# Bookshare Reader — user reviews > 55 indexed App Store user reviews of Bookshare Reader by Benetech, rated 3.30/5 from 67 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bookshare-reader/id1605201737/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bookshare-reader/id1605201737.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 24 · 4★ 11 · 3★ 9 · 2★ 6 · 1★ 17 ## Newest reviews (16 of 55) ### 2/5 — Amazing app but it has a bit of a bug that makes it difficult to use *2026-06-18, version 1.39.0* I have been a user of bookshare since I was in 7th grade on the old read to go app and now as an adult on an individual membership. It’s the best thing to happen for blind people so that we can access books and information. However, there appears to be a new emerging bug. My library is not syncing across my devices. When I download a book on my ipad to read, it doesn’t download on my phone which is logged into the same account, I have to go manually go download it on my phone too. Reading lists also don’t sync. If I start reading a book on one device, I can’t pick up on another later, it also doesn’t save progress. I don’t know if I’m being unreasonable, but I feel like books should sync across devices and your most recent position in them should sync across devices. I had managed to keep syncing the read to go app to all my new devices until a couple of months ago via the icloud transfer, yes it survived until 2026, but it finally quit and I have to use the new bookshare version now. Book syncing across devices was never an issue on the old read to go app, even when I was on IOS 18 using an app intended for IOS 9. Lol. If you can get this syncing issue fixed on the bookshare reader app I will switch my review to five stars. Thanks. ### 2/5 — Help *2026-06-11, version 1.39.0* I like this app and use it a lot but after the most recent update it won’t work I opened a manga (I thing I spelled that wrong) and I can not go to the next page it is stuck on the copy right please fix ### 2/5 — Amazing opportunity for print disabilities, horrible app 🤣 *2026-05-21, version 1.38.0* I love what Benetech is doing here. It’s an awesome opportunity for people like myself with documented disabilities! This rating has nothing to do with that. The app itself is so bad. The website is awesome, with many different formats and accessible audio readers, like AvaMultilingual on Edge. However, this app has so many issues. Whenever I try reading, a glitch will happen which will cause the pages to disappear. So I have to exit the book to read again. And this happens quite frequently, every time I use the reading app, multiple times a session. I also occasionally have trouble downloading books that I already have access to. Besides that, I love Bookshare, and it’s just a great movement for disability rights and access! ### 3/5 — SUGGESTIONS FOR CREATORS *2026-05-11, version 1.37.0* PLEASE make highlighting available for textbooks!!! When it comes time to find something for a paper or quiz, I need access to highlights. Also, PLEASE make it easier to navigate the Contents menu! I have to scroll all the way down every single time. Where I am in the text should be highlighted in the contents and the menu should automatically be scrolled to my location. Also some of my textbooks in Bookshare are missing essential video content. Thanks! ### 3/5 — Bugs *2025-12-24, version 1.33.0* I love it but constant bugs and crashes. Only way I get accessible books but it is so so buggy ### 3/5 — Bookshare Error *2025-04-28, version 1.26.0* I use this app and it has been shutting down when I try to type anything at all on my macbook. this means I cannot sign in nor search for the books I need. Please fix this ### 4/5 — Minor improvements for voiceover users *2025-02-23, version 1.25.0* 2025-02-23: The latest update fixes the ability to adjust speaking speed, however, you can only adjust the speed by 20% at a time. A way to enter a specific speed would be much more useful. There is still no access to any reading lists you've created so you'll have to search for those titles all over again or switch to using EasyReader which is what they recommended to me. Original Review: The latest version does fix the ability to get to the audio sub page in settings, however, it is not possible to adjust the speaking rate at all. The whole point of getting to the audio sub page is to adjust settings so you would think the developer would test Basic features of this app with voiceover before pushing out an update. Hopefully more effort goes into future releases. ### 4/5 — App consistency *2025-02-04, version 1.24.3* I love the app and use it for school. I would like it if the app was the same on every platform. Specifically if I was it on my windows desktop there is an icon to tap and it tells me the percentage of the section I have completed reading. On Apple or mobile devices their icon is not available. It’s useful to tell how much I have left without scrolling to the end. Please top this feature on mobile devices. ### 3/5 — The app crashes *2025-01-07* The app has been crashing for the past week and a half. Unsure why that is. My firmware is up to the latest update so far. I have updated the actual Bookshare Reader app and that’s when all the nightmares started. **Developer response:** Sorry to hear about that, please try updating to the latest version. We believe this should be fixed, let us know if issues persist. Thank you for your patience! ### 2/5 — App