Google is giving away free audiobooks, classic fiction and non-fiction titles, that you can download and listen to on your phone in the Google Play Books app. See what you are missing.
The Google Play Books app is a great way to read ebooks and it works on Android phones and on the iPhone too. It also enables you to listen to audiobooks and there is a large collection available in genres like fiction and literature, science and technology, science fiction and fantasy, romance, sport and more.
If you have an Android phone, you can buy audiobooks and download free ones drectly from within in the app, but if you have an iPhone, you might need to visit the Google Play Store in a web browser because of Apple limitations on selling things in apps.
I am only going to focus on the free classic audiobook collections here, but there are many more that can be purchased and even some free audiobooks elsewhere if you explore what is available.
- How to download and read ebooks on your phone for free
- Import epub books into Amazon Kindle app on iPhone and Android
Audiobooks in the Google Play Store
The Google Play Books app can be used to find and access free books by going to the Store tab in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Alternatively, open the Google Play Store app and press the Books tab at the bottom.
Swipe up until you reach the bottom, past all the suggested books and there is a Free audiobooks tile. (The homescreen may change over time, but you should find audiobooks somewhere.)
Auto-narrated audiobooks
This section of the store contains auto-narrated books and there are separate sections for fiction and nonfiction. You can see fiction at the top and if you swipe up the screen, nonfiction comes into view.
What is an auto-narrated audiobook? A regular audiobook is one that is read by a real person and recorded. An auto-narrated audiobook is one that is read using a digitl voice and text to speech technology. The voices are not quite as good as a real person, but they are fairly realistic.
Press the arrow to the right of the Explore fiction or Explorer nonfiction sections.
View free classic audiobooks
When I visited, there were 8 fiction and 11 nonfiction books. Browse the nonfiction and fiction sections, browse the titles on offer and then tap one to open the details screen for the title.
Get the free audiobook
Here is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow details screen. It displays information about the book, like a description of the contents, star rating, and length.
You can see that this particular audiobook is 1 hour 5 minutes. The length of the books varies and one, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in the nonfiction section, is a huge 20 hours 18 minutes. That is a big book! There is a lot to listen to in these free classics.
If you want to read this free audiobook, press Get for free of charge. (There is an option to switch to the ebook, if you prefer.)
Listen to your audiobook
The audiobook is added to your library in the Google Play Books app. Select the Audiobooks tab to see your audiobooks. Press it to listen to it. The first time you access it, it is downloaded to the phone, but once you have it, it just plays straight away.
This is not the only place to find free audiobooks and what we looked at are just a few selected classic books that Google thinks everyone should read, or listen to. Simply searching the Google Play Store for ‘free audiobook‘ will show many more books across all genres.
Check the store frequently because special offers and promotions come and go. Catch one at the right time and you can grab a bargain.
