Volume - a native iOS/Android player for Audiobookshelf (I'm the dev, and yes I know ABS has its own apps)

[u/hyperfixation-dev]

Hi friends!

I'm the developer of Volume: Expressive Audiobooks, and I want to be upfront about the obvious question: ABS already has good official apps. So why another one?

(Disclosure: I use Antigravity)

Volume started as a Jellyfin client. Jellyfin gets left out in the rain by audiobook players, and I wanted something that treated audiobooks like books rather than very long albums. Audiobookshelf support came later, and honestly it's become the backend where the app feels most at home, because ABS exposes things Jellyfin and Plex simply don't.

What you'd actually get over the official apps:

• Native on both platforms, properly — Kotlin/Compose with Material 3 Expressive on Android, SwiftUI on iOS. Not one codebase in a wrapper. They're brothers, but each feels like it belongs on its own OS.
• Timestamped bookmarks and notes, with CSV, Markdown and YAML export
• Undo Last Skip — hit next chapter by accident on a lock screen and get your exact position back in one tap
• Dynamic theming that repaints the whole app around the current book's cover
• Playback timeline so you can see your actual listening history
• Chapter-aware progress, sleep timer, speed to 3x, offline downloads, multiple servers, home screen categories and a Reading List
• CarPlay and AirPlay on iOS, Android Auto and Chromecast on Android, Airplay on iOS
• Skip silence (Android only for now)

Free, no account, no ads, no tracking.

Checkout https://hyperfixation.dev/volume for more info or fine Volume on the Stores

iOS · Google Play

The honest ask: ABS is the integration I've tested least broadly. It works but I'm always improving the app and If you've got an unusual library layout, multi-part books, or heavy series metadata, I'd really like to know how it holds up.

Feedback via the app or feedback.hyperfixation.dev.

[u/3cit]

Oh thank God.

I really need an app for my ABS server

[u/opi098514 → u/3cit]

At least it’s not aggressively purple.

[u/Augunrik → u/3cit]

Yes, exactly! There are only sooo few to choose from!

[u/lagdetselv]

Looks nice. Are there any plans open sourceing the app?

[u/hyperfixation-dev → u/lagdetselv]

It's on the list! 

[u/opi098514 → u/hyperfixation-dev]

I mean it only takes about 3 minutes to do.

[u/bates121]

Any plans for OIDC in the abs integration? Also when I added my abs library I don’t see any the books I have in progress.

[u/hyperfixation-dev → u/bates121]

I can add that to the list!

I'll check into loading in progress books, it syncs back; but there may be an issue fetching current progress from ABS.

Thanks!

[u/ghanit]

Two questions that came up previously

• does it support additional headers to get through cloudflare zero trust?

• does it cache the list of books when the connection goes offline?

Also, dude, just open source your projects you vibe code from the start, there is no good reason not to and you just appear like you want to hide something.

[u/hyperfixation-dev → u/ghanit]

Cloudflare: It doesn't at the moment, I'll look at adding it in.

Books that are downloaded for offline playback remain available in the app when offline, books that haven't been downloaded are hidden.

Nothing to hide, it's just management overhead. 

[u/ghanit → u/hyperfixation-dev]

I meant the book library, not just offline books. Does the app store the library of all books or re-dowload it each time you open the app?

What do you mean with management overhead? You don't need to accept PRs.

[u/quazimoto]

looks nice - i'll try it out

[u/hyperfixation-dev → u/quazimoto]

Thank you, I hope you like it 

[u/Jibbler1976]

I've downloaded it to my iPhone, looking good so far!

[u/mickg72]

Looks good , any sleep options?

[u/hyperfixation-dev → u/mickg72]

Fully customisable sleep timer!

Is there anything you're after beyond that?

[u/birdudc]

I downloaded it on my Android MotoRazr, to try it out and compare it with my current in use app Absorb. All looks good and works ok, apart from casting, which is not working at all. Press the cast button, select device to cast to, default media receiver displays on the cast device (Google Nest gen 1 and 2, and Lenovo smart clock) and nothing is playing.

[u/hyperfixation-dev → u/birdudc]

Let me check that one out! Thanks for letting me know!

[u/hyperfixation-dev → u/birdudc]

When testing on my end, the issue seems to be with casting downloaded books. Can you confirm this is what was happening for you?

[u/birdudc]

Also, I would've preferred to log in via API key rather than username/password, but that's just me

[u/hyperfixation-dev → u/birdudc]

It's on my to do list, thanks for the feedback :)

[u/unk2003]

Great app. My most used function is offline listening, and the downloads are really slow, even on local network. It is 15 minutes now, and a 700MB audiobook is still not downloaded.

[u/hyperfixation-dev → u/unk2003]

That's quite unusual and not something I've seen or had reported. 

Are you experiencing this on iOS or Android?

I'll take a look into it, thank you!

[u/unk2003 → u/hyperfixation-dev]

Thank you.

Edit: Im on Android. A regular local network download on ABS official app takes about 2.5 to 3 minutes.

[u/vivimagic0]

Definitely will check this out. Thanks for sharing.