Your child can listen to a few of their own books one after another, with the screen almost dark. How many books play without anyone touching the screen is your choice. It starts at "Just the one, then ask": one book plays, then the story stops and asks whether to carry on.
Where your child finds it
On your child's home screen, the "Listen" tile opens a page that asks "What shall we listen to?". It lists your child's own books that have a recorded voice on every page, so the tile only appears once at least one book has one. Books for ages 2 to 7 get a recorded voice when they are made, and a chapter book can be given one with Have it read aloud.
- Your child taps the covers of the books they want. Each one shows a number, in the order it was tapped. Tapping a cover again takes it out.
- They press "Listen".
- Or, when it is there, they press "Quiet one before bed". It plays the same books and always ends with the sleep timer: yours if you set "Stop reading aloud after, in minutes", or 20 minutes if you did not.
"Quiet one before bed" is meant to appear during the bedtime you set. At the moment it goes by our own clock rather than the one on your child's device, so it may appear some hours earlier or later than your bedtime.
One go holds up to five books. If your child taps more than five, the first five they tapped are the ones that play.
The listening screen is nearly black, with three large buttons: "The page before", play or pause, and "The next page". "Finish", at the top, ends listening and goes back to the home screen. There is no progress bar, no time left and no count of books.
Books that can play in a row
You set this for each child: go to Readers, choose your child, open "Settings", and find "Books that can play in a row" in the card called "Listening and Pip". Press "Save" when you have chosen.
| Choice | What happens when a book ends |
|---|---|
| "Just the one, then ask" | The story stops after the first book and asks |
| "One more" | One more book plays by itself, then it asks |
| "Two more" | Two more books play by themselves, then it asks |
| "Three more" | Three more books play by themselves, then it asks |
| "Five more" | Up to five more books play by themselves; since a go holds at most five books, the whole go plays through |
When it stops, the screen says "Another one?" with two buttons, "Yes please" and "All done". Nothing plays behind the question, so a child who has fallen asleep gets silence. At the end of the last book, Pip says goodnight on the screen and there is only "All done".
The count starts again when your child presses "Yes please" or the next-page button, and the books that can play in a row are counted from there. Your child cannot change the number, and nothing on their screens offers to.
"Stop reading aloud after, in minutes", on your child's Safety page, also applies here: when that time is up, listening ends. See Time limits and bedtime.
At the end of a single book
Outside listening, a book never opens another book by itself.
- Reading with "Read to me". The voice reads the page your child is on. On the last page, your child presses "Finish" to reach the questions and the end screen.
- "Just listen" inside a book. The book plays through with the screen dark and stops at the last page. It does not move on to the questions or to another book.
- The end screen. It offers "Read it again", "Read it to someone", "Make another" and "Your books", and sometimes one suggestion for next time with "Not now" beside it. Every one of these waits for a tap.
If the Listen tile is missing
The tile only shows when your child has at least one book with a recorded voice on every page. We can also switch listening off for a while; when it is off, the tile and the "Just listen" button are not shown, and books can still be read aloud page by page.
If listening does not behave as described here, ask us from Help in your dashboard.