ShelfHead
Justin Rahme Book iPhoneiPadiPod touchApple Watch
ShelfHead is a free Book app for iPhone and iPad by Justin Rahme. Requires iOS 17.6. Updated October 10, 2026.
- Price
- Free
- on the App Store
- Size
- 22 MB
- Age 4+
- Updated
- Oct 10
- 2026 · v6.7
Screenshots
About ShelfHead
ShelfHead is a streamlined player for your self-hosted Audiobookshelf server. It connects straight to the server you run: no ShelfHead account, no middlemen, no ads. Built for people who just want to listen. A clean, focused interface, fast browsing, and playback that remembers exactly where you left off on every device you own. YOUR SERVER, YOUR WAY • Sign in with username and password or SSO (OpenID Connect) • Works behind Cloudflare Access, Authelia and other reverse proxies via custom HTTP headers • Progress, bookmarks and finished status sync back to your server, and a clear prompt appears if two devices disagree LISTEN ANYWHERE • A Downloads tab with cover art, progress, length and size, swipe to play, and Download Health to verify and repair files • Download a single title or a whole series; everything works offline and syncs when you reconnect • CarPlay with series, authors, genres, bookmarks and chapters, an alphabet index for big libraries, and Continue Listening always first • Apple Watch that works with your iPhone nearby or entirely on its own, with its own downloads • Lock-screen, widget and Control Center controls; Siri, Shortcuts, Spotlight and Handoff A PLAYER THAT FITS • Variable speed with per-book defaults, volume boost, and bass/treble tone control • Chapter navigation, bookmarks, and sleep timers by duration, end of chapter or a nightly schedule • Listening Profiles for Driving, Sleep and Work; Driving can switch on automatically in CarPlay • An Up Next queue that skips finished books and adds the next in a series A LIBRARY THAT UNDERSTANDS YOU • Browse books, series, authors, narrators, collections and playlists, with search everywhere • Smart filters: Nearly Finished, No Progress in 30 Days, Unplayed in a Started Series, Downloaded but Not Finished, and more • Follow narrators and authors, play podcast episodes, and read ebooks and PDFs with your PDF position synced back to the server • Listening stats, streaks, a swipeable Year in Review, and shareable images colour-matched to the cover Also: optional Face ID or passcode lock, playback history with one-tap undo, full VoiceOver and Dynamic Type support, and a native design with a touch of cassette-deck character. ShelfHead requires an existing Audiobookshelf server (audiobookshelf.org). It plays the library you already host and includes no content of its own. No analytics, no tracking, no advertising: it talks only to the server you configure.
What’s new
Version 6.7 · Updated October 10, 2026
ShelfHead 6.7: skip the same intro in every chapter, and ShelfHead now speaks Simplified Chinese. Chapter skip • Choose how many seconds to skip at the start and end of every chapter, from 5 seconds to 2 minutes, in Settings > Playback. • Give any book its own timing from the player's ⋯ menu > Chapter Skip, or leave it on your default. • Picking a chapter, scrubbing or jumping back always plays exactly where you asked. The last chapter is never cut short, and an end-of-chapter sleep timer stops where the skip begins. • Books with a timed skip no longer also skip intro and outro chapters by title. Simplified Chinese • ShelfHead now runs in Simplified Chinese on iPhone, Apple Watch, widgets and CarPlay, following your device's language. • Search in Settings understands Chinese words, and share cards are translated too. Thank you to the reviewer who asked for both. Also fixed: VoiceOver now says "Up Next, 1 book" instead of "1 books".
App privacy
The developer, Justin Rahme, reported these privacy practices to Apple.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.