In this guide, we explain the difference between audiobooks in the Apple Books app that offer digital narration using speech synthesis and those voiced by human actors.
AI-narrated audiobooks
Apple’s Books Store offers audiobooks read aloud by humans. However, only some authors can produce these types of audiobooks due to the cost and complexity of production.
To address this, Apple introduced a digital narration service in January 2023 for independent writers and small publishers. This system uses AI-powered speech synthesis, similar to Siri, to convert written e-books into audiobooks.
The app makes it easy to identify audiobooks with digital narration on the Books Store, as well as download and listen to them.
Find Apple Books audiobooks with digital narration
There is no way to find all digitally narrated audiobooks in one spot. However, you can identify a digitally narrated audiobook by following these steps.
- Open the Books app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
- Go to the Audiobooks or Audiobook Store section.
- Scroll through the list and tap an audiobook.
- If you see a “Narrated by voice name, an Apple Books digital voice” label, that means this audiobook is not read by a human but by a digital voice. Earlier, it just said, “Narrated by Apple Books,” as shown in the screenshot above.
How to hear samples of AI voices for audiobooks
Apple provides several genre-specific synthetic voices that publishers can use for digital narration. You don’t need to download an AI-narrated audiobook just to hear what those artificial voices sound like. Instead, point your browser to the Apple Books for Authors web page and scroll to the Voices section, where you can listen to samples of the digital voices available to book authors.
Report issues with digitally narrated audiobooks
Apple Books with digital narration are produced from an e-book file, but speech synthesis isn’t perfect. That’s why Apple enables you to report problems with digitally narrated titles, helping the company improve the system.
To report narration issues while listening to a digitally narrated audiobook, touch the mini-player to expand the audio controls, then hit the … (ellipsis) icon and select Report a Narration Issue from the menu. Finally, select one of the listed problems or report a different issue with the narration, then hit the Send button.
Will voice synthesis replace professional voice actors?
Don’t worry; human-narrated audiobooks won’t be going away anytime soon. Apple says it remains “committed to celebrating and showcasing the magic of human narration and will continue to grow the human-narrated audiobook catalog.”
Artificial intelligence and machine learning advancements have dramatically improved voice synthesis over the years. These Siri-like voices sound believable, though one can still tell the difference between an AI-powered voice generated on the device and a recording of a professional human voice actor.
Also see: How to have Siri read web articles to you on iPhone and iPad
How book authors can sign up for digital narration
Audiobooks carried on the Books Store don’t automatically get digital narration. It’s up to the writer to decide whether to use recordings of human voices or AI ones.
Apple provides several genre-specific synthetic voices. Fiction titles and romance books are narrated by AI voices dubbed “Madison” and “Jackson.” Books in the non-fiction and self-development categories are narrated by “Helena” and “Mitchell.”
To pass synthesis, authors should refrain from using complex formatting elements and limit foreign-language words and phrases.
Only English-language titles are accepted. Another requirement is that the author must own the rights to produce an audiobook version.
It takes one to two months to process submissions and conduct quality checks before a digitally narrated audiobook is ready for publication in the Books Store.
Countries where Apple Books is available
To check if Apple Books offers audiobooks in your country, refer to the support document on the Apple website detailing the availability of Apple Media Services.
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