Roadmap — Novelwave

A new chapter: iCloud sync, iCloud Drive import, export and a refreshed design.

What's in Novelwave 3.0

A new chapter

Refreshed design. A refreshed library, player and profile make browsing, listening and managing your audiobooks easier.
Sync between devices. Shelves, audiobook details, listening progress and bookmarks stay in sync through iCloud.
Import from iCloud Drive. Add audiobooks to Novelwave's iCloud Drive folder, then download, pause, resume or remove them whenever you like.
Export your audiobooks. Save single audiobooks, a selection, shelves or your whole library to Files.
Become a beta tester. Request a TestFlight invitation from Profile to try new features early.

Now Playing widgets, steadier scrubbing and a quicker Mini Player.

What's new in Novelwave 3.0.1

New

Now Playing widgets. Small and medium, with the cover, play and pause, skip buttons on the medium size, and a tap that opens the book.

Fixes

Steady scrubbing. The progress bar no longer jumps back while you drag it during playback.
Finished books start over. Playing an audiobook marked as finished starts it from the beginning, instead of ending straight away and closing the Player.

Improvements

An instant Mini Player cover. The cover appears straight away, without a placeholder flashing first.
Smoother while listening. The tab bar and Mini Player no longer redraw every second during playback.

A Player with more presence, a cat for company and text at your size.

What's new in Novelwave 3.0.2

A Player with more presence

A cover that comes alive. It sits forward while playing and eases back when paused, over a background tinted with its color.
A scrubber you can grab. A slim track with a knob that never jumps playback when you touch it.
A new speed control. A smooth slider with firm stops at the presets, showing how long the rest of the book takes at that speed.
Controls that respond. Animated symbols and haptic feedback.
Progress in the Mini Player. A thin line shows how far through the book you are.
A finish worth celebrating. Confetti when you reach the end of an audiobook.
The right cover for every file. Merged audiobooks show each file's own cover again.

Around the app

A cat for company. Empty shelves, searches, bookmarks, chapters and widgets now have a resident cat.
Import from an empty shelf. An empty shelf offers to import audiobooks straight away.
Text at your size. Every screen follows your Dynamic Type setting.
Snappier covers. Covers load once and are decoded at the size they're shown, so lists scroll smoothly.

Bookmarks in one tap, and chapters and bookmarks in one place.

What's new in Novelwave 3.0.3

Improvements

Bookmarks in one tap. Tap the bookmark button to save it straight away, then add a note or jump to your bookmarks.
Chapters and bookmarks together. One Contents sheet, with a switch between chapters and bookmarks.

Fixes

No flash on launch. Your Library no longer shows its empty state for a moment before your books appear.

Your Novelwave 1.x library comes across, plus a steadier Player.

Coming in Novelwave 3.0.4

New

Your 1.x library, brought across. On iPhones that stayed on Novelwave 1.x, your audiobooks, shelves and bookmarks now move into the new app instead of it opening empty.
Progress you can see. A big library shows how many audiobooks have moved in, and the screen stays awake until it's done.
Nothing left behind. The move never deletes your old library.

Fixes

The right button from the start. The Player no longer shows Play for a moment when your audiobook is already playing.
A steady sleep timer menu. The menu no longer flickers while it's open.
No more waiting on setup. Your library appears without waiting on iCloud, so launch can't get stuck on “Setting up your library…”.

CarPlay, Siri and Shortcuts, Control Center, and Opus files and shares from any app.

Coming in Novelwave 3.1

In the car and hands-free

CarPlay. Pick up where you left off or browse your shelves on the car's display, with chapters a tap away.
Siri. Play or resume an audiobook, set or turn off the sleep timer, add a bookmark or change the speed, just by asking.
Ask for a book by name. With Apple Intelligence on iOS 27, say “play The Martian” without naming the app.
Shortcuts. Actions to play, pause, skip, change chapter, set the speed and add bookmarks, for your own automations.

On your iPhone

A sleep timer Live Activity. Watch the sleep timer count down on the Lock Screen, and cancel it right there.
Control Center. Play and pause, or start a sleep timer, without opening the app.
Spotlight and Siri Suggestions. Find any audiobook from Spotlight, and see what you've been listening to suggested on the Lock Screen.

Bringing books in

Open with Novelwave. Tap an M4B, M4A, MP3 or Opus file in Files, or share one from another app, and it opens in Novelwave.
Several files at once. Select a handful of audio files and share them to Novelwave in one go.
Opus audiobooks. Ogg Opus files import and play natively, without re-encoding.

Novelwave on Apple Watch, listening stats, a widget for every book, and bookmarks you can take with you.

Planned for Novelwave 3.2

On your wrist

Apple Watch. Stream from your iPhone, or download audiobooks to your watch and leave the phone at home.

Your listening

Listening stats. How long you've listened and the audiobooks you've been through, in one place.

Widgets and bookmarks

A widget for every book. Add as many Now Playing widgets as you like, each showing an audiobook of its own.
Export your bookmarks. Save your bookmarks and notes on their own, or along with an audiobook when you export it.

Novelwave on iPad and Mac, more places for your books, levels to earn, and more languages.

Further down the road

Beyond iPhone

iPad. A layout made for the bigger screen.
Mac. Listen at your desk and manage a large library with a keyboard and pointer.

More places for your books

Dropbox. Bring in audiobooks from your Dropbox.
Google Drive. Bring in audiobooks from your Google Drive.
Audiobookshelf. Connect Novelwave to your Audiobookshelf server.
Jellyfin. Connect Novelwave to your Jellyfin server.

Your listening

Levels and experience. Earn experience as you listen and level up along the way.

In your language

More languages. Use Novelwave in your own language, not just English.