Downpour.com Reviews

Good audiobook app

Tad Davis

I've left my original review below. When I tried the app on my iPad, I got the old problem back again: if you have the playback rate set to anything other than 1.0x, the app stops the playback when the phone goes into sleep mode. I was so excited when I didn't get the problem on my phone this morning that I posted the review immediately. That was a mistake. This is such a glaring bug, and such an obvious use case, and has been a bug for so long - YEARS at this point - that I can't rate the app at anything beyond a single star. If the company wants to take on Audible, they have to do better than this. ===== For some reason I always find myself rooting for the underdog. In the audiobook world, Downpour comes in second behind Audible. But for me, that's all the more reason to support it: I get nervous when one company has such a dominating presence in the marketplace. Downpour has most of the standard features: access to your online library, a monthly subscription, the ability to buy additional credits, the ability to speed up playback, to sleep after a specified time, to apply bookmarks. One thing to note: for a long time, there was a bug in the app that caused it to stop playback when the phone went to sleep, IF you were playing back at any speed other than 1.0x. To my surprise this morning, I found that the app now functions correctly, at least when playing back at 1.5x on my iPhone 6s. That happens to be the speed I use most often to listen to audiobooks. Since there haven't been any app updates in the last few months, I wonder if the problem was somehow fixed by a recent upgrade to iOS. If this remains fixed after using the app for a few weeks, I will up my rating to 5 stars. As others have noted, one advantage of Downpour is that the audiobooks are DRM-free. It gives a little extra peace of mind - if the service goes away, you won't lose your investment.

Sync and bookmarks don't work!

Overjoyedgirl

I hate losing my place every time I open this app. I try to circumvent that by bookmarking but that only works about 1% of the time.

App No Longer Works

Retrotopolis

Crashes on login. Deleting and reinstalling does nothing.

Constantly losing my place

Bizarrenate

This app is just terrible. I pause my book then hit play 5 minutes later and it starts playing 5 chapters back and then I have no clue where I was. I use this app at work hitting pause and play via headphone remote. Highly not recommended. 5 stars if this problem ever gets fixed, otherwise I'm unsubscribed.

Does not play continuously

ActLikeALocal

Using for more than 6 months now. Books stop frequently mid-chapter requiring the user to navigate back to the app and push play. Playback stops multiple times during a 30 min listening period. You can not purchase audio books through the app.

Keeping track

Kmmisegades

I keep a pen and 3x5 card close by so I can note my place each time I stop because the app doesn't sync accurately nor keep bookmarks. There is no excuse for this flaw.

Barely competent audiobook player

Steve Davidson

Although it does a decent job of managing files, the playback user interface is a real disappointment. For example speed control is buried in the settings (not accessible from the player), on the lock screen the advance-reverse 15 seconds buttons are missing (the only movement buttons are skip to beginning or to the end of the entire chapter), and the app often looses place (sometimes using an external process to resync -- a new addition). Given this, I have to conclude that the publisher doesn't really care about the quality of this app. That's sad because they are in the business of producing and selling audiobooks, and the quality of this app materially determines whether or not I (for one) will buy from them in the future -- which is unlikely at this point (given the state of the app).

Really bad app

Ratman_42

I love blackstone audio but their app is pretty terrible. It crashes constantly. It looses its place in the book every time I pause. I have to take screen shot before I pause the app so I can find my place again. It wipes books that have been downloaded and then they are inaccessible. Just really a bad app.

Better than Audible!

evforija

As promised, Downpour just released their new app for iOS 11. It’s totally functional and you can now shop and buy items and view your wishlist. They have a great selection and prices are much much lower than Audible. Every time I’ve contacted customer service they get back to me quickly. If you’re looking for a less expensive, more independent alternative to Audible, this is it!

Observations

Curucahm

While I like that the new app updates my library almost immediately. Since I'm not a subscriber I can't purchase books through the app as it only seems to want to use credits. I'm not fond of the new interface, you've shrunken my sorting options to title and most recent and replaced everything with a Hyde icon. Really it doesn't need to be flashy it just data and columns I just be able to list it in text and sort by author/title or author/series, date purchased, whatever. I'm also not liking the management. I don't like the idea of having to mark something as finished. Really what's the point in that. I want to be able to delete a book whether it's finished or not. I'm not sure that it is actually deleting the book locally even when I mark it as finished. Downloading seems to be funkier and less reliable with the new app. It says that it's downloaded things completely but there are way too many times I've received an invalid file error, and had to re download the next 10 tracks. It's really annoying when this happens and I'm driving. Also the addition of DRM books is disturbing. I would prefer it that you keep downpour DRM free.

Downpour.com Reviews – Page 7