Sandbook: Natural Voice Reader1.0.7 - App Store

Sandbook reads books, documents and articles aloud in natural voices, entirely on your iPhone or iPad. Nothing you read is uploaded, and there is no account, no subscription and no ads.

NATURAL VOICES, OFFLINE
- 41 voices in American and British English, Spanish, French, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Hindi
- A book in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese or Hindi opens with a voice in its language
- Powered by the open-source Kokoro model, running locally; no internet connection needed
- Follow along as each spoken word is highlighted
- Speed from 0.5x to 2.5x; each book remembers its voice and speed

READ ALMOST ANYTHING
- Import EPUB, PDF, Word (.docx), TXT, RTF, Markdown and HTML files
- Add a web page by pasting a link, or share it from Safari
- Scan printed pages with the camera, or pick a photo, and listen
- Send files or selected text from any app with the share sheet, or type and paste your own
- Open a document straight from the Files app with Open With, or set Sandbook as its default app

LISTEN THE WAY YOU READ
- Opens at the paragraph where you stopped
- Keep listening when you leave the book, with a mini player at the bottom of the screen
- Bookmarks, and search inside a book
- Sleep timer: stop after a set time or at the end of the chapter
- Passages you've already heard play back instantly
- In a PDF, the sentence being read is highlighted on the page; tap any sentence to read from there
- Reading options: light, sepia and dark themes, fonts, text size and line spacing
- Appearance: light, dark or matching your system
- See each book's length, listening time and the time left in the chapter
- Prepare a chapter's audio ahead of time, then keep listening with the screen locked; prepared chapters replay instantly
- Continue Reading with Siri or the Shortcuts app
- Export any text as an M4A audio file

ACCESSIBILITY
- VoiceOver, Voice Control, Switch Control, larger text and contrast improvements
- The app is available in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil) and Hindi

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Your books, text and voices stay on your device. Sandbook never sends what you read to a server.

GOOD TO KNOW
- Voices require iPhone 12 or later, or an iPad with an A14 or M1 chip or later. Sandbook also needs iOS 18.2 or later.
- Real-time reading pauses when the screen locks. To listen with the screen off, prepare the chapter first.

Questions or ideas: support@sandbook.app

Version History • New books appear in your library right away and are ready to listen sooner.
• Smoother, more natural reading of ebooks, PDFs, Word files and web pages.
• In long paragraphs, the page follows the line being read.
• Numbers and prices sound more natural in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Hindi.
• Reach us from Settings by email, Reddit or Discord.
• Bug fixes and improvements. 1.0.7 3h ago A redesigned Sandbook, with a new library, reader and player.

• Keep listening when you leave a book, with a mini player at the bottom of the screen.
• Bookmarks, search inside a book, and a sleep timer.
• Passages you've already heard play back instantly.
• Preview a voice before you choose it.
• Cleaner reading of EPUBs, PDFs and web pages, with page numbers and picture captions left out.
• Better sentence breaks and more natural reading.
• Your library opens right away, even with many books.

Chapters prepared for the lock screen will need to be prepared again after this update. 1.0.6 2d ago Sandbook 1.0.5

• Fixes a crash that could occur during playback.
• Support for more document formats, including Word (.docx).
• Bug fixes and performance improvements.

Chapters prepared for the lock screen will need to be prepared again after this update. 1.0.5 Oct 6 Sandbook 1.0.4: a fresh design, five new languages and more natural speech.

• Voices respond faster and sound more natural, with better pauses between sentences.
• A refreshed design, plus an Appearance setting: System, Light or Dark.
• Voices and app interface in Spanish, French, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Hindi.
• Follow along as each spoken word is highlighted.
• Add web pages from Safari or by pasting a link.
• Scan printed pages or pick a photo, and listen.
• Import Markdown and HTML files.
• Better covers for EPUB, PDF and web pages.
• Chapters prepared for the lock screen are kept and replay instantly, with an audio cache limit you choose.
• Improved VoiceOver and accessibility, a smaller download and many fixes. 1.0.4 Sep 29 Sandbook 1.0.3 is a big stability and quality update.

NEW
• Prepare a chapter's audio ahead of time and keep listening with the screen locked. Shows progress and time remaining.
• Share to Sandbook: send EPUB, PDF, TXT, RTF or selected text from any app.
• Shortcuts: "Open Sandbook" and "Add Text to Sandbook".
• RTF import.
• Save typed, pasted or web text to your library.
• Search chapters, jump to a page, drag to any position.
• PDF table of contents when the file has one.
• Optional Keep Screen Awake while reading.
• Haptic feedback (can be turned off in Settings).
• VoiceOver labels, Dynamic Type and Reduce Motion support.

IMPROVED
• PDFs no longer pause at every line break; hyphenated words are read as one word.
• Large EPUBs open faster and use far less memory.
• Pasted text reads every paragraph; no skipped or repeated sentences.
• Pause and resume no longer skip sentences; changing chapter or voice no longer overlaps audio.
• Importing a file with the same name no longer overwrites the old one. A damaged library index is repaired automatically.
• An EPUB with one unreadable chapter now opens; playback continues if a single sentence cannot be voiced.
• Web pages load faster and in the right order.
• Audio export uses much less memory.
• Sandbook no longer silences other apps' audio while paused in the background.
• Your reading progress carries over from the previous version.

Requires iOS 18.2 or later. 1.0.3 Sep 18 New Features
- Text Mode: Type or paste text directly to have it read aloud.

Bug Fixes
- Improved web page content extraction accuracy
- Fixed character encoding for special characters
- Fixed audio skipping at chapter end
- Fixed play/pause button state sync
- Resolved audio gaps between paragraphs 1.0.2 12/27/2025 Minor issues fixed. 1.0.1 05/20/2025 1.0 05/18/2025