ShelfPlayer App Reviews

Brilliant! Impressive and elegant app.. I’m so impressed how well put together and smooth and full-featured this app is. It is easier to use and more stable and better integrated into iOS than Patreon or Stitcher or even Apple’s own podcast app. It’s working beautifully with my AudioBookShelf server and I couldn’t be happier with it. Amazing work!!

Why is SIRI the first option in car play?. Why is this even a thing? I turned off SIRI in the options, but it still shows up in the app. Why are my audiobooks sorted by download time instead of my last listened to, or why isn’t there a option to sort by that in the settings? I’m going back to plappa, at least I don’t get the unwanted SIRI prompt and my books are sorted in a reasonable format.

Love it. Sometimes presses play instead of “skip 30 seconds back”, touch targets might need some refinement.

Can I use Chinese?. Can I use Chinese?

Disappointing. I expected a lot more from a $5 app that is written to take advantage of the latest iOS features. While the interface generally looks nice, it is actually less user friendly and less functional than the first party Audiobookshelf app (beta is unfortunately full and it’s not yet on the App Store). Just in the first week of use, I noticed a number of issues that really need to be addressed: * Mysterious slowdowns that bring the app to a crawl such that force closing and restarting the app was the only option (encountered while queuing multiple downloads) * Mostly unusable search; searching anything other than author just doesn’t work (searches for title and other metadata just run indefinitely, never returning results) * The interface, while pretty, is just not at all intuitively designed. Finding settings was difficult, for example

CarPlay support not what I expected…. Works well, CarPlay does not allow for selecting of media, I can only manipulate a title that is already playing which means I still have to pick up my phone find the title and begin it’s playback. Works well with audio bookshelf otherwise.

immediately crashes. after working for a couple weeks, it suddenly and repeatedly crashes. even uninstalling and reinstalling doesn't help. server continues to function and stream podcasts as expected, even while I write this review. but the app does not work.

Awesome work!!!. I just wish I had found your app a bit sooner. Definitely a sold app if you want to move over to Audiobookshelf from other selfhosting options (like Plex who ended Podcast support no sooner than a few years after starting it).

Works well. No pain waiting for TestFlight to kick people off the beta for official app.. Using for a few days now. No issues so far. CarPlay functionality was an unexpected bonus!

The Best Player for AudioBookshelf!. The only thing that would make this app even better would be adding Apple Watch support for offline listing when I don’t bring my phone with me. I’d gladly pay a few dollars more for the option of taking my books with me on my watch.

Great app. Saw some people complaining that it’s $5. This price is absolutely worth it. It’s an open source app that is filling the gap left by another open source project. A one time payment to support this project is entirely reasonable. This app integrates well into iOS and is regularly updated to improve the UX and maintain functionality with the backend that’s not directly under the maintainer’s control.

Best on store, but not better than official app. Happy to support this developer, but I ran in to consistent issues with the app. Local books frequently wouldn’t play, organization in the app is non-existent, and navigation of library is obtuse. I found myself having to stop the app frequently, and finally just went back to side loading the official app for ABS. Not a bad app, and if you’re just trying to keep things local for trips without coverage it’s a reasonable option, but otherwise not a great ABS client.

Podcast full support. The audiobooks section is great. However. The podcast options are mostly only available on the app, not much on the carplay. Way way better than the app audiobookshelf app.

This app is game changing. I have been a long time user/tester for the “official” ABS app and compared to it, ShelfPlayer is about 100 years ahead of it. Actual working Siri integration, a working CarPlay implementation, and just a clean easy to navigate UI. Spend the few bucks, you will never look back!

Great App. Wish it had a Widget with the play-pause/open-book buttons. I love the app. One thing I thought was missing was the ability to clear the cache, in case I updated the metadata of some book that was currently being played. However, the option is available, it just isn’t visible on the main page. I had to go to the rightmost (search) view, and the settings button was there. The one feature that I miss vs other audiobook apps like Libro.fm or Audible or podcast apps like Pocketcasts is a widget. I wish it had a widget similar to Pocketcasts, that would take you to the book/podcast if you click on the album artwork, and had a button to play/pause the current book/podcast.

Super impressed & CarPlay works!. I downloaded this yesterday and am super impressed! It has a very nice looking interface that is both pleasant to look at and extremely functional. Though a relatively small thing, I particularly like the more books by author and more books in the series that show up under a a book. Also, I can’t over state how exciting it is to have real CarPlay support for books from Audiobookshelf. Add on that this app is truly open source and it’s pretty hard to beat. I highly recommend this app… and already have done so to friends.

Thoroughly Satisfied. I’m very happy with this app! It does exactly what I need it to, seamlessly connects to my Audiobookshelf server, and allows for offline listening. The developer has done a fantastic job with this one and appears to respond quickly when users need help.

