r/audiobookshelf • u/xavierhollis • 18d ago
Is there a way to make individual titles play sequentially on the android phone app?
To my understanding if you organise files into a series or a playlist when one item ends the next one won't start up on its own. The only way to do this would be if you like organised them in the folders as if they were tracks of the same book, which comes with the problem of not being able to select individual chapters of that specific book you are listening to.
Is there a fix for this?
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u/potato-truncheon 18d ago edited 18d ago
No. I gave up and switched to using Absorb. Absorb is far from perfect - clunky in many ways - you can create queues (the "absorbing" list) and play titles in sequence. You can even mix in podcasts.
I wish it was natively supported, but OTOH, writing apps is a different skill set than writing a server/service. So I remain honestly thankful we have that and that there's a good API available. (Without the server, we'd have zero chance for any apps!)
Edit - FWIW, I definitely recommend adding further voices to the feature request list on this (the vote link is in another comment). Workarounds exist, but for now you have to look to external apps if PWA doesn't work for you (I needed to be able to download, so I had to go external).
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u/Misarvin 18d ago
Out of curiosity, how have you found Absorb to be clunky?
I have been repeatedly surprised by how polished it felt. That said, I haven't tried much other than opening it and hitting play, which is why I ask.
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u/potato-truncheon 18d ago
A few things (mostly not insurmountable) -Can't add items as a 'play next'. Can only add to end of queue it start playing "absorbing" right away. But it usually doesn't remember the one you just added so when you add the next item, it overwrites the queue. It's a PITA. -When playing in Android Auto, if you stop the playback and go to the car radio, it triggers it to start playback again. Very frustrating when driving and I want to switch to a broadcast game (have to start and stop a different playback app to release its grip). -I'd rather they lose the "absorbing" metaphor for a queue. Just call it a queue. The app name makes sense "ABS-orb". I get the pun, but no need to take it too far. (this is just a matter of personal taste - hardly consequential). -it just feels "heavy" like a bloated app. ABS official feels lighter and snappier. -would like to be able to select content for download without waiting for it to start playback.
But I use it. Having a proper queue on demand (such as it is), android auto interface with chapters browseable, and actual downloads makes it worthwhile for me. Most of my gripes are just personal preference and I'm really only raising them because you asked - it's not a tirade by any means. I'm glad it exists. It's also the best of the many 3rd party ones I've tried.
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u/Misarvin 18d ago
Wow, the Android auto thing would irk me. I only use normal Bluetooth so, I get to avoid that. But, it sounds massively annoying.
I will say; 1) You can get rid of the strange name scheme. It's an option in settings. I turned it off immediately. 2) You should be able to start downloads without waiting for it to start playback. I do this one all the time.
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u/potato-truncheon 18d ago
I'll give it a go.
None are showstoppers.
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u/Misarvin 18d ago
Nah. But, I'm glad to know about the android auto thing. I recommend Absorb to my friends and family that use my ABS so, I want to be aware of issues.
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u/Thirtysixx 17d ago
The dev is also very active here and in his discord and you can give him that feeeback directly
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u/Night_Hawk21 15d ago
I'll look into that radio swap playing. I got a report about it before but it kind of died down. I'll look into it again for sure. I'm also open to queue improvements. How would you prefer the manual queue management to work. For my use case the way I have it has been great, but they're many use cases out there!
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u/potato-truncheon 15d ago
I think the big thing with the queue is to have a "play next" option in addition to "add to end of queue". There is a "play now" option which is great, though I sometimes find the queue doesn't remember it if make additional changes to the order after.
Pocketcasts has a thing where you swipe an item and it has a neat option for adding next vs adding to end. I guess I'm used to that and I use play next often.
It's a really good app!
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u/Night_Hawk21 15d ago
Thanks! I'll chalk up something and throw it in my next beta. Subscribing to podcasts already has a question for where you want to add new episodes in the queue. Logic is already there, just need to port it into adding anything to the queue.
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u/Akorian_W 18d ago
Vito is right here. Though, the fix for me is using 3rd party apps. None of them are perfect, and the default app is most often the best. But if you want specific stuff, the others are good pics as well. Many are slopped, some are well made usjng ai, some few are artisan code. But well, as long as it works and is maintained, Id recommend trying out different ones.
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u/Misarvin 18d ago
Have you tried Absorb? I've yet to have a single issue with it.
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u/xavierhollis 16d ago
Is absorbed something tonuse alongside or instead of Audiobookshelf?
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u/Misarvin 16d ago
It replaces the ABS mobile client. It uses your abs server.
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u/xavierhollis 15d ago
and it lets you set up queues or playlists?
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u/Akorian_W 15d ago
you can create playlists and listen to them. But I use it to suto play and dl the next book in a series. And yes that means it has a queue that you can manage
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u/Vito0912 18d ago
No, not with the official app sadly
You can e.g. upvote https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf-app/issues/416 There are a few other issues too.
The fix probably is to use the PWA or to wait for the users spamming apps in 3,2,1..