Playback

Master FableFrog's player controls including speed, volume boost, sleep timer, bookmarks, car mode, CarPlay, Apple Watch, headphone controls, and AirPlay.

Player Controls

FableFrog's player gives you precise control over your listening experience. When you tap play on any book, the full-screen player opens with the following controls:

Play / Pause: the central control. Tap to toggle playback.
Skip forward / backward: configurable skip durations with custom hour/minute/second pickers. Tap to jump ahead or back.
Scrubber: drag the timeline scrubber to seek to any position in the current chapter or the entire book. At the end of a finished book the scrubber is replaced by the Finished card - see When a Book Ends.
Chapter navigation: tap the chapter list button to see all chapters with durations. The list opens scrolled to the chapter you're currently in. Tap any chapter to jump to it instantly.
Chapter vs. total time: toggle between showing time remaining in the current chapter and time remaining in the entire book. Tap the time display to switch modes. When the scrubber is in chapter-timeframe mode, it also surfaces how much time is left in the entire book underneath, so you can see both numbers without flipping the mode.

When a Book Ends

At the end of a finished book, the play button has nothing left to do - so the scrubber gives way to a You finished this book card instead. It offers up to four things:

Continue the Series - the next book in the series you just finished, skipping any you've already finished
Next on your Reading List - the top entry of your queue (Premium)
Listen Again - start the book over from the beginning
Mark as Not Finished - put it back to where you were

Whichever suggestion you can actually play is the prominent button, and an unowned Reading List entry becomes a link out to your external link provider instead. If the book left your Reading List on its own, a Removed from Reading List row with an Undo button sits at the bottom of the card. See Reading List for how that works.

The card is not a sheet and nothing is forced. It sits in the player, and you can scroll past it or close the player and leave it alone.

It Doesn't Matter When the Book Ended

The card is derived from your progress record and where the playhead is sitting, not from the moment the last track played out. A book that ran to its end at 2am with the phone locked in your pocket shows exactly the same card, with the same suggestions, the next time you open the player. While the card is up, the play button is dimmed and reads "Finished" under VoiceOver, and the mini player says Finished rather than a time remaining.

Customizable Action Buttons

The bottom row of the player is fully configurable. Pick which of the following actions appear, and in what order:

Speed — open the speed selector
Volume Boost — open the volume boost slider
Sleep Timer — open the sleep timer menu
Car Mode — enter car mode
Bookmark — create a bookmark at the current position
Listening Activity — jump into the activity feed
Book Details — open the book's detail page

Set your global defaults in Settings > Playback > Player Actions. Override the layout for a specific book from its Book Settings if a title needs different controls (e.g. always have Bookmark at hand for dense nonfiction). Scrubber lock and stay-awake toggles now also show a toast confirmation so you know the action registered.

Playback Speed

FableFrog supports playback speeds from 0.25x to 3.5x in 0.05x steps. Tap the speed indicator in the player to open the speed selector, which offers quick chips for the common speeds (0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x, 2x, 2.5x, 3x), a slider, and +/- buttons that move one step at a time.

Global vs. Per-Book Speed

Set a global default speed in Settings that applies to all books. If a particular book works better at a different speed (a dense nonfiction title at 1.0x, a light novel at 2.0x), you can override the speed on a per-book basis. Per-book overrides persist across sessions and are shown in the player when active.

Speed Savings

FableFrog tracks the cumulative time you've saved by listening faster than 1.0x. This metric is visible in your listening statistics and gives you a concrete sense of how much extra listening time faster speeds have unlocked.

Volume Boost

Volume boost amplifies audio output beyond the normal maximum, useful for quietly narrated audiobooks or noisy environments.

Range: 0% to 200% above normal volume
Per-book overrides: Like speed, volume boost can be set globally and overridden per book. If a particular narrator is consistently quiet, set a higher boost for that title and forget about it.
How it works: Volume boost applies digital gain to the audio signal. At high levels, some distortion may occur depending on the source recording.

Sleep Timer

The sleep timer lets you fall asleep to your audiobook without losing your place.