Did you know that you can earn 25 USD from our site just by registering? Get $25 for free by joining Payoneer!

All round fantastic. Great interface, fully native with a dev who cares. Couldn’t be happier.

Imagine you at your best. All the time. Picture yourself at your sharpest and most productive. Your most alert and focused. Your most lucid, creative and confident. At work. At play. In every area of your life. Add Mind Lab Pro® v4.0 to your daily routine and uncap your true potential. Buy Now!

Beautiful UI, works great too. Awesome client for audiobookshelf. Very clean and beautiful UI, and works as expected. I would love to see an iPad version too.

Adsterra is the most preferred ad network for those looking for an alternative to AdSense. Adsterra is the ideal choice for new sites with low daily traffic. In order to advertise on the site in Adsterra, like other ad networks, a certain traffic limit, domain age, etc. is required. There are no strict rules. Sign up!

Worst update ever. This latest update nuked all my settings and removed all my downloaded books. 1 star, do not recommend.

Doesnt work offline. This just sits at loading when i try to play audiobooks I’ve downloaded offline, if im connected to my local network it works but offline play is what i bought this for. Unacceptable

Crash, crash, crash. Nonstop crashing. Give me my $5 back.

It’s great. Great app, really love that you can set the speed per book. Layout is really great as well

Where’s the 1.75x!?. New update is fine, but they got rid of the only playback speed I use!

Does not work offline. I downloaded several books for a recent trip. Even in offline mode app tried to connect to server and wouldn’t play downloaded books

Crashes when attempting to login. After entering username / password, app crashes.

Good ABS App. This is my preferred Audiobookshelf app. I particularly like the integration with Shortcuts.

Last update broke the app. The last update broke the app. App constantly loses the place of a book anytime listening is interrupted or app closes. It’s super annoying anytime I was going to stop listening I had to remember where I was

Love it. Sometimes presses play instead of “skip 30 seconds back”, touch targets might need some refinement.

Widgets not working. Downloaded this since i can’t find another audiobookshelf app with widgets. Unfortunately widgets are broken here and don’t update with last played book as advertised.

Lost Progress. Editing my previous review as I now see where the percentage of progress is shown (only when online), but now the app is losing my progress when closed online. If it can get online at all as it now seems permanently stuck in offline mode.

Works well. Couple thoughts and potential update requests. 1. Given that this app supplements an app for self hosted environments, putting Audio Bookshelf on the public internet is risky for us home users.  The mobile app allows downloads which is great, My request is that you make the app less angry when it can't connect to the host server.  Maybe have it jump to the downloads and just have a spot on the screen stating it can't connect to the library.  Maybe then let you select a different library or a try again option..  This would improve the usability when not on the same network as the library. 2. Playing speed.  I like that it is easy to up the speed from 1 to 1.25 and so on.  I wish that setting was persistent.  Every new book I play, I have to go at it again.  

Update wiped local storage. Have been using for a short time with few complaints. Update overnight just wiped all locally downloaded Audiobooks and forced a re-connect to my Audiobookshelf server. Not a great experience.

Great player but…. Worked really well before update.

So glitchy. Used for about ten minutes and deleted. It quit playing multiple times to “sync progress” and I had to go back into the book I was listening to every time. No way, not going to work for me as a listener!

Unusable. This is so bad and unusable. Learn how to sync. You have literally one job and that’s to remember where i left off.

Amazing app worth 5$. Been waiting for a while love the app use it everyday!

Great App. Does everything I need to, recognizes Audiobookshelf tags, collections, series etc. which is super helpful

Crashes often. App is great in theory. The first few books I listened to were great. But for the last month or so the app will crash every couples of minutes, making it impossible to listen.

Great App. Wish it had a Widget with the play-pause/open-book buttons. I love the app. One thing I thought was missing was the ability to clear the cache, in case I updated the metadata of some book that was currently being played. However, the option is available, it just isn’t visible on the main page. I had to go to the rightmost (search) view, and the settings button was there. The one feature that I miss vs other audiobook apps like Libro.fm or Audible or podcast apps like Pocketcasts is a widget. I wish it had a widget similar to Pocketcasts, that would take you to the book/podcast if you click on the album artwork, and had a button to play/pause the current book/podcast.

退钱 退钱 退钱. 说实在的 界面 功能设计蛮好。但不能登录多个源以方便切换。 关键是我两个手机上都是播放几分钟后就自动退出！！！ 超级 BUG！

Can I use Chinese?. Can I use Chinese?

Minimal, but does what it needs to. Enough said in the title of my review

Potential, but a confusing UI. Is there a reason it only shows ~100 titles in my library at a time? I suppose I can search if I know a title should be there, but it makes browsing difficult.

Best Audiobookshelf client. Love this app. It is the best client for Audiobookshelf available as of now. Worth the price, have been very happy with it.