The player

Tap a book in the library to open it in the player. It continues from where you stopped; your place is saved as you listen.

The player on a narrow window

On a phone, or in a narrow window, the player has three tabs:

Now playing: the cover, the title, author and narrator ("Narrated by …"), the chapter you are in, the progress bar and the playback controls.
Chapters: the book's chapters and subchapters. See Chapters.
Lyrics, or Read along for a book made from a document: the follow-along view. See Lyrics and reading along.

The Chapters and Lyrics / Read along tabs have the mini player along the bottom, so play and pause, the chapter menu and the volume stay in reach. Tapping the mini player there takes you back to Now playing.

The bar at the top shows the speed (tap it to change it) and a More menu (⋯) with:

Voice: switch between the voices a book is read in (only for a book with more than one). See More than one voice for a book.
Add voice…: narrate the book again in another voice (only for a finished book made from a document).
Sleep timer: see Sleep timer.
Read along: opens the document view (only for a book that has one).
Edit: see Editing a book.
Settings: see Settings.
Help: opens this page.

The player on a wide window

On a tablet or a computer the player has three panes, with the controls along the bottom:

The library, on the left: your books, so you can switch to another without leaving the player. Click one to play it from where you left off. The handle beside the pane tucks it away; this is separate from the library screen's own sidebar.
The book, in the middle: its chapter list, with your starred chapters (see Chapters). A book without chapters shows the Now playing view here instead. The lyrics and the document open over this pane.
About this book, on the right: the cover, title, author and narrator, and its Length, Progress, Time left, number of Chapters, Genre, Language, Speed and Status (In progress or Finished). A book of several files shows how many Files it has. Below them:
Show in Finder / Show in File Explorer / Show in file manager opens the folder holding the book's file.
Download as M4B (for a book of several files) combines them into one .m4b file. See Sharing audiobooks.

The bottom bar holds the progress bar, the cover and title with the chapter menu and the current chapter, the playback controls and the volume.

The bar at the top has a button for the speed, Voice (for a book with more than one), Sleep timer, Lyrics (for a book with lyrics) and Read along (for a book with a document), then a ⋯ menu with Add voice… where it applies, Edit, Settings and Help. The Lyrics and Read along buttons light up while their view is open.

Playback controls

Control	What it does
Previous chapter	Goes back to the start of this chapter, or, in its first 3 seconds, to the previous chapter.
Back 30 seconds	Jumps back 30 seconds.
Play / Pause	Starts or stops playback.
Forward 30 seconds	Jumps ahead 30 seconds.
Next chapter	Goes to the start of the next chapter.

The chapter buttons are greyed out for a book with no chapters.

The progress bar shows where you are in the book. Drag it to move anywhere. The time on the left is how far you are; the time on the right is how long is left, worked out at your current speed (point at it to see "Time left at 1.5x", for example).

Space bar: on a computer, or a tablet with a keyboard, press Space to play or pause on the library and the player. See Keyboard shortcuts and accessibility.

Playback speed

Tap or click the speed (for example 1x) to choose from 0.5x, 0.75x, 0.8x, 1x, 1.08x, 1.15x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x and 2x.

The speed is a single setting for all your books. The speed you choose stays for the next book you open and the next time you start the app. You can also set it in Settings → Playback; see Playback.

Volume

The volume control in the mini player and in the wide player's bottom bar sets the app's own volume, separately from your device's. The speaker icon mutes and unmutes; unmuting goes back to the level you had before. The volume is remembered between launches.

Sleep timer

The sleep timer stops playback after a while, so you can fall asleep listening. Open it from Sleep timer (the bed icon) and choose:

5, 15, 30, 45 or 60 min, or
End of chapter, to stop when the current chapter ends.

While it runs, the sheet shows Stopping in … (or Stopping at the end of this chapter), with +5 minutes to give yourself longer and Cancel to turn it off. In the last 10 seconds the sound fades out gently before playback pauses, and the volume goes back to normal for next time.

Chapters

The chapter list shows the book's chapters as a tree:

The chapter playing now is highlighted, together with every chapter containing it, so you can see where you are even with parts collapsed.
Each row shows the chapter's start time and length.
Tap a chapter to play from its start. Playback starts if it was paused.
Tap the arrow at the end of a row to show or hide its subchapters. Tapping the row itself plays the chapter; the arrow only opens and closes it.
Tap the star to mark a chapter as a favourite (Favourite), and tap it again to remove it (Remove favourite). Stars are kept with the book and synced to your other devices.

A book with no chapters shows No chapters, with Add chapters to open the chapter editor.

A book still being made from a document also lists the chapters it hasn't made yet, greyed out and marked Not made yet. They can't be played until they are ready, but you can see the whole book while it is being made. See Making audiobooks from documents.

Next to the title in the mini player and the wide bottom bar, the chapter menu button lists every chapter, indented by level, with the playing one ticked. Pick one to play it. It's the quickest way to change chapter from anywhere.

The mini player

While a book is loaded, the mini player sits along the bottom of the library: the cover, the title, the current chapter, the chapter menu, play and pause, and the volume. Tap it to open the full player.

Lock screen and notification controls

Phone and tablet: while a book plays, it appears in the notification area and on the lock screen with its cover and the current chapter. The controls are rewind 30 seconds, previous chapter, play/pause, next chapter and forward 30 seconds. The collapsed notification shows the three you will want most often (±30 seconds and play/pause); expand it for the chapter buttons. Headphone and car controls work the same way.

Mac: the book playing shows in Now Playing in Control Center, and the keyboard's media keys play, pause and skip. Windows and Linux don't have these controls.

Android: Android asks for permission to show notifications the first time you play a book. If you refuse, playback still works, but there are no notification or lock-screen controls. The player then says so, with an Open settings button to change your mind. The same note appears if the device can't start its media controls at all.

If a book won't play

If a book's file can't be opened, the player shows what went wrong with a Retry button. If the file is no longer on the device, the library marks the book as missing; see Missing books. More help is in Troubleshooting.