Help
Short pages about individual Akoue settings: what a setting does, where it applies and which values it takes. The “?” next to a setting’s name in the app leads here.
settings
Playback
Skip intervals
How many seconds the skip buttons jump. “Back” and “Forward” are set separately, and the number on each button changes with them.
Rewind after pause
When you continue a book after a pause, it starts a little before the place where you stopped: that makes it easier to recall what was going on. How much earlier is set by this row.
Count as finished from
From what point a book gets the “Finished” mark. It is only a mark: the book plays to its last second, and the next one starts at the real end.
Default speed
The speed at which a book you haven’t listened to yet starts playing. After that, the speed is remembered per book: a started book continues at the speed you were listening at.
Resume after a call
A book stopped by a call continues by itself when the call ends. Turn this off, and after a call the book waits for you to press play.
Pause when headphones come off
Disconnect your headphones and the book pauses. Connect them again and it won’t start by itself: it waits for you to continue.
Headphone double-press — chapter
A double press on your headphones goes to the next chapter, a triple press to the previous one. Off by default: once on, it changes the buttons on the Lock Screen.
Next Book Automatically
A book plays to the end and the next one starts right away. Which one is decided by the series, and in a universe with a timeline, by the timeline.
Preload Next Book
When a fifth of the book is left, the next book comes back from iCloud to the device in advance. Moving on to it does not wait for the network.
Skip by double-tapping the cover
A double tap on the left half of the cover in the player skips back, on the right half — forward. The cover briefly shows how far you skipped.
- Pro
Scrubber on the lock screen
Turn it off if you brush the scrubber in your pocket: on the Lock Screen and in Control Center it can no longer be moved with a finger. This is an Akoue Pro feature.
Audio processing
- Pro
Skip silence
Shortens the narrator’s pauses: the silence between phrases sounds shorter, while the speech itself stays as it was. This is an Akoue Pro feature.
- Pro
Volume leveling
Brings quiet recordings up to the normal volume of speech, so you don’t have to keep a hand on the volume button. Loud recordings are not turned down. This is an Akoue Pro feature.
Sleep timer
Fade out at the end
For how many seconds the book’s sound gently fades before the sleep timer pauses it. By the end of the countdown the volume reaches zero.
Rewind when it fires
When the sleep timer fires, the book pauses and goes back by the chosen number of seconds — to a place you most likely still heard.
Sleep timer counting
What the sleep timer measures time by: the book’s playing time or real minutes. The difference appears when the speed is not 1× or “Skip silence” is on: a timer counting by playback time counts the cut pauses as book time.
Extend by shaking
Shake the phone while the sleep timer is running or in the first minute after it fires — the timer starts over, and a book that has stopped plays on.
Auto sleep timer
The sleep timer starts by itself when you play a book at the chosen hours. No need to set it by hand every evening.
Data
Used on device
How much space the book files of your library take on this device. The row below it, “In iCloud”, shows how much the books whose files are in iCloud weigh.
- Pro
Offload finished books automatically
A book played to the end moves to your iCloud Drive by itself and frees up space on the device. While the switch is off, the app asks after a finished book — unless you have already answered “Keep” for this book or chosen “Stop offering”. A book that already has a copy in iCloud is removed by the rule when “Offload finished books” is on in “Auto cleanup”, and there is no question about it.
Offload only over Wi‑Fi
On cellular, offloading books to iCloud and preloading the next book wait for Wi‑Fi. No mobile data is spent on them.
Catalogue backup in iCloud
The Akoue catalog goes into the iCloud backup of your iPhone or iPad that the system makes. Audio files are never included.
- Pro
Auto cleanup
Rules by which the app itself removes from the device the files of books that already have a copy in your iCloud. The books stay in the library with their progress and bookmarks.
Backup as a file
The catalog in one file: you save it wherever you like and restore the catalog from it — on this device or on a new one.
Sync
Privacy
Hide the title on the lock screen
The Lock Screen shows “Audiobook” instead of the book’s title, with no author or chapter, and a placeholder with the same word instead of the cover. You can listen to and control the book as usual.
Books in your phone’s search
Books and authors from Akoue can be found in iPhone and iPad search: swipe down on the Home Screen and type a title. A result opens the book’s card or the author’s page.
Maintenance
Clean up catalog
Deleting a book leaves its author, series and narrator alone: if the book comes back, its photos and notes will be there too. Here are the records with no books left at all — they can be removed.
Rescan library
Matches the catalog against the files on the device and in iCloud: whether each book’s files are in place, whether everything has a length, whether search is out of date. Deletes nothing.
Reset settings
Returns Akoue’s settings to their defaults. Books, progress, bookmarks and the purchase stay. While “Sync across devices” is on, the shared settings go back to defaults on all your devices, the rest only on this one.