Help test the Lorecast Android app
Lorecast is a free audiobook library of public-domain classics recorded with a full cast — every named character speaks in their own voice instead of one narrator doing all the parts. The Android app is finished and in closed testing, which Google only lets out of the door once twelve people have had it installed for fourteen days in a row. That is what this page is asking for.
It takes about two minutes a day for two weeks, and there is nothing to write unless you want to. No payment, no card, no ads, and no account needed to start a book.
Three steps, in this order
Join the tester group
A Google Group is how Play knows who is allowed into the test. Joining is one click and you can leave at any time. Use the same Google account you use on your phone — this is the step people skip, and nothing after it works without it.
Accept the test invitation
Now the Play opt-in link will work. It shows a page with a "Become a tester" button; press it. If you see an error here instead, you are either signed into a different Google account than the one from step 1, or the group has not caught up yet — wait a minute and reload.
Install it from Google Play
The same page gives you a download link once you are opted in. It installs like any other app; it will not be publicly listed in the Play Store, because that is the thing this test exists to unlock.
What would actually help, once it is installed
None of this is a test script and there is no form to fill in. But Google asks me to describe what testers did with the app, so the more of this that is true, the better the account I can give:
- Start a book and let it play for a minute. Chapter one needs no account at all.
- Close the app mid-chapter and reopen it — it should put you back where you were, to the second.
- Make a free account, which unlocks the rest of the chapters and remembers your place across devices.
- Download a chapter, or a whole book, and play it with the phone in flight mode.
- Try a book with a big cast — The Jungle Book or a Sherlock Holmes — since that is where a full cast is doing something a single narrator cannot.
- Change the playback speed, and leave it playing with the screen locked.
Anything that breaks, sounds wrong or simply irritates you is worth an email to support@getlorecast.com. A one-line “the player stopped when I locked the screen” is more use than a considered review.
What to expect
- These are generated voices, not actors. They hold up on a good line and they are not going to beat a gifted human reader performing a book they love.
- There will be audio artefacts — a clipped word, a breath in an odd place. Those are the most useful thing you can report, because they get fixed in the next pass over that book.
- Nothing is tracked. There is no analytics in the app, which is also why written reports matter more here than they would elsewhere: there is no telemetry telling me what broke.
Leaving, and the one thing that would really help
You can leave the test from the same Play page you joined on, whenever you like — but if you can, stay for the full fortnight. Google counts fourteen *consecutive* days per tester, so somebody opting out on day ten does not just make it eleven testers; it resets their count to zero and the wait starts again. If the app annoys you enough that you want it gone, tell me what it did first and I will probably fix it.
What you are getting, for the avoidance of doubt
31 classic novels — 558 chapters, 159 hours of audio, 304 separate character voices. Free, with no paid tier, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. Browse the whole library and listen in the browser before you decide, or read how a book gets made.