Plain Audio · iPhone + Apple Watch

Plain Audio plays what you have and reads what you want to hear.

A free audio player for podcasts, your own files and your documents, on iPhone and Apple Watch, shown as Plain on your device. No account. Plain adds no advertising or analytics, and we designed it not to collect your data. Coming to the App Store; in testing now.

Plain's library on iPhone: a Podcasts row, a document, and audio files with progress bars, and a Now Playing bar — Library

Plain's player: skip back 15 and forward 30 seconds, a Hold to note button, Send to watch, notes, speed and sleep timer — Player

Plain reading a document aloud, with the sentence being spoken highlighted and headings you can jump between — Read along

Listen

Search Apple's public podcast directory, paste a podcast's feed address or import an OPML file, then stream or download episodes. Add your own audio from Files, Share or Open in. Plain remembers where you stopped, and gives you speed control, 15 and 30 second skips, a sleep timer, and lock screen and AirPods controls.

Read aloud

Drop in Markdown, text, RTF or a text-based PDF, or paste text, and Plain turns it into audio on your iPhone using the voices installed there. Headings become sections you can jump between, and Read along highlights the sentence being spoken.

Notes

While you listen, hold a button to leave a voice note, or tap it to drop a bookmark at that exact moment. You can also type a note, or start a voice note hands-free with VoiceOver or a shortcut. Voice notes can be turned into text on your device when on-device recognition is available for your language.

Apple Watch

Choose exactly what goes on your watch and see its status: queued, sending, on watch. The watch app plays on its own, so you can leave your phone behind. Sending is not instant: a large file can take a few minutes, and a send can wait until the watch wakes.

Plain on Apple Watch: the On Watch list with the item that is playing marked Now Playing

Plain's watch player: skip back 15 and forward 30 seconds, play and pause, volume and an audio output button

Siri and Shortcuts

Say “Resume Plain,” “Pause Plain” or “Add a note in Plain.” The same actions are in Shortcuts, and your files show up in Spotlight search.

Private by design

Free. We don't run accounts, analytics, ads, tracking or servers for Plain, and it doesn't send us what you listen to or import. Our App Store privacy answers will say Data Not Collected.
Plain connects directly to Apple's podcast search when you search, and to the feeds you add and the hosts they use for artwork and episodes. Those services have their own privacy practices, which we don't control: like any website they can see your IP address, and episodes may include their publishers' own ads or measurement.
Your files are kept in Plain on your devices until you delete them. They may also be in your own iCloud or computer backup, depending on your backup settings.
Podcasts remain the property of their rights holders. Plain does not host or sell any content.

Read the privacy policy, the terms of use, or get support.