is crashing repeatedly *2024-12-23, version 1.24.1* I love this resource. It was working beautifully until recently. Now it is crashing and some of the books I had added for a research paper have disappeared. ### 2/5 — Barely works with voiceover *2024-12-17* The latest version does fix the ability to get to the audio sub page in settings, however, it is not possible to adjust the speaking rate at all. The whole point of getting to the audio sub page is to adjust settings so you would think the developer would test Basic features of this app with voiceover before pushing out an update. Hopefully more effort goes into future releases. **Developer response:** Thanks for your feedback. We apologize for the inconvenience. This issue has been fixed in the latest version of the app. Using Voice Over you should be able to activate the increment or decrement buttons now individually to adjust the TTS speaking rate. Let us know if you experience any further difficulties. ### 2/5 — The app crashes *2024-12-16* The app has been crashing for the past week and a half. Unsure why that is. My firmware is up to the latest update so far. I have updated the actual Bookshare Reader app and that’s when all the nightmares started. ### 4/5 — It's alright *2024-12-14, version 1.24.0* The app is good overall, although when I try to change the text-to-speech voice it kicks me out of the app. It would be nice if this got fixed. But it's a very good app nonetheless. :) ### 3/5 — Fix The App Please. *2024-08-28, version 1.22.0* This app does not allow me to listen to the books audio because of copyright. I signed in, I’m not a student, and I do not need a approval from a teacher!😡 Please fix this issue immediately. Thank you. ### 4/5 — Getting better *2024-03-31, version 1.20.0* Voice Dream Reader is planning on removing lifetime licensing for users who have previously purchased the product on 5/1. It’s even more important that this app continues to be improved for the influx of users that aren’t willing to pay a yearly subscription on top of their Bookshare subscription, just to read a book. My two big asks/requests: Please add the ability to listen to human narrated audiobooks and ability to “Read Now” on periodicals. Thanks Bookshare Reader dev team! Also: Ability to listen to books in the background. VoiceOver gestures to change pages would also be nice. ### 4/5 — Background Play *2024-03-28, version 1.20.0* This app is much better than it was at launch, but it still lacks a feature I think a lot of people would appreciate. When you play a book and leave the app by either returning to your home screen or locking the screen, the book stops playing. I would like playback to continue once the screen is locked, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. I believe that's one of the reasons people are so hesitant to switch to it fulltime. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Recent update added problems *2026-07-04, version 1.39.1* Use previous versions of Bookshare reader. Recent update added prolonged pause at the end of each sentence. Even if the words are sped up, there’s a one second pause between paragraphs, sentences, and any page breaks. Attempted to navigate fixing it, and it is not fixable at this point. I will only be using website until next update. Hopefully it improves. ### 1/5 — Book-share Reader *2026-02-11, version 1.34.0* I still can’t read a book from the app even newly downloaded books and I’m using the exact same password from the password I use on my Chromebook at school and I need to know if that’s what might be causing it not to work. ### 1/5 — Book-share Reader *2026-01-22, version 1.33.0* I keep trying to reed a book from the app on my phone and it won’t load, it’s been like this for three days ### 1/5 — Can't download added books and search closes the app *2024-12-20, version 1.23.0* When I click the Search tab the app closes. When I got a book added it does not show up, What I don't get is the fact that you have to be logged in to your account when the book is added, It never updates ### 1/5 — App crashes *2024-12-17, version 1.24.1* The app crashes as soon as anything is clicked on! Can’t open a book at all ### 1/5 — Download Errors *2024-04-05, version 1.20.0* Download Errors ### 1/5 — Form controls nonexistent *2024-02-01, version 1.16.0* Grateful that I have VoiceDream reader so I can easily get books from Bookshare and read them with my voiceover voice because I just downloaded this app so I could read an audio book. I cannot even login as a voiceover user with an iPhone 11 and iOS 17.1.2. For being a company who caters to visually impaired people I would expect your app to have correct coding for Text fields. Usually I can double tap on the Text field and then type or paste my username and password. I have tried turning screen recognition on which can sometimes help, but the edit option is not even Offered when I spin my rotor. This tells me that the app is not coded correctly for form controls. Very disappointed! ### 1/5 — Not accessible *2023-12-06, version 1.14.0* Hello, I am totally blind and downloaded this app because I’m an avid reader, a book share member, and I’m very adept at using my iPhone, computer, and braille note taker. I am not even able to log into this app. When I click on the username or password text field, it doesn’t do anything, and when I try to type in the username password, either with the keyboard on my iPhone, or well hooked up to my braille