Help and support

In the library, tap the books button to sign in to Libro.fm, connect an Audiobookshelf server or find a podcast, or tap + to add an audio file you already have.

Then choose how the companion thinks in Settings → Companion: AudioBuddy Cloud with Plus, your own Claude or OpenAI-compatible service, or a model that runs on your device.

• Tap Ask on the player or the mini player.
• Double-tap your headphones, or press the next-track button on headphones or a keyboard. You can turn this off in Settings → Conversation.
• On a Mac, press ⌘K.
• Type in the box below the conversation.
• To ask without looking, make a Shortcut that opens audiobuddy://ask and set it to the iPhone Action button.

Tap while an answer is playing to cut in. After an answer, AudioBuddy listens for a few seconds in case you have a follow-up. If you say nothing, the book rewinds to the start of the sentence you were hearing and carries on.

Open Settings → Companion and pick an AI:

• AudioBuddy Cloud comes with Plus. Sign in with Apple; no API key is needed.
• Claude uses your own Anthropic API key.
• OpenAI-compatible works with OpenAI, OpenRouter, or a server on your own network such as Ollama or LM Studio. Local servers don’t need a key.
• Apple’s on-device model runs on devices that support Apple Intelligence.
• Gemma is a free 3.3 GB download that runs on your device, for devices without Apple Intelligence.

Your own AI services bill you directly at their usual rates.

Tap Guide on the player to see the people, places and terms you’ve heard, a timeline (topics, for podcasts) and every date in the order things happened. Real places show on a map. Tap an entry to read its notes, jump to where it came up, or ask about it.

The guide is written by the AI you chose, a little ahead of where you are, and shows only what you’ve heard unless you allow spoilers. Turn it off in Settings → Guide. With your own Claude key, a guide for a 10-hour book costs about 5¢ with the default guide model.

Open Settings → Voice. English answers use one of six built-in voices. Tap Play a Sample to hear one.

Other languages use Apple’s voices, and Automatic picks the best one installed. For more natural Apple voices, download Enhanced or Premium voices in the Settings app under Accessibility → Spoken Content → Voices (on a Mac, System Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content).

Right after you install AudioBuddy, the built-in voice takes a few seconds to get ready. Until then, answers use an Apple voice.

In the library, tap the books button, choose Audiobooks → Libro.fm and sign in with your Libro.fm email and password. Then tap Get on any audiobook you’ve bought. Chapters and the cover come with it.

On iPhone, keep AudioBuddy open while a large book downloads. AudioBuddy isn’t affiliated with Libro.fm.

In the library, tap the books button and choose Audiobooks → Audiobookshelf. Enter your server’s address (at home, something like 192.168.1.20:13378) with your username and password, or an API key made under Settings → API Keys on your server. Your account needs permission to download.

Books split across several files are joined into one, with your server’s chapters. Sign out in Settings → Audiobook Services. AudioBuddy isn’t affiliated with Audiobookshelf.

In the library, tap the books button and choose Podcasts. Search for a show, or paste a link from your podcast app, a show’s website or its RSS feed. On iPhone you can also share an episode to AudioBuddy from Podcasts or Safari.

Shows you download from are followed. Security Now listeners can reach every episode since 2005.

M4B, M4A, MP3, AAC, MP4, WAV, AIF, AIFF, CAF and FLAC. Files protected by DRM, such as Audible or Apple Books purchases, can’t be imported.

Choose Apple’s on-device model or Gemma in Settings → Companion, and download your books and episodes before you go offline. Downloading, and using a cloud AI service, need a connection.

• Free keeps one book or podcast episode at a time. Remove it to make room for another.
• Unlimited, $9.99 once, removes the limit. Answers come from an on-device model or your own AI service.
• Plus, $4.99 a month, removes the limit and adds a monthly AudioBuddy Cloud allowance.

To restore a purchase, open Settings → AudioBuddy → Restore Purchases. To cancel Plus, go to your Apple Account’s subscriptions in the Settings app.

Settings shows how much of this month’s allowance is left, as a percentage. A question uses about half a percent, and a guide for a 10-hour book about 7%. It goes back to 100% when Plus renews, and a $1.99 refill tops it back up any time.

With “Only discuss what I’ve heard” on, the AI is only given the part of the book you’ve heard, but AI can still make mistakes. The guide is written from a speech-recognition transcript, so it can misspell names. Turn the setting off when you want to talk about the whole book.

Delete a book or episode from the library to remove its audio, transcript, conversation and guide. Remove API keys, or sign out of Libro.fm and Audiobookshelf, in Settings.

Deleting your AudioBuddy Cloud account in Settings signs you out everywhere and removes any allowance left. A Plus subscription continues until you cancel it in your Apple Account.