Kithara
Real chapters, read from the file
Chapter lists come straight out of the file: m4b chapter atoms, QuickTime chapter tracks, ID3 chapter frames in mp3, or a .cue sheet beside the audio. A folder of numbered mp3s becomes one book on one timeline.
Kithara, the audiobook player for Android
Your library.
Your pace.
In your pocket.
Point Kithara at a folder on your phone, a server on your home network, or both. It finds your books, reads the chapters out of the files themselves, and keeps your place in step across devices.
Coming soon to Google Play
See what it does
Free to listen, with no ads and no time limit. No account, no analytics, no telemetry.
Features
Built for long books and real libraries
One player session shared by the screen, the notification, your car and your headphones, so nothing can disagree about where you are in a book.
Playback that respects your ears
Speed from 0.5× to 3.5× with pitch preserved and remembered per book. Skip silence. Configurable 5 to 60 second jumps that cross file boundaries, so skipping back at the start of part three lands you in part two.
A sleep timer that listens back
Count down or stop at the end of the chapter. The volume fades over the last twenty seconds instead of cutting dead, and a shake of the phone adds more time without opening your eyes.
Never lose the thread
Your position is saved every five seconds. A phone call or a navigation prompt hands back five seconds when it ends, and a smart rewind on resume scales from two seconds to thirty depending on how long you were away.
Android Auto and Bluetooth
Browse by continue listening, author or library on the head unit, with voice search over title, author, narrator and series. A press of play on your headphones picks up your last book with no app open. Kithara in the car.
Bookmarks, search and sort
Label a moment and jump back to it later. Search, filter and sort your library, pin favourites, and mark a book finished with a tap. Kithara also finishes it when playback runs off the end, never just because you peeked at the last chapter.
Screens
Quiet, dark, and out of your way
Kithara Pro
Everything you need to listen is free. Pro makes it a system.
Pro is a one-time unlock through Google Play. No subscription, no renewal. Stats and achievements are recorded from day one, so unlocking later shows your full history. Everything Pro includes.
Free, forever
- Playback, chapters, speed and skip silence
- Sleep timer with fade and shake-to-extend
- Android Auto, Bluetooth and notification controls
- Bookmarks, search, filters, sort and pinning
- One folder on the device
- Purple theme that follows the system
Pro One-time purchase
- Server libraries: Audiobookshelf and the open Kithara sync protocol
- Stream, download and sync your position across devices
- Several libraries at once, each with its own tab
- Transcripts: on-device speech-to-text for any chapter
- Listening stats with a daily goal, streaks and a 30-day chart
- 56 achievements across time, books, streaks, feats, odd hours, style and your shelf
- Themes: light, dark, accent colours, or colours from your wallpaper
Transcripts · Pro
Read along, or find that one line
Kithara turns any chapter into timed text, entirely on your phone. Nothing is uploaded and nothing leaves the device. Tap a passage to jump there, or search the whole book for a phrase you half remember.
Pick the speech model that suits your phone: tiny is fastest, small is closest to a dictation app. Models download once on first use and long chapters transcribe in the background with progress in the notification. How transcripts work.
How it works
Up and listening in under a minute
Add a library
Pick a folder on the device, or sign in to your Audiobookshelf server. Kithara reads titles, authors, narrators, covers and chapters from the files, and never loses your position on a rescan.
Press play
Playback keeps running in the background, in the notification, on the lock screen and in the car. Downloads and sync can be limited to Wi-Fi.
Pick up anywhere
With a server connected, your position, finished state and bookmarks follow you between devices. Listen offline for a week and your unpushed progress still wins when you reconnect.
Plays the files you already have
DRM-free audiobooks from any store, library rip, or your own recordings. Audible .aax files need their DRM removed first. Formats and chapters in detail.
M4B
M4A
MP4
AAC
MP3
OGG
OPUS
FLAC
WAV
WMA
MKA
3GP
CUE sheets
Questions
Straight answers
Is Kithara free?
Yes. Everything you need to listen is free, with no ads and no time limit: playback, chapters, speed and skip silence, the sleep timer, Android Auto and Bluetooth controls, bookmarks, search and one folder on the device. Kithara Pro is a one-time purchase through Google Play, not a subscription. It unlocks server libraries, streaming and downloads, cross-device sync, more than one library, listening stats, achievements, transcripts and themes.
Does Kithara work with Audiobookshelf?
Yes. Add your Audiobookshelf server with its address, username and password. Books stream by default, you can download any book for offline listening by tapping the cloud badge on its cover, and your position syncs across devices. Kithara is written against the Audiobookshelf v2 API. Server libraries are part of Kithara Pro. No server yet? This site has a step-by-step setup guide.
What audio formats does it play?
m4b, m4a, mp4, aac, mp3, ogg, oga, opus, flac, wav, wma, mka and 3gp. A folder of numbered mp3s is treated as one book on one continuous timeline. Audible .aax files are DRM-protected and will not play.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no Kithara account, no sign-up and no analytics. The only network requests the app makes are to servers you add yourself, such as your own Audiobookshelf.
How does Kithara find chapters?
It reads them out of the files: the chpl chapter atom and QuickTime chapter track in m4b files, ID3 CHAP frames in mp3s, a .cue sheet beside a single large file, or the chapter list from your server. If a multi-file book has no chapter marks, each file becomes a chapter. Files with no chapters at all can be fixed in ten minutes with ffmpeg; see the how-to on this site.
Is there an iPhone or iOS version?
No. Kithara is Android only and runs on Android 8.0 or later.
Does it work with Android Auto?
Yes. Your libraries, continue listening, recently added, authors and the current book's chapters all appear in the car, with voice search over title, author, narrator and series, and 10-second skip buttons on the head unit. Bluetooth play resumes your last book without opening the app.
Will my position sync between my phone and tablet?
With a server library, yes: position and finished state sync through Audiobookshelf or a Kithara sync server, and unpushed local changes always win, so listening offline never rewinds you. Bookmarks sync both ways with a Kithara server and push one way to Audiobookshelf. Listening stats and achievements stay on each device.
What are transcripts?
A Pro feature that turns a chapter into timed text using a Whisper speech-recognition model that runs entirely on your device. The first time you use it, Kithara downloads an English model of about 105 MB to 360 MB, depending on the size you choose. Nothing you listen to is sent anywhere.
Where do I get audiobooks for it?
Kithara is a player, not a store. It plays DRM-free files you already own: purchases from DRM-free audiobook shops, rips of CDs you own, public-domain recordings such as LibriVox, or anything in your Audiobookshelf library. The how-to on leaving Audible lists the DRM-free shops.
Privacy
Your listening is nobody's business
No analytics, no accounts, no telemetry, no ads. Kithara talks to the servers you add and nothing else, apart from a one-time speech model download if you use transcripts. Read the privacy policy; it is short.
Coming soon to Google Play
Kithara is on its way to Google Play. Leave your email and we will send one message the day it lands, then forget you.
Want in early as a tester? Get in touch instead.