Features & Capabilities

BARD Mobile brings a portable library to your pocket. Access tens of thousands of titles—from best sellers to classics, magazines, and music scores—in audio and electronic braille, with new selections added daily.

BARD Mobile is a service of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) at the Library of Congress. Eligible users include US residents and American citizens abroad who cannot read regular print. To enroll, call 1-888-NLS-READ (1-888-657-7323) or visit loc.gov/thatallmayread; existing NLS patrons can request a BARD account through their local library. For support, guides, and FAQs, visit loc.gov/nls/braille-audio-reading-materials/bard-access/bard-mobile-ios-version/

User Growth & Download Statistics

By:
Library Of Congress
Rating:
3.80
(179)
1 ratings
Version:
2.2.5 Last updated: 2025-11-19
Version code:
879879722
Creation date:
2013-09-19
Compatible devices:
Size:
20.94MB
URLs:
Privacy policy
Full description:
See detailed description
Source:
Apple Apps Store
Data ingested on:
2026-06-07
Compare stats and ranking:

Ranking

Other platforms

Android
BARD Mobile (v2.1.0)
237,737 4.07 (938)

Contact the developer

Chrome-Stats does not own this Apple app. Please use these information below to contact the Apple app developer.
Developed by:
Library Of Congress
Apple Apps Store
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bard-mobile/id705229586

User Reviews

BARD Mobile is valued for its large title catalog, accessibility for blind/VI users, and offline downloads, plus ease of use. However, users report recurring login/authentication problems, downloads stuck in queue, and accessibility issues with VoiceOver and braille displays, particularly after iOS updates. Stability and cross-device syncing issues also detract from the experience and navigation challenges persist for search/browse tasks.
Pros
  • Large catalog of books with a vast selection of titles
  • Accessibility-focused design for blind/visually impaired users, including human narration
  • Offline access via downloading books for later listening
  • User-friendly, easy-to-use interface
Cons
  • Frequent login/authentication issues (account suspensions, password resets, cross-device login problems)
  • Download queue problems where items stay queued or fail to download
  • VoiceOver and braille accessibility issues, especially after updates (iOS 26) with navigation and braille displays
  • Stability and compatibility problems (crashes on launch, unreliable syncing, iOS compatibility)
Recent reviews
An older version of Bard used to show the genre and narrator on new books added and on searches. Now we see the title and author. I want to be able to see and search by genre and narrator. It’s very frustrating to wade through hundreds or thousands of titles hoping to find something suitable. Remember, we can’t see well. Please consider adding back genre and narrator. Publication year would be nice too. Surely this info is already part of the metadata, and it would make the app much more useful and user friendly.
by Ma*****, 2026-03-19

I have a question about this is there any possible way that when you update the app you can fix a search problem for like when you search for a book you want and as you’re going through the list of books after you click search as your swipe in your finger through all of the books if you get it, incoming phone call and then when you hang up, is it possible to fix it to where it can stay where you left off instead of having to research all over again because when you get an incoming phone call, it seems like it just goes back to the main search page and you lost all your listing of books that you can swipe through after searching now about the DA two player, I love it a lot. I really do. I love the fact that you can download books from the site. or still use cartridges but I was wondering if it’s possible if another software for the machine will be released maybe another new update keep up the good work, I enjoy it a lot if it’s possible, even if it’s not, that’s no big deal. I still love it but if it’s possible within the next software release update if there would be like a feature that were, we can actually create an ad to favorites list. I know you have the bookshelf button on the player and that’s good too but what I’m getting at is like when you get so many books inside the player if there’s a way that you can actually favor a book like maybe hold one of the buttons down to enter favorites list or something like that I know it’s gonna take time but I’m just making a suggestion for a new feature and I don’t know how to contact and make a suggestions directly on the web so I’m actually putting this in my review here on the App Store and since we already have a bookshelf button on the DA two player, I was suggesting maybe the place stop button having a new feature like how you hold it in to enter the book bookshelf that way, cause there’s two different ways to enter the bookshelf, but if it would be possible and then after you get it all figured out maybe put that little section inside your user‘s God because we have a regular bookshelf button so it would be neat to actually take and hold down on the plane and stop button and it’ll enter like some kind of maybe favorites list you can go through your favorite books without scrolling through them all I meant to say play stop button sorry for the misspelling or whatever I’m using dictation so NLS thank you I really appreciate you guys, but if it is kind of possible, that would be a real neat feature because like I was saying, we do have the bookshelf button on the player so if you can change the play stop button into like some kind of favorites. We would all have to figure that out and I don’t know how you guys would put that effort into it, but that would be a great neat little feature. Thank you guys. I mean, I get it you give us two different ways to enter the bookshelf. One is to hit the bookshelf button directly. The other is to hold down on place stop but I would suggest you maybe take place stop and hold it down to go through your favorites list had the voice prompt say entering flavors list and then you use your right left arrow to scroll through your favorite books and click click play on the book that you want or when you hit the bookshelf button as your list of books come up and it tells you the name of that book have it come on after it’s done telling you the name of the book and how long it is and everything have it come on and say add to favorites list hit info to confirm or any other key to cancel thumbs up NLS thank you guys if there’s anyway you can maybe reply to my review and say well yeah that would be possible or no. We don’t think it’d be possible but either way I still love it. I love the app. I love the book player machine, but I was just making a suggestion. Hopefully, you can read this review because that would definitely definitely be a five star feature that would be great. i’m gonna go ahead and end my review hopefully to hear from you guys soon. Thank you guys again. thank you, Library of Congress for bringing talking books and services for The Blind and visually impaired.
by t *****, 2026-02-21

Since the last update, Bard is impossible to navigate with SiRI and with VoiceOver. In the main catalog of the Music Library: 1. I cannot search or select for titles and download them. 2. I’m unable to retrieve previous downloads because of lag time with voiceover. And the titles are no longer in alphabetical order or chronological order by date. 3. I’m unable to work with the Bookshelf List for the same reasons. What happened?
by Fo*****, 2026-01-19
View all user reviews ›

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