BookFusion 12+

Incredible!

The state of ereading apps has been lackluster for years. Previous apps that were loved and growing were abandoned by the developers, while commercial apps lack support for sideloaded content that books purchased from their respective stores were able to utilize.

Enter BookFusion. Not only is it actively supported by a team that is responsive to bugs and issues, they also listen to feedback and implement feature requests that make it one of the best reading apps to date.

I’m so impressed with the most recent updates, and love how seamlessly it integrates with Calibre. The syncing between devices is the most reliable I’ve used as well. I’m so glad I found this app!

Note takers beware

I take a lot of notes while reading, and when I have gotten a thought down, half the time I delete it because if you accidentally tap *anywhere* outside of the note—such as the dimmed background outside the note modal dialog, including just below the text box where you might be trying to reposition the cursor—then it doesn’t save your note. You must tap the save button and be careful not to touch anything else or bump your phone, otherwise it’s lost. There is already a cancel button and I can even go delete a note if I regret writing it for some reason. The default should always be to save user input immediately and durably.

This problem is exacerbated when attempting to take notes on a handheld iPad, and multiplied tenfold if you try to use an Apple Pencil to take notes. Good luck with that.

Additionally, I read a lot at night. Every note pops up a non-dark mode keyboard and a bright white modal dialog takes up most of the screen, blinding me and causing me to forget whatever thought I wanted to write down on the highlight I had just made. Seemingly a symptom of lacking any actual dark mode outside the reader theme, as switching to another book at night is also blinding.

It’s a shame how difficult and dangerous it is to take notes, since this is one of the few apps with any kind of note export support (you can get a CSV of highlights and notes from the web app). Until these problems are fixed, I’ll be stuck with Google Play Books 😓

개발자 답변 ,

Hi zuwiki,

Thank you for trying BookFusion. We are happy to let you know we have resolved one of the critical issues you reported and we look forward to your updated review.

Comments/Notes are now durable so they will be saved until you explicitly delete them, this means you will no longer loose what you typed if you accidentally closed the dialog or switch apps. You should still however use the save button to have them saved permanently and synced between all devices.

We will be implementing dark mode across the entire app after we release several more updates and features around highlights/notes and annotations. Please reach out to us at support@bookfusion.com if you have any issues or additional feedback.

Still some very rough edges to smooth, but…

I came to this app with great expectations, but for a time I felt very let down by it. I wanted to use it for programming books, which often lose something in EPUB format, but I couldn’t control which format (EPUB or PDF) was uploaded (not good), and on top of that, PDF formats were displayed in a ladder-like array that made reading awkward. I much preferred how LiquidText displays PDF files (work on that, will you, guys?) Over time, however, the sheer number of volumes I can upload, and how well I can organize them, and having what I was reading and where I was in the book available on every device, and how well highlights are preserved—well, I’ve come to appreciate and really use this app, daily. I also wish that the Mac desktop version really worked—on desktop, as now I end up using the Web version on my laptop. So, it’s got a ways to go, but I grok what they’re aiming for. Give it a try. It’s a worthwhile app.

개발자 답변 ,

Thank you for the feedback. Rendering issues are pretty rare for most of our users. We would be more than happy to address any and all issues you might have if you reach out to support@bookfusion.com with more details.

You can upload any format you prefer via Web, iOS or Android. Are you referring to the Calibre plugin that selects EPUBs first as the default? You can provide more details in your ticket to support@bookfusion.com

We do not have an official Mac desktop app yet. The app that you installed is the same iOS app that Apple allows to be installed on Silicone based Macs. Thanks again and we hope we can assist you further via support@bookfusion.com