How do you highlight an audiobook on iPhone?
Play the book in Excerpt and tap the highlighter at the right-hand end of the player controls. The last 30 seconds you heard are saved as a highlight and transcribed into text on your iPhone, while the book carries on playing. You can also take one from the Lock Screen, your headphones, the Action button, your Apple Watch or Siri, without opening the app.
The steps
- Add a book. Import an m4b or mp3 file, or a zip of chapter tracks. Or connect your Audiobookshelf server, or search LibriVox from inside the app.
- Play it, and tap the highlighter. The new highlight appears immediately, and its text is filled in once it has been transcribed. The first transcription takes longer, as the model has to be prepared on the device first.
- Trim the audio. Tap the highlight to open Edit Highlight. Move to the first word you want to keep and tap Set Start, then to the last word and tap Set End. Tap Transcribe to update the text.
- Correct the text. Edit the transcript like any other text field, for example to fix a name. With the book’s epub linked, Realign replaces the text with the wording from the book, and Show in EPUB opens the passage in context.
- Archive it when you are done. Archiving moves the highlight out of the Fresh list, and sends it to Readwise if you have connected it.
Limits
- Audiobooks protected with DRM cannot be imported: no Audible downloads, and most Libby loans stay locked to their own apps.
- A highlight keeps 30 seconds by default. Highlight Length in Settings sets it from 5 to 90 seconds.
- Transcription runs on the phone, so highlights are transcribed one after another and a new one can wait a short time before its text appears.
- Excerpt is free, with no account. Premium is an optional yearly subscription that links an ebook to every book rather than one, and adds Whisper transcription models, Suggested Highlights and AI clean-up of transcripts.
Common questions
Does the book stop when I take a highlight?
No. Excerpt saves the part you have just heard and starts transcribing it, while the book carries on playing. Take one, then another.
Can I take a highlight without opening the app?
Yes. Tap Take Highlight on the Lock Screen or in the Dynamic Island, triple-press your headphones, press the Action button, tap the highlighter on your Apple Watch, or say “Take highlight in Excerpt” to Siri.
Do I need the ebook?
No. Excerpt highlights the audio on its own, using transcription on the phone. Linking the book’s epub replaces each transcription with the author’s exact words, and adds Read Along and highlights made by selecting text on the page.
Can I highlight my Audible books?
Not directly. Audible downloads and most Libby loans are protected with DRM and cannot be imported. Excerpt plays m4b and mp3 files, a zip of chapter tracks, an Audiobookshelf server, and LibriVox.
Where do my highlights go?
Every highlight from every book is searchable in the Vault, on your device. Archive a highlight and it goes to Readwise, sync one note per book to Obsidian, or export a book’s highlights as Markdown, HTML, CSV or JSON.
Read more
- Create and Edit a Highlight: trim, correct, check the ebook match, archive.
- Take a Highlight from the Lock Screen: hands-free from the Lock Screen, the Dynamic Island and headphones.
- Align an EPUB with Your Audiobook: highlights in the author’s exact words.
- Find Audiobooks for Excerpt: every source, and the DRM limits.
Keep what you hear.
Excerpt is free on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
