Picture books, read aloud
The books on your shelf, read aloud.
Photograph the pages of a picture book you own. In under twenty seconds a warm storyteller starts reading it to your child — page by page, with gentle music underneath — in the book's own language or in any of 6. The rest of the book follows while you listen.
- Free to start
- Read aloud in 6 languages
- iPhone, iPad and Android
- No ads, nothing shared
How it works
From your shelf to a story in three steps
No typing, no setup. Try it here — photograph a book on this page and hear what happens next.
- 1
Photograph the pages
Take a photo of the cover and each page, in order. AudioTales reads the words on every page for you.
- 2
The storyteller reads it
Page one starts playing in under twenty seconds — in the book's own language, or in English, Spanish, Italian, French, German and Russian. The rest of the book is narrated in the background while you listen.
- 3
Listen, with music
Gentle classical music plays softly underneath. Follow the words, set the sleep timer, or just press play.
Cover
Tilly's Paper Boat
3 pages · Narrator · Aoede
English
Sped up about four times. In our test runs, page one was playing 13–18 seconds after tapping Start reading.
Listen
One warm storyteller, every page
Each page fills the screen while it's read, just as it looks in the book. Open a book from the library in the phone and try the player as it is in the app: turn the pages, scrub, show the words, set the sleep timer, change the speed, minimise it and carry on listening. Two of the books can also be heard in another language.
- WordsThe page's text in large, clear type, for reading along together.
- Sleep timerStop at the end of the page, or after 10, 20 or 30 minutes. The music fades out gently.
- Music underneathSoft public-domain classical pieces, matched to each part of the story.
- Checked before the restA book's first narration pauses after three pages so you can check the words and the voice. One tap narrates the rest.
AudioTales
Your library
Picture books, read aloud
My books
Storytellers
Choose the voice that suits the book
Eight storytellers, each with their own warmth — a gentle one for bedtime, a bouncy one for splashing through puddles. Every one of them reads all 6 languages. Each sample here is the one the app plays when you choose a narrator.
Narrator
Samples play in English. The app's voice samples come in English, Spanish and Italian; every storyteller narrates books in all 6 languages.
Tell the storyteller how to read it
Describe the reading you want in your own words — “slower, sleepier”, “more playful” — or let the app suggest a direction from the book. Here's the same page and the same voice; only the direction changed.
How the narrator should read this book
Both takes were made by the app's own storyteller.
6 languages
Your book, in 6 languages
Hear any book in English, Spanish, Italian, French, German and Russian. The pages are translated, then the storyteller reads them — and the words on screen change too.
The book itself can be written in any of 10 languages: those 6, plus Portuguese, Dutch, Polish and Ukrainian. The app's own screens are in English, Spanish and Italian. A lovely thing for bilingual homes, and for grandparents who read in another language.
The same page of Pip and the Biggest Puddle, narrated by the app in each language. Tap one to hear it.
Books can be written inEnglishEspañolItalianoFrançaisDeutschРусскийPortuguêsNederlandsPolskiУкраїнська
Made for bedtime
Small things that make story time easier
A sleep timer that waits
It finishes the page before it stops, then fades the music. Or choose 10, 20 or 30 minutes.
Picks up where you left off
Every book remembers the page you stopped on, so tomorrow starts where tonight ended.
Fix a word
If a page was misread, fix its words and narrate just that page again.
Directions for a page
“Whisper this page — the baby is asleep.” Give one page its own direction when it needs one.
Take it with you
Export the whole book as one audio file, for a long car ride or a kids' audio player.
Big pages on iPad
Every page full-screen on a tablet, in a calm dark Bedtime look or a daytime Paper look.
Android, while the phone is locked
At the lock screen
A phone a child can hold
The page being read shows over the lock screen, and the player works right there — play and pause, turn the pages, show the words. Everything that would leave the book is hidden, so a child can hold the phone without getting into anything else. Tapping the playback notification opens the player over the lock screen too.
iOS doesn't let apps show over the lock screen, so on iPhone and iPad you get the standard lock-screen playback controls instead.
Private by design
Your books stay yours
No public library
What you photograph and hear is in your account only. There's no sharing and nothing is published.
For books you own
AudioTales is for reading your own books aloud at home — the way you'd read them yourself.
No ads, no trackers
No advertising, no ad identifiers and no third-party analytics. We never sell your data.
Delete anything
Delete a book, or your whole account and everything in it, in the app whenever you like.
Plans
Free to start
Hear it for yourself
The free plan adds credits every month — enough to narrate a short book and see how your family likes it.
A subscription for regular readers
For more books each month, a subscription adds a bigger monthly allowance. Prices are shown in the app and in your app store before you pay, and you can cancel any time there.
Narrating, translating into any of the 6 languages and other features use credits. Credits last three months from the day you get them — even if you cancel.
Questions
Good to know
What kind of books work?
Picture books with printed words. Photograph the cover first if you like — the title is taken from it — then each page, in order. A photo of two facing pages is read left page, then right. Pages with only pictures are simply shown.
How quick is it, really?
Page one plays in under twenty seconds — in our test runs it took 13 to 18 seconds from tapping Start reading. The rest of the book is narrated in the background, page by page, while you listen.
A book's first narration pauses after three pages so you can check the words and the voice. Then one tap narrates the rest.
What if a word comes out wrong?
Tap the page to see its words, fix them, and narrate just that page again. You can also give a single page its own direction.
Which languages does it speak?
You can hear a book in 6 languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, German and Russian. The book itself can be written in any of 10 — those 6, plus Portuguese, Dutch, Polish and Ukrainian. The app's own screens are in English, Spanish and Italian.
Is it for my child to use on their own?
AudioTales is made for parents and carers. A grown-up sets up each book and looks after the app; children listen. Accounts are for adults.
Do I need to sign up?
No. The first time you open the app it creates a private account for you, without asking for your name or email address.
Because that account isn't tied to an email address, signing out or uninstalling the app starts a new, empty library — so keep the app installed to keep your books.
What does it cost?
AudioTales is free to start: the free plan adds credits every month, enough for a short book. For more books, a subscription adds a bigger monthly allowance. Prices are shown in the app and in your app store before you pay. Credits last three months from the day you get them, even if you cancel.
Is it all right to narrate a book I own?
AudioTales is for reading your own books aloud at home, much as you would yourself. Your narrations stay in your account — they're never shared or published. Please don't use it with books you don't own, or to share or sell the audio. Our terms say more.
What happens to the photos I take?
They're kept with the book in your account, so you can add pages or narrate it again later. Google's Gemini AI reads the words from them for us and makes the narration; it doesn't use them to train its models. Delete a book or your account whenever you like — the privacy policy has the details.
Can we listen away from the app?
Yes: export the whole book as one audio file and play it wherever you like — in the car, or on a kids' audio player.
How do I delete my account?
In the app: Profile → Delete account deletes your account and everything in it at once. Without the app, follow the steps on deleting your account.
Tonight's story is already on your shelf.
AudioTales is coming soon to iPhone, iPad and Android — reading aloud in English, Spanish, Italian, French, German and Russian.