# ShelfPlayer — Audiobookshelf client

> iOS client for self-hosted Audiobookshelf libraries, supporting audiobooks and podcasts. (iPhone/iPad app by AI Tools Apps SRL.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shelfplayer/id6475221163 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [AI Tools Apps SRL](https://appshunter.io/developer/1854689122)
- Category: Books, Entertainment
- Price: Free (on sale, was $5.99)
- Rating: 3.80/5 from 134 App Store ratings · 172 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 26.0 · 18 MB
- Languages: American English, Dutch, French (France), German (Germany), Greek, Italian, Russian, Chinese (Simplified, China), Swedish, Ukrainian
- Released: 2024-03-13
- Data updated: 2026-08-24
- Monetization: paid
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shelfplayer/id6475221163/reviews.md

## What is ShelfPlayer?

ShelfPlayer is a powerful iOS application for listening to audiobooks and podcasts, designed for users with self-hosted Audiobookshelf libraries. Built in Swift 6 for iOS 18+, ShelfPlayer is fast, privacy-respecting, and deeply integrated with the Apple ecosystem.

ShelfPlayer does not include any media content. A running Audiobookshelf instance is required to use the app.

Features

• Unified audiobook and podcast app: A single, native experience for audiobooks, podcasts, episodes, authors, narrators, series, collections, and playlists.
• Multi-server support: Works with multiple Audiobookshelf servers and libraries at the same time.
• Flexible authentication: Supports both username/password and OpenID sign-in.
• Custom request headers: Additional HTTP headers can be configured for advanced setups.
• Listen Now: Continue listening and discover content across connected libraries.
• Global and library search: Fast search across books, podcasts, people, series, and episodes.
• Playback queues: Includes both a main queue and an Up Next queue.
• Chapter navigation: Chapter-level controls are available directly in playback views.
• Playback speed controls: Combines quick presets with precise rate tuning.
• Configurable skip intervals: Skip forward and backward durations can be tailored to personal preference.
• Sleep timer: Supports both time-based and chapter-based timers, with Live Activity integration.
• AirPlay and media controls: Native integration with AirPlay and Apple system media controls.
• Bookmarks with notes: Save key moments with optional notes.
• Progress synchronization: Listening progress and sessions stay in sync with Audiobookshelf.
• Listening history: Detailed, item-level listening timelines are available.
• Daily listening tracking: Tracks listening time with optional daily goals.
• Offline mode and downloads: Downloaded content remains available when offline.
• Automatic convenience downloads: Background downloads cover Listen Now, podcast, and series content.
• Collections and playlists: Built-in tools for creating, editing, and organizing collections and playlists.
• PDF viewer: Opens attached PDF documents in-app.
• Home Screen widgets: Includes Start, Listen Now, and Listened Today widgets.
• Live Activities and Dynamic Island: Sleep timer controls stay accessible on Lock Screen and Dynamic Island.
• Siri, App Intents, and Shortcuts: Playback and automation workflows are fully integrated with Apple automation tools.
• CarPlay support: Library browsing and playback controls are available in CarPlay.
• Spotlight integration: Indexed content appears in system search with deep links back into the app.
• Home Screen quick actions: Common playback and search actions are available from the app icon.
• Native iPhone and iPad interface: Optimized layouts with customizable tabs, sorting, and filters.

## Key features

- Unified audiobook and podcast management
- Multi-server support
- Flexible authentication options
- Global and library search
- Playback queues and chapter navigation
- Configurable playback speed and skip intervals
- Offline mode and automatic downloads

## What do users think of ShelfPlayer?

Overall sentiment: neutral

**Pros**

- 🚀 Runs on all Apple platforms
- 👍 Provides better UI experience
- 💡 Potential for great features
- 🚀 Smooth playback
- 👍 Beautiful and intuitive UI
- 👍 Integrates well with iOS and CarPlay
- 👍 Open-source and developer responsive

**Cons**

- 🐛 Critical bugs preventing usage
- 🐛 Constantly losing book progress
- 🐛 Crashes and instability issues
- 🐛 Offline mode not working
- 🐛 Slow startup and loading times
- 🐛 Unreliable syncing and login issues
- 🐛 Widgets not working as expected

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Unable to present all books from an author
- Keeps resetting book progress
- Offline mode broken, can't play downloaded books
- Crashes after recent update
- Widgets not updating with last played book
- Login issues and app getting stuck in offline mode

