Voice (PaulWoitaschek/Voice): an Android audiobook player for local files

What Voice solves for people with their own audiobook files

Generic music players treat an audiobook as one long track. They do not remember a resume position per book, they do not expose chapter navigation, and they have no sleep timer that fades out. Voice is built for exactly that gap. The README describes it as "a minimalistic, user-focused audiobook player for Android, built for reliability and simplicity", and lists the audiobook-specific features it adds: chapter navigation, sleep timer, bookmarks, playback speed, silence skipping and auto-rewind after pauses.

The target user is someone who already owns audiobook files. Voice does not sell books. You point it at a folder, and it organizes the M4B, MP3, M4A, OGG, OGA and OPUS files it finds there. The README is explicit about the trade-off: no account, no ads, no forced cloud sync, and the library stays on the device. If your library lives inside a store app, Voice has nothing to import from it.

How Voice organizes a folder into a library

The mechanism is folder scanning rather than a catalog service. The README says you add a folder once and Voice organizes the audiobooks inside it, which means the file and folder naming on your storage is what the app reads. That is why the documentation site has a page on how to organize your library: get the layout wrong and a book may appear as separate entries or not at all.

Playback state is per book. Resume positions, bookmarks and the sleep timer are part of the core experience, so closing the app and returning later continues where you stopped. The sleep timer fades out rather than cutting audio, and auto-rewind after a pause moves playback back a little so you can re-hear the sentence you missed. Android Auto support is listed as part of the core experience, so the same library is reachable from a car head unit.

The repository layout confirms the architecture is a multi-module Android project: app/, core/, features/, navigation/ and plugins/ sit at the top level, the build is Gradle with build.gradle.kts and settings.gradle.kts, and the UI is Jetpack Compose (the topics list compose and jetpack-compose, and the code is Kotlin). There is no server component and no sync backend in the tree.

Installing Voice and adding your first audiobook

Voice is distributed as an Android app, not as a package you build from source for everyday use. The README offers two install routes: Google Play under the application id de.ph1b.audiobook, and F-Droid under the same id. There is no curl or npm step. On a device with F-Droid installed, the package page is the direct route.

# On the phone, open F-Droid and install:
#   de.ph1b.audiobook
# Or open the Play listing for the same application id.

After installing, the first real task is pointing Voice at your files. Copy a book folder to the device, then add that folder in the app so it can scan the supported formats. The README lists M4B, MP3, M4A, OGG, OGA and OPUS as the formats it organizes.

# Example layout to copy onto the device before adding the folder in Voice:
# /sdcard/Audiobooks/Author - Title/
#   part01.mp3
#   part02.mp3
#   cover.jpg

Once the folder is added, the library view should list the book and the player view should show playback controls. From there the audiobook-specific controls are the ones to try first: set a sleep timer, start playback at a higher speed, and add a bookmark. If a book does not appear, the documentation site's page on organizing your library is the place to check, because Voice reads the folder structure rather than a metadata database.

Where Voice is the wrong tool

Voice is Android-only. The README describes it as an audiobook player for Android, and the download links go to Google Play and F-Droid. If you listen on an iPhone or on a desktop, this project is not for you, and there is no cross-platform client in the repository.

The second boundary is content source. Voice plays files you already have. It does not integrate with audiobook stores, and the README's privacy section says there is no account and no forced cloud sync, which also means there is no server-side library to restore from. If your phone is lost, the resume positions and bookmarks stored on it go with it. Anyone who expects their library to follow them between devices will find that missing here.

A third limitation is metadata. The README does not document an embedded-tag parser or an online metadata lookup, so the quality of titles, authors and covers depends on how you name and arrange folders. The documentation site has a dedicated page for that, which is a sign it matters in practice.

Voice against a general-purpose music player

The obvious alternative is whatever music player is already on the phone, for example a general Android player that indexes all audio files. The difference in approach is the unit of playback. A music player is built around tracks, albums and playlists, so an audiobook becomes a long queue of files with no per-book resume logic. Voice is built around the book: resume positions, bookmarks, chapter navigation and auto-rewind after pauses exist because a book is consumed over days, not minutes.

The second difference is scope. A general player usually tries to be a music library, with playlists, equalizers and streaming integrations. Voice deliberately does less. The README's own framing is minimalistic and uncluttered, and the repository topics include the word minimal. That is a real trade-off: you give up playlist features and broad format support in exchange for audiobook-specific controls.

For store-purchased audiobooks, the alternative is the store's own app, which handles DRM and sync but gives you no control over the files. Voice cannot replace that, because it has no DRM path.

Maintenance, licence and what a fork costs

The repository is not archived and the last push was on 2026-09-23, one day before this article's date, so the project is being worked on. The release history shows a steady cadence: 26.4.5-5404005 on 2026-04-25, 26.5.3-5405003 on 2026-05-30, and 26.6.1-5406001 on 2026-06-16, whose title mentions "Custom Themes" and "Support Voice".

The licence is GNU GPLv3, stated in the README and in LICENSE.md, and the README adds that contributors agree to license their code under the same terms. For most users this changes nothing. For anyone planning to ship a modified build, the copyleft obligation is the thing to read in full, and this article is not legal advice. The repository also carries a PRIVACY.md, which is consistent with the README's claim that the library stays on the device.

Upgrade cost is the ordinary Android app cost. Updates arrive through the store you installed from, and the release notes are the changelog. There is no self-hosted server to patch and no database migration to run. If you build from source instead, you inherit the Gradle setup, the Kotlin and Jetpack Compose codebase, and the module layout under app/, core/ and features/. The README points contributors at the Development and Architecture pages on the documentation site, and translations are handled on Weblate.

What to check before you commit your library to Voice

Start with the format list, because it is short and specific: M4B, MP3, M4A, OGG, OGA and OPUS. If your collection is in something else, convert it first or pick another player. Then read the documentation site's page on organizing your library before copying hundreds of books across, since folder structure is what the app reads.

After the first book is recognized, test the features that distinguish Voice from a music player: leave a book mid-chapter, close the app, reopen it and confirm the resume position; set a sleep timer and listen for the fade-out; add a bookmark and jump back to it. Those are the behaviours the README promises, and they are the ones that matter day to day.

Finally, decide how much you care about sync. Voice keeps everything on the device by design. If that is what you want, it is a feature. If you need your position on a second phone or a tablet, this project does not offer it, and the README does not claim otherwise.

Editorial conclusion

Voice fits Android listeners who already own DRM-free audiobook files and want an offline, account-free player with chapter navigation, bookmarks and a sleep timer. It is the wrong tool if your audiobooks live in Audible or another store app, if you listen on iOS, or if you need cloud sync across devices, since the README states there is no forced cloud sync and the app is Android-only. Before adopting it, open the F-Droid or Play listing for the package de.ph1b.audiobook and read the documentation site on how to organize your library, because folder layout determines whether your books are recognized.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. License: GPL-3.0
2. PaulWoitaschek/Voice on GitHub
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases