a very large shelf of classics at no cost, it is hard to argue with what is on offer.

A free library worth keeping on your phone

LibriVox Audio Books does one job and does it at scale: it puts more than 40,000 free, volunteer-recorded titles within reach, with streaming, downloads, bookmarks, a sleep timer and solid support for Bluetooth, Android Auto and Google Cast. The 4.6 average from 68,146 ratings suggests that combination holds up for a lot of listeners over time.

I would point it at people who already enjoy classics, history, biography and poetry, and who listen in long sessions where a sleep timer and bookmarks matter. If you want a shelf of older literature you can work through for years without buying each book, this is a straightforward install.

What's new in version 11.3.0

• Smoother transitions when opening books, expanding shelves, and using the mini player • More reliable Google sign-in and account switching • Fixed playback bugs, including chapter selection after casting and rewind after pause • Better search, including multi-word title matches • Polished headers, artwork, and search bar layout • Various stability and performance improvements