Reviews for Libby, the Library App

Well, I take these comments back after recent update breaks audio experience with Bluetooth controls: Great audiobook controls, and easy to send ebooks to my Kindle. Sometimes audiobooks are more readily available in Hoopla, but Libby has better controls and a dark theme, except for the bright white when you open the app. The big frustration with having to wait for books on hold is that I have to re-register my library card, which sometimes, somehow, isn't the card I reserved the book with...??

Pretty cool app. Stumbled across this in 2020 during COVID when we couldn't go to libraries anymore. Using my library card it connected to my local library. Was easy to do. Been using it ever since! Haven't had any problems with it. If you love reading or listening to audiobooks, give this app a try. Then you'll have access to your local library from the comfort of your own home! I absolutely give 5***** to this app and huge THANKS to whoever made it!

I've had a really good experience with Libby. It's easy to check out books and put them on hold. Sometimes the "hold" time is longer than I like but actually that's a good thing because it means people are reading lol. I also like the option to read books in my Kindle account versus in the Libby app. And reading books and listening to audiobooks is easy and intuitive.

Absolutely LOVE this app & I've never gotten so much use out of my library card! As someone who is always reading & always listening to an audiobook, it gets pretty expensive to keep unread books on my shelves. This app is my solution & I've saved so much money by borrowing from the library from the comfort of my home. one bummer is there are never enough copies of the most popular new releases, so sometimes you have to wait as much as 24 months (from personal experience) & as little as weeks

Libby is an improvement over Overdrive. It's fast. It's convenient. Number 1 gripe: I use Libby all the time, so why do I need to repeatedly verify my card. I'm clearly actively using it, so why? The search engine is clunky. Searching by author doesn't always result in a complete list. You have to search by title. I can't transfer holds across library cards--which matters if I can't verify a card in that moment. They also don't always stock a complete series.

Book after book I've had on hold has lapsed on me. I never get a notification that a book is ready to borrow. I've tried to fix this by going into both my phone's and Libby's notification settings, but I'm still missing most of my holds. Plus, I'll check regularly when I notice a hold is days from being available only to receive, less than 24 hours later sometimes, the notification saying my hold has lapsed.

I'm split. 3 stars because this app is top tier for someone who reads a LOT (me). Deducting 2 stars because they don't ever seem to update it when there are issues (like for a couple weeks not the playback speed doesn't change, no matter what I do to change it, so all my audio books are reading slower than that DMV sloth from zootopia.) If the bugs were fixed this would be 5 star for sure. Definitely one of my most used apps.

I can't understand why some people pay any amount of money for access to audiobooks. While not every book is available at release, I still have access to enough books to keep me busy for long periods of time. The app allows downloads, search capabilities, book sample snippets, tracking, book reservation, tag creation and application, reminders, etc. A great option to all those products out there offer similar services for a monetary fee.

I've used Libby for several years and loved it. The last several months have been very disappointing with it shutting down constantly. Even when my audiobook is downloaded if I am driving and switch towers it shuts down. I have to restart the app (obviously not ideal for driving hands free). When laying in bed and I set the sleep mode to 30 minutes it shut down after 2 or 3 minutes - 6 times. I had to restart the app to get it going again. The constant shut down is awful. I have android 11 OS.

Although I'm an Audible subscriber, I love using the Libby Library app because I can check to see if my library has an particular audiobook before wasting a credit or money purchasing it. It's a really great app for anyone who enjoys Audiobooks (or eBooks). Linking a library card to the app is easy and the app is easy to use. I highly recommend it.

This app is a great resource! I had eyebsurgery and wanted to try audio books- I've listened to 8 in a month! All you need is a library card and you get access to free ebooks and audio books. The functionality is great too- holds on books that you can delay, a two lane system for waiting lists, speed controls for audio, tags, basically all you would need.

Great app but I don't like the recent update that makes it hard to download a book for offline reading. I liked the manual option to download. Occasionally, if I lose cell service and the book stops playing, the next time I open the app, the book begins from the beginning. I think this is because the app uses data to save your bookmark??? Other than those minor gripes, this app is great and Kris me awake on my commute!

Fast and easy to check out library books, and if you have cards from multiple libraries it will check them all when you search. I appreciate the hold deferral option; no more having them all ready at the same time!! Notifications do seem to be broken right now. They used to work perfectly, but now the app tells me I don't have them on no matter how many times I try to set them, and even though the permissions are allowed in my phone settings.

I absolutely love Libby! usually have the books I want just for have to wait a little bit for them. I love that all I need is my library card and boom, I have access to books! I use it for audiobooks. there is a good selection. although, my library is small and can only have up to 4 holds lol. So I added another library card to it. It appears you can add as many cards as you want.

Love Libby, I really do. It is such an easy and nice way to search for ebooks and audiobooks to borrow from the library. However, I would love if there was a feature to report/flag when information on a book is wrong. Have multiple times now have books show up under the wrong tag only for me to borrow and find out they weren't what I wanted. Edit: Why is there no dark mode for the app itself (not just matching my system)? Took many stars off for this because my eyes can't handle that strain.

I love this app very much and all that it does for everyone who uses it. It has a lot of strong points and a lot of useful tools but I had to get a new phone recently and it deleted all of my tagged books even though I'm using the same library card and account info as before. That was four years of tagged books that I no longer have access to. I think the app does a lot of good, but that is an incredibly disheartening issue to deal with.

I love this app. I like that when I return a book I can continue to borrow more as long as I don't have more than six at a time. I have listened to 20+ books in one month. other library apps limit you but not this one. my only complaint is that sometimes they don't offer all the books of a series or they offer some in ebook format and not audio. I am legally blind (not completely blind) and it is very difficult to read a book. it causes too much eye strain

I'm so glad I found out I could deliver books to my Kindle as long as I had a library car. This is AWESOME! I can plan out my reads in advance then put them on hold. I don't mind the new update to the way suspensions are handled as long as I get my holds faster. I do find the app to be a little more glitchy because it will say all of my books I have a hold for no longer have any copies because they have expired, then it fixes itself once I force close and restart the app. Otherwise, great work!

I've used this app quite a bit over the last few years, and it's been great! But the recent library changes I don't like. There's books missing that used to be there and getting a whole series is like pulling teeth 😕 supposedly the merge was so we'd have more books to choose from, but it's not working out that way. It's rather disappointing, tbh.

love this app!! one suggestion.... maybe consider putting in an option to save the books you want to read and be able to go back and look at the list later. I know you can check out as many as you want, but that's often more than you can realistically read. you can also "save for later" books that your library doesn't own yet. but no options to save the books you like or might want to read in the future ***update- just realized you can save. just not sure how to find them afterwards.