Thyle vs Gloss
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
Thyle
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Thyle is an audiobook player built for people who care about how their library looks and feels β not just how it sounds. Most audiobook apps treat your collection like a utility. Thyle treats it like a library worth living in. Six artist-inspired themes β Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse, CΓ©zanne, and Degas β bring a gallery-quality aesthetic to every screen, with warm palettes, custom typography, and details that reward a closer look. Your Library, Your Way Import audiobooks directly from your files β MP3, M4A, FLAC, Opus, and more. Thyle reads embedded metadata, pulls chapter markers, and organizes everything into a clean, browsable collection. Filter by star rating or genre, sort by title or date added, and switch between grid and list views to find exactly what you're looking for. Listening Done Right Thyle hands control back to you. Pick your chapter, set a sleep timer, and let spatial audio fill the room. Your progress is saved automatically so you can pick up exactly where you left off β across chapters, across sessions. Rate, Tag, and Personalize Give books a star rating after you've listened. Add your own genre tags alongside whatever's embedded in the file. The more you add, the smarter your filters become. Ask the Book Have a question about something you heard? Ask the Book uses on-device transcription and AI to let you search your audiobooks by meaning, not just memory. Find that passage, revisit that idea, or settle that nagging half-remembered detail β without scrubbing through hours of audio. Crafted for Readers Thyle was designed by a reader, for readers. That means no subscription wall, no algorithm pushing titles you didn't ask for, and no clutter between you and the book. Just your library, exactly as you left it. β Import MP3, M4A, FLAC, OGG, Opus, and folder-based audiobooks β Six artist-inspired color themes with matching typography β Five display fonts, each hand-selected for readability β Star ratings and genre tags with smart filtering β Chapter-accurate progress tracking β Sleep timer and spatial audio support β Ask the Book: AI-powered search across your transcribed audiobooks β Swipe gestures for natural navigation β No subscription required
Gloss
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Gloss turns anything you read into a conversation with its author. Highlight any passage β in a book, a PDF, an article you saved, or your own notes β and a margin note appears, explaining it more deeply in a voice informed by the author's style (or a thoughtful guide when there's no single author). Ask a follow-up and the note answers, staying right beside the text. The AI lives in the margins, never as a chat window β it reads like a thoughtful annotation, beside the text. Read anything: β’ EPUB books (DRM-free) β your files, Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks, author-direct. (Kindle and Apple Books DRM files aren't supported.) β’ PDFs β papers, manuals, anything you've saved. β’ Articles β paste a link and Gloss pulls the readable text to annotate. β’ Your notes β write or paste text and gloss it like a book. β’ Select text β Gloss, Go deeper, Define, or Ask β the note streams into the margin (a side column on iPad, an anchored card on iPhone). β’ Distraction-free reading β three themes (light, sepia, dark), adjustable font, size, spacing, and margins. β’ Your highlights and notes are saved on your device and travel with each document. Reading is free forever. Your first 10 glosses are free; Gloss Unlimited ($5.99/month or $49.99/year) unlocks unlimited notes. Your files stay on your device β only the highlighted passage and a small amount of surrounding text are sent to generate a note. Author "voices" are an AI interpretation, not the real author, and may be inaccurate. Gloss Unlimited is an auto-renewable subscription: $5.99/month or $49.99/year. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at purchase confirmation. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://gloss.nyrai.ai/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://gloss.nyrai.ai/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Thyle at none against Gloss's 2. On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Gloss sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Thyle asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Thyle | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No β better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Eric Hamiter | NYRAI LLC |
In-app purchases
Thyle
No in-app purchases
Gloss
- Gloss Monthly$5.991 Month
- Gloss Yearly$49.991 Year