**Most requested features**

- Option to load fully downloaded books without server handshake
- Ability to filter library view to only downloaded books
- Add support for ebooks and PDF files
- Customizable playback speed options beyond 2x
- Implement a static reading queue/playlist
- Add Apple Watch support for offline listening

## Recent user reviews (10 of 172)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shelfplayer/id6475221163/reviews.md

### 5/5 — A must if you’re using a AudioBookShelf server

*2026-08-07*

Technically AudioBookShelf do have their own app, but it’s been in Beta for as long as I can remember and you can’t use it. Step up ShelfPlayer to fill the gap 😀. I use it all the time (bit of an audiobook addict) and it works great. It lets you download books for offline listening.

### 1/5 — So far from what I have expected

*2026-07-19, version 3.3.0*

I am connecting to an instance of Audiobookshelf and I have to log in every other time that I open the app. Then it takes a minute to load the main screen and even though it downloads episodes it stll takes time before you can play anything. 

I do not recommend at all. There are better alternatives.

### 3/5 — Pretty good but lots of bugs

*2026-07-16*

There is a bug where the audio stops playing at midnight and cannot be restarted without going to the app. Also the chapter selection from the book page is broken but it works in the playback menu with visual bugs. Sometimes the downloads randomly disappear.

### 3/5 — Decent but needs work

*2026-07-14, version 3.3.0*

Constantly going offline, losing my current position in my book, skipping too far, etc. it’s just pretty clunky

### 2/5 — Constantly losing podcast/audiobook progress

*2026-07-06*

Using the sleep timer function for several 20 minute podcast series and audio books. When the timer runs through several episodes or chapters over the course of an hour long timer I constantly find the shelf player app not saving progress to ABS on timer end and starting right back where the last session began.

I’m losing multiple episodes or chapters of progress and taking up a lot of time constantly re-marking episodes complete or trying to figure out where to resume an audiobook before continuing listening sessions.

The UI is very nice but this functionality flaw is heavily detracting from the experience

### 5/5 — Great App

*2026-06-17, version 3.3.0*

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

### 4/5 — Almost perfect!

*2026-06-10*

This app is getting really really close to perfect. It's the only one that handles seasons well! My only advice regards the mini-player animation. It is SO cool that you have emulated Apple's shrinking album cover effect (I'm geeking out about it!), but I'm not sure it's really ready for release. Until it's smooth and snappy, I'd rather have the whole player slide down off the bottom of the screen quickly and smoothly than have a fancy animation that feels slow and finicky. If it weren't for that, I could easily be convinced this app was built by the Apple devs themselves! 👏👏👏

### 5/5 — Gut

*2026-05-29*

Also funktioniert bei mir sehr gut. Bestimmt ne Menge Arbeit, danke dafür

### 2/5 — Finally fixed the background crashing, but many other issues added in the process

*2026-04-10*

Previous update finally solved the background crashing issue, but caused numerous other issues. 

1. Trying to play a completed episode without first explicitly resetting progress causes an instant crash

2. If you have used the sleep timer, you must set to random value, then cancels, then set again. Otherwise it will show a negative number in the thousands and prevent podcasts from playing

3. The latest field has disappeared from CarPlay with no discernible way to get it back.

4. Double click AirPods no longer skips forward, but instead SKIPS TO THE NEXT EPISODE unlike every other audio app in existence. There seems to be no way to change this

5. The currently playing display at the bottom of the screen with occasionally stop working and require a force close

6. Occasionally will crash when queueing multiple episodes

To users - maybe just use plappa. It’s clunky and less pretty, but it actually works consistently

To the dev - maybe layoff the vibes. Random things are breaking and changing in every update. Kinda bums me out

**Developer response:** Should be fixed in version 3.2.1

### 5/5 — Works great when it works

*2026-03-23*

I’m really happy overall with ShelfPlayer as it manages my audiobooks via audiobookshelf running on my Linux server. The problem is, it occasionally starts the book from the beginning. This isn’t a huge deal for shorter books, but I’m listening to 1000+ page books over the course of weeks/months and it takes a long long time of skipping around in the audio book to find my place. Infuriating.


Edit:  seems fixed

**Developer response:** Should be fixed in version 3.2.1

## Frequently asked questions about ShelfPlayer

### What is ShelfPlayer?

ShelfPlayer is a powerful iOS application designed for users who have self-hosted Audiobookshelf libraries. It allows you to listen to your audiobooks and podcasts directly from your own server, offering a native and integrated experience on your iPhone or iPad.

