What is the best way to read along with an audiobook?
Use an app that highlights each word as the narrator says it. HushBook does this on iPhone and Android. It makes the word-level text from the audio on your phone, so you do not need a matching ebook, an account or a connection once the engine is downloaded.
Pick a public-domain title from the built-in library of 20k+ books and press play.
Import an audiobook file you own and HushBook transcribes it on the device.
Pair an EPUB, PDF or TXT with the audiobook. This is in beta.
How does a read-along audiobook work?
The app plays the narration and shows the book text on screen. A highlight moves to each word as it is spoken, so your eyes and ears stay on the same spot.
HushBook builds that text itself. It listens to the audio on your phone and produces a transcript with a time for every word. No ebook is needed for this, and the audio is never uploaded.
What do you need to start?
- An iPhone or an Android phone.
- A one-time engine download, after which the app works offline.
- An audiobook: a public-domain title from the library, or a file you own.
There is no account to make.
Which books can you read along with?
The library holds 20k+ public-domain titles from LibriVox and the Internet Archive. You can also import audiobook files that you own. Files with DRM, such as many store purchases, cannot be imported as ordinary files.
New releases are not in the library. For those you bring your own file.
Can you change how the text looks?
Yes. HushBook has reading profiles for vision, dyslexia and comprehension. You can change fonts, spacing, caption size and theme while the narrator keeps playing.
How is this different from an app that reads text aloud?
A text-to-speech reader makes up a voice from the words. A read-along audiobook keeps the narrator who recorded the book and adds the words afterwards. If you like a performed audiobook, that is the part you keep.
Quick answers
Do I need the ebook to read along?
No. HushBook creates the word-level text from the audiobook itself, on your phone.
Does read-along work offline?
Yes, after the one-time engine download. Playback and transcription run on the device.
Is it on iPhone and Android?
Yes, both.
More guides
Try read-along on a book you own
Import an audiobook, create its transcript on your device, and follow every word with the original narration.