Sandbook reads books, documents and articles aloud in natural voices, entirely on your iPhone or iPad. Nothing you read is uploaded, and there is no account, no subscription and no ads.
NATURAL VOICES, OFFLINE
- 41 voices in American and British English, Spanish, French, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Hindi
- A book in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese or Hindi opens with a voice in its language
- Powered by the open-source Kokoro model, running locally; no internet connection needed
- Follow along as each spoken word is highlighted
- Speed from 0.5x to 2.5x; each book remembers its voice and speed
READ ALMOST ANYTHING
- Import EPUB, PDF, Word (.docx), TXT, RTF, Markdown and HTML files
- Add a web page by pasting a link, or share it from Safari
- Scan printed pages with the camera, or pick a photo, and listen
- Send files or selected text from any app with the share sheet, or type and paste your own
- Open a document straight from the Files app with Open With, or set Sandbook as its default app
LISTEN THE WAY YOU READ
- Opens at the paragraph where you stopped
- Keep listening when you leave the book, with a mini player at the bottom of the screen
- Bookmarks, and search inside a book
- Sleep timer: stop after a set time or at the end of the chapter
- Passages you've already heard play back instantly
- In a PDF, the sentence being read is highlighted on the page; tap any sentence to read from there
- Reading options: light, sepia and dark themes, fonts, text size and line spacing
- Appearance: light, dark or matching your system
- See each book's length, listening time and the time left in the chapter
- Prepare a chapter's audio ahead of time, then keep listening with the screen locked; prepared chapters replay instantly
- Continue Reading with Siri or the Shortcuts app
- Export any text as an M4A audio file
ACCESSIBILITY
- VoiceOver, Voice Control, Switch Control, larger text and contrast improvements
- The app is available in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil) and Hindi
PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Your books, text and voices stay on your device. Sandbook never sends what you read to a server.
GOOD TO KNOW
- Voices require iPhone 12 or later, or an iPad with an A14 or M1 chip or later. Sandbook also needs iOS 18.2 or later.
- Real-time reading pauses when the screen locks. To listen with the screen off, prepare the chapter first.
Questions or ideas: support@sandbook.app
The voice sounds way more natural than other app I've tried - actually sounds like a person reading to me instead of a robot Makes getting through my books so much easier when I'm tired after work.Not perfect though. The app random stops reading when my screen turns off(super annoying when I'm trying to chores while listening). Also noticed the text highlighting gets wonky when switching chapters.Still worth the download for sure. Hoping they'll keep polishingit with updates.
Developer Response
Thank you, I'm glad it makes books easier after work. The screen now stays awake while reading by default (Settings > Keep screen awake while reading). Speech is generated live on the phone, so for chores with the phone locked, open the ... menu in a book and choose "Prepare chapter for lock screen" first; then it plays while locked. If the highlight still drifts when you change chapters, please let me know at support@sandbook.app.
Ok but …
Aneliii R
I really like that the voices are realistic and they actually work. I like the simplification of this app just take a picture and it scans it. However, I don’t like that every uploaded photo the audio states “page 1” “page 2” etc. for starters…. those are not the actual page numbers in our book because we have to constantly be scanning new pages within new chapters of the book. It’s distracting from the text and the flow of the audio. Also, even if got scan a photo of the page perfectly somehow the Audio states a word that is sooo contrary to what the actual word is. A lot of mistakes on the audio reading simple words. Additionally, I don’t like the limit of 24 pages of scanning. That doesn’t cover the entire chapter of a book. Also, I don’t like how I cannot name the bundle of pages I’ve already scanned. By far, The worse thing is the fact there is no background audio play back. Meaning if my phone gets on “locked screen” the audio will immediately stop. The developer thought adding ONE PAGE audio playback option was enough? It takes less than 5 mins to read a page… you want me to select the button to play back the next page every single time through out the book? That is ridiculous. Amongst other issues. I look forward to seeing this app updated to improve on these features and then to become the #1 app of its kind but right now- these are my issues with it.
Developer Response
Thank you for such a detailed list. In 1.0.5, out now, the "Page 1", "Page 2" headings in scans are no longer read aloud, and a camera scan takes up to 200 pages. Renaming a scan isn't possible yet; I've noted it. For a locked phone: speech is generated live on the phone, so open the ... menu and choose "Prepare chapter for lock screen" first, then lock it. If you send me a few misread words at support@sandbook.app, I'll look at each one.
Wow! Love love love this app!