### Do I need to buy audiobooks or podcasts through the app?

No, ShelfPlayer does not include any media content. You must have a running Audiobookshelf instance with your own audiobooks and podcasts to use the app. It acts as a client to access and play your existing library.

### What are the key features of ShelfPlayer?

Key features include unified management for audiobooks and podcasts, support for multiple servers, flexible authentication, global search, playback queues, chapter navigation, customizable playback speed and skip intervals, offline downloads, and integration with Apple features like Live Activities and Siri.

### Is ShelfPlayer free to use?

Based on the provided information, ShelfPlayer is a paid application. It does not contain ads or in-app purchases, indicating a one-time purchase model for the app itself.

### What devices is ShelfPlayer compatible with?

ShelfPlayer is built for iOS 18+ and is designed to work natively on both iPhone and iPad. It also supports CarPlay and integrates with Apple ecosystem features like AirPlay, Siri, and Live Activities.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 3.3.0 — 2026-06-09

This release introduces Podcast Channels support and a new Statistics sheet showing listening activity and goals. The Episode view has been redesigned, and the Now Playing screen now features an animated background. The Sleep Timer and playback speed picker have been reworked, and the home screen has a new customization editor.

OpenID Connect authentication has been fixed, and library lookup is more reliable, with better genre handling and tag support. Settings have been redesigned, and iPadOS layout, accessibility, and CarPlay have all received polish, including a fix for physical wheel buttons that didn't work in some circumstances. Internally, event propagation has moved from NotificationCenter to Combine.

Other changes include:

- New Bookmark Export App Intent
- Updated Intents and Shortcuts support
- Better image aspect ratio handling
- New marquee text for long titles
- Increased offline mode timeout
- Convenience Download subsystem rework
- More WebSocket events for progress, sessions, and item updates
- Memory leak fixes
- Under-the-hood refactors and project structure cleanup
- Translation updates
- Various bug fixes

### 3.2.1 — 2026-03-18

- Crash fixes
- Fix audio player selecting wrong audio track during startup
- Show progress in % on the compact item row if enabled

### 3.2.0 — 2026-03-15

This release contains under-the-hood improvements to the Networking, Offline, and Progress subsystems of ShelfPlayer. Previously the offline mode existed mostly in the UI, which worked fine for servers that were always reachable or completely offline, but not for servers only accessible on the local network. The new offline mode works throughout the entire app and is based on actual reachability. The new network client is more efficient and supports queueing, so a maximum of five requests are currently dispatched concurrently.

The progress system has also been improved to work more reliably in general and in certain edge cases.

Other improvements include:

- Crash fixes
- WebSocket support for progress updates (more planned)
- Episode chapter extraction
- Updated and improved color extraction algorithm
- More stable and easy-to-use CarPlay experience
- Bookmark editing
- Liquid Glass design updates
- Caching, item, and image loading improvements
- Updated project to Swift 6.2 (enabled approachable concurrency and default main actor isolation)

### 3.1.4 — 2025-12-06

- Replace LastPlayed with with StartWidget which has an configurable item parameter and can be added to the lock screen
- Added "Start" panel which allows mixing Tabs from all libraries
- Fix start race condition
- Added playback bar placeholder
- Bug fixes and improvements

### 3.1.2 — 2025-10-26

Bug fixes and improvements

## Apps similar to ShelfPlayer

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [BookFusion](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bookfusion/id1141834096) | 4.7 (495) | Free | Books |
| [plappa](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/plappa/id6475201956) | 4.7 (325) | Free | Books |
| [SoundLeaf](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/soundleaf/id6738635634) | 4.2 (17) | Free | Books |
| [Little Ape Audio Books (LAAB)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/little-ape-audio-books-laab/id6450146951) | 4.0 (5) | Free | Books |
| [AudioBooth: Audiobooks Player](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/audiobooth-audiobooks-player/id6753017503) | 4.9 (421) | Free | Books |
| [Still: for Audiobookshelf](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/still-for-audiobookshelf/id6754208326) | 4.9 (36) | Free | Books |

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All apps by AI Tools Apps SRL: https://appshunter.io/developer/1854689122

## Related topics

[shelfplayer](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/shelfplayer) · [plappa](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/plappa) · [audiobookshelf](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/audiobookshelf)

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*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 2026-08-24.*