I keep finding new apps, so I’ll keep sharing! Tonight’s fish on the hook, is an Audiobook client for Jellyfin and AudioBookShelf, written in Swift/SwiftUI.
Apart from playing audiobooks, plappa also syncs playback status via iCloud and allows you to download audiobooks for offline listening. It currently runs on iPhone and iPad, a Mac and Apple TV version are planned - roadmap.
About
plappa requires a Jellyfin or AudioBookShelf Server to work. If you don’t know Jellyfin or AudioBookShelf and would like to learn more, check out both at Jellyfin website or Jellyfin GitHub repo and AudioBookShelf website or AudioBookShelf GitHub repo.
Folder structure and formats for Jellyfin
plappa should be able to handle all common audio file formats, but is built for and tested mainly with MP3 and M4B files.
I always test plappa using the most common organization scheme for books, but other folder structures should work fine, plappa just searches for audio files recoursively, grouping by album.
Metadata
Most metadata will be taken from Jellyfin/AudioBookShelf, plappa additionally reads the composer field for the narrator name and (if applicable) chapters from the file metadata.
Roadmap
You can see the full roadmap in the plappa project, the short version is:
- [x] iOS App with all basic features
- [x] Carplay support (WIP)
- [ ] Apple Watch App
- [ ] Mac App
- [ ] Apple TV App
- [x] Support for AudioBookShelf servers (WIP)
Does anyone know of a good alternative for Android?
Right now I just use Antennapod, but it would be nice to get chapters and whatnot built in.
There’s not much that combines these two apps together like this, but there are separate alternatives. Nova Player for hosted media (I use Plex on my Raspberry Pi), Antennapod is one of many many podcast forks (most open source podcast apps use the same layout).
For listening to android localized audio books, I absolutely love Voice. Voice does have chapters built in as long as your audio books have them. You can pick up Voice and Nova Player for free on F-Droid if you want to try them out. Plex and Pi are a little more involved.
Ooh, I’ll definitely check out Voice!
I’m more of a desktop Jellyfin container person myself, but all roads lead to Rome in this case :) thanks for the input!
I should look into Jellyfin myself. I really need to introduce myself to containers. It’s something I should familiarize myself with as a Linux user, but I just barely got done learning the basics of WINE prefixes.
Have checked out the official Audiobookshelf app?
This is the same dev that makes Paperparrot. Instant buy on this app for me. Thanks for the heads-up, OP.
Thanks for mentioning paperparrot, it pushes me to finally set up paperless-ng on my server.
I’m definitely checking this out. I’ve been on the Audiobookshelf beta for a while and it’s not bad, but I want CarPlay support. And I really love this UI. It reminds me of that third-party Plex tie-in for audiobooks that did this same thing, Prologue.
Paid for this app. It’s well worth the price.
Nice!!! I’ve been using the audiobookshelf beta for my server, but I like the look of Plappa. Gonna give it a spin!
Especially with CarPlay support, I am really looking forward to it!
Nice ! Thank you .
I’m going to have to take a look at this! Thanks!
Oh this is great! Thanks!
Looks like a great contribution. The awesomeness of Prism and Prologue apps are part reason I’m still on Plex.
Does this sync stats for downloaded books ok?
EDIT: seems like not yet, https://github.com/LeoKlaus/plappa/discussions/15
Does anyone here know any sources to find good iOS apps? Idk where else to ask, and this seemed the most relevant.
When in doubt, look up “awesome list github <topic of choice>” hahaha, I just found this for ya :)
Thank you! Really appreciate the advice too, didn’t know that was a thing
Happy to help 😊🌻
Thank you! I have needed and IOS app for family. I was waiting for audiobookshelf but can offer audio today :)