display, it does not actually type it in. I am very disappointed as I love reading and listening to books and I read books on my phone all the time so I was looking forward to this app but it seems I cannot even use it. ### 1/5 — Whoever coded was obviously an idiot *2023-10-27* When I change my phone orientation accidentally from me, listening to this in my headphones from portrait to landscape, and then back to portrait accidentally everything becomes blank and it doesn’t show any text, this app is so buggy it has too many issues to count, if you’re a developer and you’re reading this, please go ahead and fix all of it ### 1/5 — I really hate this app *2023-09-17, version 1.10.2* So I downloaded this book share app not for school, but for me to read books personally and every time I try to read a book it says that I do not have permission to download or read the book and I need a teacher to assign it to me I didn’t download this book for school work because we have all of our school books in braille or large print for me and the other VI kids I really wish you guys would make this app accessible for students without making them have to have a teacher assign them the book it’s really annoying. I hope you guys fix this in future app versions ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Amazing for dyslexic people *2026-07-28, version 1.40.0* The interface is great and this app helped me read all of my college textbooks. I’m so happy about the new voices for text to speech- they sound super realistic which is something that was lacking before. Also it’s nice to be able to download free books and read them offline too ### 5/5 — Bookshare has made significant improvements *2026-06-09, version 1.39.0* In 2025 I would have described the Bookshare app as below expectations for an eReader app. In 2026 we’ve seen lots of improvements such as synced reading lists and so many other quality of life improvements that make the app easier to use. Creating accessible tech is hard and the Bookshare team is doing a good job addressing community concerns. As a blind person my mobile devices are my go-to in part because the screen reader and controls are easier to use, so the mobile version of platforms like Bookshare working as expected is expected. Already looking forward to half two of this year and what will come next. ### 5/5 — Background Play Works *2025-08-26, version 1.29.0* Background play works great now. Way easier to listen to my books. Thank you for making this update. ### 5/5 — Good morning Bookshare team I really love the Bookshare reader application. Keep up the great work. *2025-04-17, version 1.26.0* Good morning Bookshare reader developer my name is Ulises Gomez, I really enjoy this application a lot I would like to see the background play future on a future update. Keep them coming. I love Bookshare Reader. ### 5/5 — It’s finally fixed *2025-02-21, version 1.25.0* For the past few months, I’ve had difficulty with this app crashing. Even though I updated the app and my phone it was problematic at first. Suddenly after the final iOS update and a few other app updates for this… Everything came out fine. Whenever I don’t want to use my braille display for a book… I turned to this app. I’m glad I can alternate between both my braille display and my Bookshare app. I hope it stays perfectly fine this time. ### 5/5 — Good morning Bookshare team I really love the Bookshare reader application. Keep up the great work. *2025-02-20* Good morning Bookshare reader developer my name is Ulises Gomez, I really enjoy this application a lot I would like to see the background play future on a future update. Keep them coming. I love Bookshare Reader. **Developer response:** Thank you for your valuable feedback! We appreciate your input and are excited to share that we are currently working on adding the background text-to-speech functionality. Stay tuned for updates—we hope to launch this feature in the coming months! ### 5/5 — Keeps crashing *2025-01-02, version 1.24.1* Love this app but would appreciate a fix….every time I click a new book or the profile button my app crashes. ### 5/5 — Book share *2024-05-17* Good morning Bookshare reader developer my name is Ulises Gomez, I really enjoy this application a lot I would like to see the background play future on a future update. Keep them coming. I love Bookshare Reader. **Developer response:** Thank you for your valuable feedback! We appreciate your input and are excited to share that we are currently working on adding the background text-to-speech functionality. Stay tuned for updates—we hope to launch this feature in the coming months! ### 5/5 — Awesome App *2024-03-20, version 1.18.0* Got tired of fighting with my Brl tab. The mobile app is way easier. I love listening to books on here. Thank you. ### 5/5 — Making my downloaded books tab the new default when opening the app *2024-02-14, version 1.18.0* Hello again, my friends hope that everyone’s doing back to suggest any major in improvement or the next big update even though this one’s small and felt like it was not as the title suggest I would like for my downloaded book when opening the app, the recent books because it shows the books, I read and deleted To make space but I know that you guys are continuously working to make the app better so no rush. This is just a suggestion on my part and thank you for everything as usual. Hope to hear from you soon. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-13.*