Thirdnail
Amazing! The offline reader, uses a lot of VRAM… But sounds AMAZING! I was listening to a book that Gregory Keyes wrote: Elder Scrolls… and the language that Keyes uses for the many races, are VERY hard to read, yet this reader does very well! Anytime a reader can interpret and read Sci-Fi and Fantasy, it is a GOOD reader!!!’ I did notice that words like (Face, Gaze, Chase, Slate, space…) almost anything with a long A (Drape, table, take) almost has a “double syllable” sound… like there are 2 A’s … other than that…. Amazing
Developer Response
Thank you, and what a test: if it can handle Gregory Keyes' names, I'm happy. You're right about the long A in words like "face" and "table"; it comes from the pronunciation step, and it's on my list. The voice model is also about a third smaller now than when you wrote this.
Great voice, struggles with prosody
TKM135
The voice itself is great. It sounds very human. But it struggles with pronouncing certain things and where to pause in sentences and phrases. The PDF I fed it had the word clothing split between two lines with a between CLOTH on first line and ING on second line. It pronounced it as two words instead of one. Another example is the words great apes. It pronounced it “gray-it ai-ips.” The word laid was pronounced “lay-id.” It also pauses at the end of every line for as long as at the end of every song entrance, making the reading choppy. The funniest was when humans was split between lines as hu-mans and it pronounced it “who” pause “mans.”Would love using the voice, if the reading flowed and pronunciation improved!
Developer Response
Thank you for the precise examples, they help a lot. Version 1.0.5, out now, joins words split by a hyphen at the end of a PDF line, so "cloth-ing" and "hu-mans" are read as one word, and line breaks inside a sentence no longer get a long pause. The vowel in words like "great" and "laid" is a known weakness of the pronunciation step I use, and I'm still working on it. If you send me other words it gets wrong at support@sandbook.app, I'll add them to my test list.
A redesigned Sandbook, with a new library, reader and player.
• Keep listening when you leave a book, with a mini player at the bottom of the screen.
• Bookmarks, search inside a book, and a sleep timer.
• Passages you've already heard play back instantly.
• Preview a voice before you choose it.
• Cleaner reading of EPUBs, PDFs and web pages, with page numbers and picture captions left out.
• Better sentence breaks and more natural reading.
• Your library opens right away, even with many books.
Chapters prepared for the lock screen will need to be prepared again after this update.
Version 1.0.6
The developer, SmashMelon LLC, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
SmashMelon LLC
Size
282.3 MB
Category
Productivity
Compatibility
Requires iOS 18.2 or later and a device with the A12 Bionic chip or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 18.2 or later and a device with the A12 Bionic chip or later. • iPhone XS • iPhone XS Max • iPhone XR • iPhone 11 • iPhone 11 Pro • iPhone 11 Pro Max • iPhone SE (2nd generation) • iPhone 12 mini • iPhone 12 • iPhone 12 Pro • iPhone 12 Pro Max • iPhone 13 Pro • iPhone 13 Pro Max • iPhone 13 mini • iPhone 13 • iPhone SE (3rd generation) • iPhone 14 • iPhone 14 Plus • iPhone 14 Pro • iPhone 14 Pro Max • iPhone 15 • iPhone 15 Plus • iPhone 15 Pro • iPhone 15 Pro Max • iPhone 16 • iPhone 16 Plus • iPhone 16 Pro • iPhone 16 Pro Max • iPhone 16e • iPhone 17 Pro • iPhone 17 Pro Max • iPhone 17 • iPhone Air • iPhone 17e • iPhone 18 Pro • iPhone 18 Pro Max • iPhone Duo
iPad Requires iPadOS 18.2 or later and a device with the A12 Bionic chip or later. • iPad Pro (11‑inch) • iPad Pro (11‑inch) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (3rd generation) • iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (3rd generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad mini (5th generation) • iPad mini (5th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad Air (3rd generation) • iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad Pro (11‑inch) (2nd generation) • iPad Pro (11‑inch) (2nd generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (4th generation) • iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (4th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad Air (4th generation) • iPad Air (4th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad (8th generation) • iPad (8th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad Pro (11-inch) (3rd generation) • iPad Pro (11-inch) (3rd generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (5th generation) • iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad mini (6th generation) • iPad mini (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad (9th generation) • iPad (9th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad Air (5th generation) • iPad Air (5th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad (10th generation) • iPad (10th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad Pro (11‑inch) (4th generation) • iPad Pro (11‑inch) (4th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (6th generation) • iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (6th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular • iPad Air 11-inch (M2) • iPad Air 11-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad Air 13-inch (M2) • iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) • iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) • iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad mini (A17 Pro) • iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad (A16) • iPad (A16) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad Air 11-inch (M3) • iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad Air 13-inch (M3) • iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) • iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) • iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad Air 11-inch (M4) • iPad Air 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular • iPad Air 13-inch (M4) • iPad Air 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular
Mac Requires macOS 15.2 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
Apple Vision Requires visionOS 2.2 or later and a device with the A12 Bionic chip or later.
