Everand: Ebooks and audiobooks 12+

UPDATE: 12/24 - the new plan where you can unlock titles has made this app even more glitchy. Several titles will say “unlock” but when I look at them again 5 minutes later it lets me play it no problem. Or it’ll say “unlock” and when I click on the book it’ll change and say it’s available at the end of the month. I love this subscription service but it can sometimes be difficult to navigate.

I’m a huge fan of this app and subscription service - it’s one of my favorite things and I use it religiously. That being said, the audio player isn’t the best, which is mostly all I use this app for. Even on downloaded books it’ll cut out or will just start the book over, I have to bookmark my place any time I leave the app because I’ve had it put me back at the beginning of books all the time. I love the app and won’t be getting rid of it any time soon, but please please fix the audio player. If it was better this app would be perfect. Also, I get that there are listening limits (I’m not even mad about it because there’s still so much available) but if I’m listening to Part 1 of a book don’t block Part 2 for A MONTH. I listened to part one of A Court of Wings & Ruin and hit my listening limit and parts 2 and 3 were blocked. So frustrating.

Hey CKeona. Thank you for your frank and thoughtful reply! We hear you loud and clear about the issues with the audio player, as well as a way listening limits could be improved. Our engineers are working on audio player improvements as I write this. And it may take a little time but we are also working on strategies to address exactly the kind of situation you're describing with series and multipart stories. Thanks again! [JG]

I had subscribe to the service for about five months or so then decided to cancel recently just to find out the date it cut me off a day early. I just needed to save some money recently so I decided to cancel for a short period of time but I’m not sure I’m coming back after my experience. During the time I subscribed, I kept having issues that the audiobooks I wanted to listen to were unavailable until the next renewal date. I would still have 10 days left on my subscription and find out that I couldn’t listen to the next audiobook I wanted to listen to in the series because it wasn’t available until my next subscription renewal date. This happened three times and it was very annoying. While this service may be cheaper than Audible, the aggravation may not be worth it.

The app is also glitchy. I had times when I would answer the phone and the audiobook would still play in the background while I was trying to hear phone calls. I would set up to play the audiobook sometimes, and it would just cut off by itself while I was driving. Which is annoying because I live in a hands-free state and can’t go back and reboot the app. The glitches seemed to happen more often after I decided to cancel for a little while. The audio player with clothes for no reason in recent weeks and I kept having to stop what I was doing to reopen it just to get it to play again. Probably won’t renew now after the recent experience. You should shop around.

Thank you for informing us! I apologize for the negative experience. It sounds like you were encountering our rotating library, which can cause some titles to go temporarily unavailable from time to time, however, there will still be thousands of titles always available to enjoy right away on Scribd. You can read more on that process here: https://bit.ly/3oK7abz and let us know if you have any questions about that.

That said, we are encountering some issues with iOS skipping as well that you may have also been encountering. We are working on resolving that issue. If you need help from support in the meantime, please feel free to update this review and we'll get back to you ASAP. Thanks! -EC

Scribd sells their subscription as “unlimited,” which is true...if what you’re after is an unlimited catalog of books you’ve likely never heard of and have no interest in reading/listening to. You can listen to between 1 and 3 popular or recent books, and then you’re prevented from reading other recent literary and/or popular titles until the following billing cycle. This is fine if you know it going in (a big if, as they’re not upfront about the details of their model for obvious reasons), but disappointing if you learn about it the hard way. I read and listen to upwards of 12 books a month, mostly recent releases. I was hoping to find a better model for my audiobook consumption (I listen 3-5 per month), but Scribd is not the one for me. It may work for you if you read significantly less or have an interest in backlist titles you’ve probably never heard of. I’m sure there are hidden gems in the part of the catalogue that’s always available, but my purpose in trying Scribd was to work through my massive TBR, not to waste hours of potential reading/listening time sifting through a virtual stack of books, the vast majority of which have little to no appeal to me. I’m left wishing that Scribd were honest about the service they offer—a couple of audiobooks per month for less than the price of one from the most popular audiobook distributor. That’s not a bad service to offer! But the mendacity of claiming the service is “unlimited” chafes me, so I’m out.

Thank you for your feedback, we're sorry to hear Scribd was not the best fit for you! We're constantly growing and improving, and hope you'll check us out again in the future! If you'd like to email us at help@scribd.com, our team is happy to assist you with anything else. Thanks!