Kiku

聞く · Podcasts and audiobooks from Audiobookshelf

Kiku plays the podcasts and audiobooks on your own Audiobookshelf server. With Kaku running, each episode comes with a transcript that follows along line by line: tap any word to look it up and send it to Anki with the line’s audio. When your hands are busy, mark the moment with your AirPods and mine it later.

What you need

• An Audiobookshelf server, version 2.26.0 or later.
• Kaku for transcripts. Without it, episodes still play, just without their text.
• Optional, for mining: Anki with AnkiConnect. See Lookup and Anki.

Connecting Audiobookshelf

The first time you open Kiku, setup asks for your server address (for example https://audiobookshelf.example.com) and lets you sign in with your Password or an API Key from Audiobookshelf. Then it shows your libraries and asks which ones are Japanese. Setup also offers Kaku as a recommended extra. Getting started covers the rest.

Later, the server is in Settings → Audiobookshelf, Kaku in Settings → Transcripts, and the libraries in Settings → Libraries. Turn off a library you don’t listen to in Japanese.

Listening

Kiku has four tabs: Listen, Marks, Stats and Settings.

• Listen starts with Today: your listening time today and your streak (tap it for Stats). Below it are Continue Listening, your Downloaded episodes and New Episodes from your shows, with a link to the whole Library (filter it by All, Podcasts, Audiobooks or Downloaded). Search finds shows, books and episodes.
• A show’s page lists its episodes (All, Unplayed or Downloaded), with Play Latest or Resume.
• A book’s page shows the author and narrator, its chapters, and Play or Resume. Kiku plays audiobooks that are a single file; a book split into several files says so on its page.
• If Audiobookshelf can’t be reached, the library from the last time it loaded still shows, and downloaded episodes play.

The player

The player shows the transcript, with the line being spoken highlighted and kept in view.

• The buttons either side of play jump to the previous or next line (or skip by seconds when there’s no transcript). The speed button is beside them.
• Tap a line’s time to play from there. Scrolling the transcript yourself stops following; Back to Now picks it up again.
• The speech-bubble button hides the transcript and shows the artwork, with the current line small underneath; tap that line to bring the transcript back. Kiku remembers your choice.
• The ⋯ menu has the Sleep Timer (15 to 60 minutes, or End of Episode), Share, Stop Playing, and for books Chapters, Previous Chapter and Next Chapter.

Kiku shows on the Lock Screen and in Control Center. Their skip buttons (and your AirPods’ or car’s) jump by the intervals you set in Settings → Playback: 10 to 60 seconds back and forward.

Transcripts from Kaku

When you open an episode, Kiku asks Kaku for its transcript. If Kaku has it, it appears at once. If Kaku is still working, the player shows how far along it is, or your place in Kaku’s queue, and opening the episode moves it up. Transcripts you’ve played or downloaded are saved on your device, so they work offline.

Looking words up

Tap any word in the transcript. Playback pauses, and a sheet shows the line (with a button to hear its clip) above the dictionary popup. Close it and playback carries on. A card mined here gets:

• the line as the sentence,
• the line’s audio clip (cut on your device for downloaded episodes, or by Kaku while streaming),
• the episode’s cover as the picture,
• the show, episode and time.

Marks

Sometimes you hear something you want to mine but can’t stop to look. Mark it, and come back later. Kiku saves where you were in the episode; nothing is recorded.

Ways to mark:

• The bookmark button in the player.
• Triple-press your AirPods (the previous-track command, so a car’s previous-track button works too). A short chime confirms it, since you’re not looking.
• The Mark What I Just Heard action in the Shortcuts app. Put it on the Action Button, Back Tap or a Siri phrase of your own: it marks whatever Kiku is playing without opening the app, and answers “Marked 13:21”.

(A double press of your AirPods goes to the next line, as in Miru.)

The Marks tab lists your marks by episode. Each one plays the 15 seconds before the mark and shows the line it’s likely about, with one line either side. Tap a word to look it up and mine that line just as in the player. A mined mark shows what you mined for a day and then goes away; Clear removes one you don’t need. If an episode’s transcript isn’t ready yet, its marks say Transcribing and fill in when Kaku finishes.

The search at the top of Marks looks through your marks and the transcripts of every episode you’ve played, on your device, so it works offline too.

Read in Yomu

If Yomu has the same book paired for read-along, Read in Yomu (on the book’s page, and in the player’s ⋯ menu) pauses Kiku, saves your place, and opens the book in Yomu at the sentence you were listening to. Yomu tells you if that book isn’t paired yet.

Downloads

Download an episode or a book from its page to listen offline. The audio, cover and transcript all come along. Downloads wait for Wi-Fi unless Download over Cellular is on in Settings → Downloads; nothing downloads unless you ask. Settings → Storage lists what’s on the device by show, and the saved transcripts.

Progress sync

Your place is saved on the device and sent to Audiobookshelf every 15 seconds while playing, and when you pause, so the Audiobookshelf web app and other players stay in step. Kiku resumes from whichever is newer, your device or the server. Progress made offline is sent later.

Stats

The Stats tab shows your listening time by week, month or all time (only real playback counts, not seeking), along with lookups, cards mined and your streak. Your kechimochi log can show there too (Settings → Stats).

Settings

• Listening: Audiobookshelf, Libraries, Transcripts (Kaku), Playback (Lock Screen skip intervals) and Downloads.
• Lookup and Mining: dictionaries, word audio sources and Anki. See Lookup and Anki.
• Stats: the kechimochi address.
• Storage, Advanced (sharing the setup with your other apps, things waiting to sync, Run Setup Again, Export Logs) and About.