Presets and Custom Timer

Open the sleep timer from the player and you get your preset durations, a Custom option with an hour-and-minute picker, and an End of Chapter mode that stops playback when the current chapter finishes - ideal for staying at clean stopping points.

The presets are yours to set. Out of the box they're 5, 8, 10, 15, and 30 minutes.

Timer Presets

Go to Settings > Playback > Timer Presets to build the list:

Tap a duration to open a wheel and change it. The wheel offers 1 to 120 minutes, minus the values your other presets already hold, so you can't accidentally collapse two rows into one.
Swipe a row to remove it. The last remaining preset can't be removed - a timer menu with nothing in it would be a dead end.
Add Preset appears while you have fewer than five.
Reset to Default puts 5, 8, 10, 15, and 30 back.

One list feeds both places a duration is picked: the player's sleep timer menu and the Automatic Sleep Timer's duration picker. Edit it once and both change. End of Chapter and Custom are always offered by the menu itself - they aren't presets and can't be removed.

The list is always shown shortest to longest, and duplicates are folded together, so the order you enter them in doesn't matter.

Your presets are included in backups and iCloud sync along with your other global settings.

Per-Book Timer Presets

A book can carry its own list. Open its Book Settings and turn on the Timer Presets override. It starts from whatever that book uses today, so switching it on changes nothing until you actually edit a row. Turn the override off and the book goes back to your global list.

If you already have a sleep timer or an automatic timer set to a duration that isn't on your list - a 45 or a 90 you set before - it stays in the picker. Editing your presets never silently rewrites a timer you already set.

Shake to Extend

When the timer has just expired and you're still awake, shake your phone to extend it by the original duration. No need to unlock the screen or open the app. Shake-to-extend is limited to the post-expiry window so it won't trigger accidentally mid-playback. Shake sensitivity is configurable in Settings > Playback > Shake to Extend, with a built-in test button (including haptic feedback on a successful shake) and per-book overrides for when a particular book needs a different threshold. You can also disable shake-to-extend entirely.

The gesture is armed by the timer itself, not by the player screen, so it still works after you've swiped the player away or locked your phone. FableFrog holds itself awake across the expiry window specifically so it can hear the shake, and reads true shake intensity in any orientation - a phone shaken flat on a nightstand counts the same as one shaken upright.

Automatic Sleep Timer

Set a time window (e.g. 10 PM to 6 AM) and FableFrog automatically starts a sleep timer whenever playback begins inside it. Configure it in Settings > Playback > Automatic Sleep Timer:

Time window: pick a start and end time. Windows that cross midnight are handled correctly.
Timer type: choose between Duration or End of Chapter.
Duration: the choices here are your Timer Presets, so the automatic timer offers the same durations the player does. A duration you set before it was on your list stays available.
Per-book overrides: disable the automatic timer for a specific book, or give it its own window/type — from Book Settings.

The timer arms from any start of playback inside the window, not just the player's own play button - the Lock Screen, Siri, CarPlay, and the next book in a series starting on its own all count. Each book arms at most one automatic timer, so declining the timer once won't hand it back to you on the same book.

Manual timers you set yourself always take precedence over an automatic one. The player displays a distinct "Auto" banner label when an automatic timer is active so you can tell at a glance.

Expiry Behavior

When the sleep timer runs out, playback stops. You can configure whether the timer simply pauses playback or fully stops the session. Your position is always saved regardless of which behavior you choose.

The player then shows a Sleep Timer Ended prompt offering to keep going. Starting playback again by any route clears it - the prompt, the mini player, Car Mode, CarPlay, Siri, or the widget.

Bookmarks, Clips, and Notes

Bookmarks let you mark moments in an audiobook and optionally annotate them with notes.

Create a bookmark by tapping the bookmark button in the player. FableFrog saves your exact position.
Add a title and notes: each bookmark supports a title and up to 5,000 characters of notes, giving you room for detailed annotations.
Jump back to any bookmark from the bookmarks list on the book's detail page. Tap a bookmark to seek directly to that position.
Delete bookmarks by swiping on them in the list.

Bookmarks sync to your Audiobookshelf server, so they're accessible from any client.

