ListenLock

Recipes · Everyday listening

Fall asleep to a book without losing your place

Let a novel play at bedtime, fade out gently, and start again tomorrow at the exact sentence.

You need
Nothing extra. The focus sounds are built into the app.
Set-up
2 minutes, once
Features combined
Sleep timer · Sleep options · Focus sound · Exact-sentence resume
Phone cost
Low. The screen is off and the timer stops reading for you.
  1. Set bedtime once. In the reader, tap the timer icon, then Sleep options…. Turn on Set a timer by itself at bedtime and set Bedtime starts and Bedtime ends. From now on, a timer starts by itself whenever you listen at night.
  2. Let it fade. In the same sheet, turn on Fade the voice out at the end, so the voice drifts off instead of stopping mid-word. Turn on Shake the phone to restart the timer too, for the nights you are still awake. Tap Save.
  3. Add a soft background. Tap the speed button and, under Sound, pick a Focus sound such as Rain or Fireplace. It plays quietly under the voice and gets softer whenever the voice speaks.
  4. Press play and put the phone down. Lock it. The book reads until the timer ends.
  5. Tomorrow, just press play. ListenLock starts again at the same sentence, even after a restart.

Why it works

The bedtime timer means you never have to remember to set one. The fade and the shake-to-restart cover the two annoying moments of sleep listening: being woken by a sudden stop, and drifting off before you meant to.

If it goes wrong

If you missed the last part, scroll back a page in the reader and press and hold the sentence to start from there. If reading stops before the timer ends with the screen off, your phone may be stopping background apps: search the Library for Background reading, which shows the setting for your phone’s brand.

Steps checked against ListenLock 0.1.0. Something look different? Tell us.