Unlimited listening, free. No ads, no account, no catch. Éist turns any EPUB or PDF into a natural-sounding audiobook — fully offline, with Read-along that lights up each word exactly as you hear it.
Éist (pronounced "esht", Irish for "listen") uses on-device AI voices to read your ebooks aloud. Import a file, pick a voice, press play. Your library stays on your device and works with no internet once a voice is downloaded. No ads, ever.
READ ALONG AS YOU LISTEN
As the voice narrates, each word appears one at a time, perfectly in sync with the audio, with the focal letter highlighted — so your eyes stay on the page and your focus stays on the story. Tap the bolt icon while listening to switch it on, and use the sync dial to fine-tune the timing. Great for focus, following along, and language learning.
LISTEN TO ANY BOOK
Import any EPUB or PDF from your device and Éist reads it aloud with remarkably natural AI voices. Perfect for commutes, workouts, chores, or winding down at the end of the day.
EXPRESSIVE AI VOICES
Choose from a curated selection of on-device voice engines — Kokoro, Piper and Supertonic. Each has a distinct character and accent, across dozens of languages. Preview before you commit, and switch any time mid-book.
SMART AHEAD-OF-PLAYBACK SYNTHESIS
Éist pre-generates audio ahead of where you're listening, so playback is seamless. Chapters you've already heard replay instantly from your local cache.
FULL PLAYBACK CONTROLS
- Adjustable speed (0.5x-3.0x)
- Sleep timer
- Background playback with lock-screen and Control Centre controls
- Chapter navigation, skip forward / back
OFFLINE FIRST
Download a voice once, listen forever with no connection. Your books, your progress and your synthesised audio all live on your device.
DISCOVER FREE BOOKS
Browse and download thousands of free public-domain books from Project Gutenberg, right inside the app.
PRIVACY YOU CAN TRUST
No account required. No ads. We never sell your data. Usage analytics are anonymous, and email is entirely optional — we only ask if you'd like a reminder before your trial ends, or if you choose to join our newsletter. Your books, your progress and your listening stay on your device.
ÉIST PREMIUM
Listening is free, forever — no credits, no per-book cost. The free plan includes 3 books and 3 voices. Éist Premium unlocks your full library, all 60+ voices, unlimited read-along and more, with a 1-month free trial.
- Unlimited book library
- Every AI voice engine and voice
- Unlimited read-along
- Premium themes and font families
- Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase
- Subscription auto-renews unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period
- Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the current period ends
- Manage or cancel any time in Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions
Privacy Policy: https://eist.app/privacy
Terms of Use: https://eist.app/terms
I’ve been using éist for a while now and it’s genuinely transformed how I get through my reading list. The AI narration is surprisingly natural with none of that robotic, stilted delivery you’d expect. It actually sounds like someone is reading to you.That said, it’s not without its quirks. PDFs can have encoding issues where ligature characters get mangled and odd symbols appear in the text. There are also occasional random skips and stops that seem to be glitches, and sometimes subheading text gets mixed into the body text which can make it hard to follow unless you’re reading along with the audio. One UI thing I’d love to see fixed: it’s too easy to accidentally tap other text while reading ahead, which jumps the audio unexpectedly. A double-tap to navigate would go a long way.But for an app doing something this ambitious, these feel like growing pains rather than dealbreakers. What keeps me coming back is how effortless it makes long-form reading. Commutes, workouts, doing the dishes, content I’d otherwise never get to is now just part of my day.Highly recommended for anyone who wants to actually get through their backlog.
Developer Response
Wow thanks for the review!I can add double tap to jump to text in the settings and will look into ironing out more of the pdf parsing issues !
Amazing and feature rich even at free tier
Schelry
I’m just loving Eist. I love the import experience, the initial voice option is pleasant to listen to, and bonus the synchronized text is a wonder to behold and to use for skipping guitars for back.It’s a delight.You also earn another voice or two as you listen.
Wow
David Smiley
Great app for a free price! At least one voice is pleasant to listen to without me paying. But I’ll probably upgrade anyway because I’m having a great experience so far.
Developer Response
Im delighted you are enjoying the app! I plan on making more voices available in the future too!
Amazing
OmarrC_.
I can easily put my pdf into an audiobook and the reading is good thank you. And i thank you for the premium rewards for reading
Developer Response
Thanks for the feedback!!I really appreciate the review it helps so much
• NEW: Turbo — our fastest, most natural voice — is now free for 15 minutes every day. Try it on any book; go Premium for unlimited Turbo.
• If a voice is ever unavailable, the app now pauses and tells you instead of switching voices behind your back.
• Subscription screen no longer runs under the status bar on tall screens.
• Accessibility: better VoiceOver labels across setup and settings.
• Many reliability fixes.
Version 1.3.4
The developer, William O'Meara, 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 Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
Contact Info
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Purchases
Identifiers
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More
Supported Features
Larger Text
Dark Interface
Sufficient Contrast
Reduced Motion
Captions
Information
Seller
William O'Meara
Size
283 MB
Category
Books
Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.