Car Mode

Car mode transforms the player into a simplified, glanceable interface with large tap targets designed for use while driving.

Activating Car Mode

Tap the car mode button in the player to switch. The interface changes to show oversized play/pause and skip controls with minimal visual clutter.

What Changes

Controls become significantly larger for easier tapping without looking
Non-essential UI elements are hidden
Stay awake is enabled automatically, so the screen won't dim or lock while car mode is active

Car mode is separate from CarPlay. It's designed for situations where you're using your phone mounted on the dashboard rather than a CarPlay-equipped vehicle.

CarPlay

In a CarPlay-equipped vehicle, FableFrog appears on the dashboard with its own interface. There are three tabs, plus the system's built-in Now Playing button:

Recent - the books you're partway through, from your Audiobookshelf continue-listening shelf.
Downloaded - everything you've saved for offline listening.
Library - your full library to browse.

Tapping any book starts it from where you left off, and your progress is recorded the same as it would be from your phone.

Recent and Library render from FableFrog's local cache first and then update when the server answers, so a slow server shows you your books immediately rather than an empty screen.

CarPlay Without a Connection

The Downloaded tab reads straight off the filesystem. It needs no network, no server, and no prior sign-in sync - so a cold launch in a parking garage still lists every downloaded book, plays it from your saved position, shows its cover, and records the drive's progress for the next time you're online. The list is ordered newest download first, and a partly-deleted download is left out rather than shown as a dead row.

The whole CarPlay interface is translated in all 19 of FableFrog's languages.

Apple Watch

FableFrog has a watchOS app and a Now Playing complication. From your wrist you can play and pause, skip, jump to a chapter, set a sleep timer, and change speed. The watch drives the player on your phone rather than playing anything itself, so audio keeps coming out of wherever it already was.

Your skip durations, timer presets - including a book's own override - and speed all come from the phone, so the wrist offers the same choices the player does. See Apple Watch for the full guide.

Settings > Apple Watch on the phone shows whether your watch is paired, has FableFrog on it, and is connected right now, and explains how the pair of them work together.

Free for everyone, watchOS 10 or later.

Headphone Controls

FableFrog integrates with iOS remote command controls, so your wired or Bluetooth headphones work out of the box.

Supported Actions

Single press: play / pause
Double press: configurable (see below)
Triple press: configurable (see below)

Customizing Double-Press

In Settings > Playback, you can configure what a double-press of the headphone button does:

Skip to next chapter: useful for navigating long audiobooks
Create a bookmark: hands-free bookmarking while listening

Customizing Triple-Press

Triple-press maps to the iOS "previous track" command, which on other audiobook apps (Overcast, Castro, Pocket Casts, Apple Books) typically skips backward rather than restarting the chapter. FableFrog defaults to Skip Back by your configured Skip Backward duration, but you can change it in Settings > Playback:

Skip Back: jump backward by your Skip Backward seconds — the default
Previous Chapter: jump to the beginning of the previous chapter

Both double-press and triple-press can be overridden per book from Book Settings if a specific title calls for different behavior.

Control Center

FableFrog provides full Now Playing integration. The iOS Control Center shows your current book's cover art, title, chapter information, and standard playback controls. On iOS 18 and later, FableFrog also supports Control Center widgets for play/pause and progress.

AirPlay

The player includes a built-in AirPlay route picker. Tap the AirPlay icon to see available devices and send audio to any AirPlay-compatible speaker, receiver, or Apple TV. Playback controls continue to work normally while streaming via AirPlay.

Siri & Voice Control

FableFrog supports hands-free control via Siri and Apple Shortcuts, built on the modern App Intents framework. Voice phrases are auto-indexed by Siri, Spotlight, and Shortcuts at install time — no setup required.

Supported Phrases

Pause FableFrog / Resume FableFrog
Skip forward in FableFrog / Skip backward in FableFrog
Next chapter in FableFrog
Set sleep timer in FableFrog (followed by a duration like "for 30 minutes" or "for 1 hour")
Sleep at end of chapter in FableFrog
Cancel sleep timer in FableFrog
Show upcoming books in [series] on FableFrog
Play [book] on FableFrog — resumes from your last position

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