Athene Reader

For the books you already own

Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.

Your calibre library on iPhone and iPad, now easier to connect, with your highlights sent back. Any book read aloud in a natural voice. Free, with no account. Athene is a reader for the books you already own. Bring your books from Files, from Mail, from your computer over Wi‑Fi, from a link, or from anywhere that can share a file, and they go on a shelf that looks like one. EPUB and PDF open as they are; MOBI, AZW3, Word, FB2, TXT and HTML files become books as they arrive. Free classics from Project Gutenberg are a tap away. If you keep your library on a calibre server, Athene browses that shelf too — on your home network, or from anywhere through your own VPN such as Tailscale. THE PAGE Open a book and the app steps back. Just the page, on white, sepia or night paper, or paper in any colour you like, in the typeface and size you read best, including any Google Font. Highlight a passage, add a note, drop a bookmark, and find them all again under Marks. The shelf itself follows the time of day — Morning, Sunset, Night — or stays on the one you pick. NOTES YOU CAN DRAW Type a note in the margin, or sketch in it. On a PDF, mark up the page itself with Apple Pencil. LISTEN Any book, read aloud in a warm, natural voice that runs entirely on your device, and keeps reading with the screen locked. The voice is a one-time download of about 242 MB. A DICTIONARY Select a word to see what it means and how to say it. It is built in, and it works offline. ASK THE PAGE Tap the owl while you read and ask about what is in front of you. Who is she again? What did that word mean? What just happened? The Owl answers from the pages around where you are — this chapter at most, never the whole book, never your other books — and if the pages do not say, it tells you that instead of guessing. YOUR MODEL, YOUR CHOICE On a device with Apple Intelligence, the Owl thinks on the device and nothing you ask is sent anywhere. Or point it at your own Ollama server on your own network. Or bring a key from Claude, OpenRouter or OpenAI. Athene asks before the first question leaves the device, names the address it would send to, and remembers your answer. ON EVERY DEVICE Turn on iCloud Sync and your place, highlights, notes, drawings, collections and reading settings follow you between your iPhone and iPad. It goes only to your own private iCloud, and what you wrote is encrypted on your device first. With a calibre server, your highlights and how far you've read can go back to your calibre library too. PRIVATE BY CONSTRUCTION Athene has no account, no analytics and no servers of its own. Your books, your notes and your questions stay on your device or go only where you have pointed them. The privacy policy says the same, in plain words. FREE Reading is free. No account, no subscription, no limit: the shelf, the reader, Listen, the dictionary, the Owl, iCloud Sync, your calibre server, your highlights and notes. Nothing in Athene is for sale. Athene requires iOS 26. The on-device Owl requires Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro and later, M-series iPad, iPad mini A17 Pro); on other devices the Owl works with your own Ollama server or an API key.

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Athene 3.1 brings everything from 3.0 GINGERBREAD, the biggest update yet, and a few improvements of its own. All of it is free. LISTEN Any book, read aloud in a warm, natural voice that runs on your device. Tap the headphones while you read, and it keeps going with the screen locked. The voice is a one-time download of about 242 MB. NOTES YOU CAN DRAW Switch a note from Type to Draw and sketch in the margin, with a tray of pens and inks. Turn on Settings › Reading › More Drawing Tools for a fountain pen, a pencil and a brush. INK ON PDFS Mark up any page of a PDF with Apple Pencil, or with a finger. A DICTIONARY Select a word to see what it means and how to say it. It is built in, and it works offline. ICLOUD SYNC Turn it on in Settings › Sync, and your place, highlights, notes, drawings, collections, papers and reading settings follow you to every device signed in to your iCloud. It's off until you turn it on, and it goes only to your own private iCloud. FONTS AND PAPERS Read in any Google Font: Aa › Add a Font. Paper comes in any colour. MORE WAYS IN Tap + on the Library for free classics from Project Gutenberg, books sent from your computer over Wi‑Fi, a link to a book on the web, or an OPDS catalog. Athene now opens MOBI, AZW3, Word, FB2, TXT and HTML files too, turning them into books as they arrive. SEND TO CALIBRE Your highlights and how far you've read can go back to your calibre library, into columns you choose, and finished books can be marked as read. NEW IN 3.1 CALIBRE, EASIER TO CONNECT Type your computer's address without a port, and Athene finds calibre by itself. When it can't connect, it now says why: calibre isn't running, it's the wrong port, the computer is asleep, or Local Network is switched off. If calibre's Content server is off, "Show me how" walks you through turning it on. COLLECTIONS Add a whole stack of books to a collection at once, and rename or delete a collection by pressing and holding it. A book's menu can take it out of the collection you're in, and switching collections now fades smoothly instead of jumping. TRYING VOICES Each voice plays a different line about Owl when you try it, and a ring around its play button shows the line playing to the end. THE NOTEBOOK The reader's notes panel is now the Notebook, with room for all its filters. Reading is free, as it was.

The developer, Aditya Sreedhar, 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 based, for example, on the features you use or your age. Learn More

    The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More

    Provider
    Aditya Sreedhar
    Size
    37.5 MB
    Category
    Books
    Compatibility
    Requires iOS 26.0 or later.
    • iPhone
      Requires iOS 26.0 or later.
    • iPad
      Requires iPadOS 26.0 or later.
    • Mac
      Requires macOS 26.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
    Languages
    English
    Age Rating
    4+
    Copyright
    © 2026 theadipost