iPhone and Android. Both are in beta. Get either one at cranesoft.com/beta.
Phones
iPhone running iOS 15.1 or newer. iPhone only for now: there is no iPad, Mac or Vision Pro version, and we have not tested on them.
Android phones running Android 8.0 or newer. Android tablets install and run too. They get the phone layout, just bigger. That is fine for listening; it is not a tablet design yet.
In the car
CarPlay. Crane shows up on the car screen with three tabs: Started, New, and Bookmarks. Pick a book and it plays. The Now Playing screen has numbered skip back and skip forward (they use the seconds you set in the app), previous and next chapter, a bookmark button, and a speed button that steps through your speed presets. No search from the car screen yet; Apple reserves that for Siri, and Siri support is not built.
Android Auto. Four tabs: New, Started, Chapters, and Bookmarks. The player controls are numbered rewind and fast forward, bookmark, and speed. Voice search works: ask Google Assistant to play a book in Crane, and it searches your library by title, author or series.
Plain Bluetooth stereos, no CarPlay or Android Auto: the car's play, pause and skip buttons work like a headset's. Title and author show on the car display if it has one.
A bookmark made in the car lands in the app the next time you open it.
Screen off
Crane keeps playing with the screen off and with other apps in front. The lock screen and notification show what is playing and let you control it:
- iPhone: play, pause, numbered skip back and forward.
- Android: play, pause, numbered rewind and fast forward, bookmark, and speed.
Bluetooth headphones and earbuds work on both.
Getting books in
Crane plays files you already own. There is no store in the app. Three ways to add books, all on both platforms unless noted:
- Send from your computer over Wi-Fi. Settings ▸ Library ▸ Wi-Fi Transfer from Computer. Your computer's browser drops the files onto the phone. No cable, no cloud account. How-to here.
- Choose a folder. On Android, Crane watches that folder and picks up new books you drop in it. On iPhone, Crane copies the folder into its own storage (you can see it in Files under On My iPhone ▸ Crane Audiobook Player ▸ library).
- Pick files from a cloud drive. On Android: Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or the phone's own storage. On iPhone: anything the Files app can see, including iCloud Drive, Google Drive and Dropbox. Drive tips here.
Formats: MP3, M4B, M4A, AAC, OGG and FLAC. Chapters and cover art are read out of the files.
The same on both
- Speed from 0.5× to 3.5×, remembered per book.
- Bookmarks with notes. Undo your last skip.
- Sleep timer: 15, 20, 30, 45 or 60 minutes, or end of chapter, with a gentle fade.
- Listening stats: hours, books finished, streaks, top authors and narrators, a calendar of listening days.
- Hardcover sync, if you turn it on.
- Backup and restore of your progress and bookmarks (Settings ▸ Data & Backup).
- Light and dark themes.
- Six languages: English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Português (Brasil).
Not yet
- A home-screen widget (thread).
- Siri on CarPlay.
- iPad, Apple Watch, Wear OS, desktop or web.
Where we are
Current build: 1.0.2, Beta 3, released 2026-09-15 on both platforms. New builds are announced in the Announcements category. If something on this page does not match your phone, say so below or in Bug Reports.