I built an interactive audiobook app you can control without taking your phone out
Hi,
The idea for this came to me while I was cycling and listening to an audiobook. The characters had reached a difficult decision when my AirPods asked whether I wanted to hear a notification. I answered by nodding—and immediately wondered: why couldn’t the audiobook itself ask me a question?
That became the basic idea behind the project. When the story reaches an important moment, it pauses and asks what should happen next. You answer by nodding or shaking your head, and the audiobook continues down that branch. You can keep walking, cooking, exercising, or staring dramatically into the distance without touching your phone.
The goal is to keep the experience feeling like an audiobook, rather than turning it into a game that constantly demands your attention.
There are currently 15 interactive audiobooks in the app. It remembers the paths you’ve explored, provides summaries when you return to an earlier decision, and lets you uncover different endings. The app can display the complete choice tree when you want to see it, but while listening, the interface is primarily the narration, questions, pauses, and audio cues.
The surprisingly difficult part wasn’t getting audio to play. It was figuring out how to help someone navigate a branching story without requiring them to look at a screen.
Would you try something like this, or do you prefer audiobooks to remain completely passive?