A client for Audiobookshelf
Your own library,
finally a joy to listen to.
Point SideShelf at the Audiobookshelf server you already run and it just works — your books, your progress, your downloads, on a phone app that feels like it belongs there.
Free · MIT licensed · iOS 16+ · Android in development
Built by someone who listens
the same way you do.
Four things a good audiobook app has to get right. These are those four.
A player that stays out of the way
Chapter navigation, variable speed, smart rewind and a sleep timer that fades out instead of stopping dead. Lock screen and AirPlay controls behave exactly as you'd expect.
Downloads for the tunnel and the flight
Grab a book, a series, or just the next few chapters. SideShelf tracks what's on device, tidies up finished titles, and never stalls because the server went to sleep.
Your place, kept honestly
Progress syncs back to your server the moment you pause — and queues up safely when you're offline. Pick up on the web player or another phone mid-sentence.
A shelf worth browsing
Grid or list, sorted by series, author, or how close you are to the end. Search finds anything in your collection before you've finished typing it.
Have a look around
Real screens, no marketing mock-ups.
Home
The player
Your shelf
Downloaded
Sleep timer
Series
Already running Audiobookshelf? You're a minute away.
No account to create, nothing to configure on the server side. If your server is reachable from your phone, SideShelf will find it.
Enter your server address
Whatever you type into a browser — https://books.example.com or a bare LAN address with a port. Tailscale and reverse proxies are fine.
Sign in with your existing user
The same username and password you use on the web UI. Tokens are held in the iOS Keychain, never in a file and never sent anywhere else.
Start where you left off
Your libraries, progress and bookmarks are already there. Download a book before you leave the house and you're done.
No middleman
There's no SideShelf account, because there's no SideShelf server.
Library traffic goes directly to your Audiobookshelf server. There is no SideShelf account or service in the middle, and no analytics or telemetry. No subscription, and no SideShelf service handling your listening history. The whole thing is MIT licensed and readable in an afternoon.
Read the source →What's coming
Want something that isn't here? Open an issue.