Why I Love the Libby App from Overdrive
Have you tried out the Libby app? It’s a library app for ebooks and audiobooks made by Overdrive and it’s so simple and fun to use (plus it’s free!). Give Libby by Overdrive a spin and enjoy all the free audiobooks and ebooks your library has to offer, right from your phone!
I started using Overdrive to listen to audiobooks on my phone from my library a decade ago, and it’s was one of my most used apps for years.
If you’re new to Overdrive, basically it’s a program that libraries can buy a subscription for to let their patrons download ebooks and audiobooks at home from their phones, tablets, or computers.
I wrote a whole post about how to use it here and I recommended it all the time.
Then, a few years ago, Overdrive released a new app called Libby.
I was curious, of course, about the Libby app and immediately downloaded it.
And I never went back to Overdrive (good news for me, because eventually Overdrive shelved the Overdrive app and moved entirely to the Libby app).
I personally find the Libby app to be SO much user-friendly and streamlined, and I think it’s much better than the Overdrive app ever was.
The Libby app reviews are through the roof, so I know I’m not the only one who loves this app (it has about 84,000 reviews averaging 4.7).
Here’s why I love the Libby app:
- You can easily switch between library cards and libraries. This is the number one reason I love the Libby library app with all my heart. I added all my libraries (I belong to several, because we’ve moved so much) and then I could add multiple cards for each library. For instance, here in Arizona, I have a card for me, plus a card for each of my two big girls, and if I go to check something out and one of my cards is full, it just shows me my other cards right there and I can toggle in half a second to the other one. No logging in and out. It’s seriously the best thing ever.
- It doesn’t log you out. Overdrive DOES log you out and this made me nuts because my phone wouldn’t always save my library card numbers and then I’d have to go grab my cards from my wallet and re-enter them fairly frequently. Libby hasn’t logged me out of any of my cards in the year I’ve been using it. So much teeth-grinding avoided right there.
- You can send Kindle ebooks right to your Kindle. This is so handy when I check out eBooks on Libby and I just click to send it right to my Kindle (it also shows up on my Kindle app on my phone).
- When a book comes up on hold, it automatically is added to your shelf. This was so irritating to me on the Overdrive app because once I got the email notification that my hold was available, I had to log-in (crossing my fingers that I’d picked the right card on the first try – which happened never), and then add the book to my bookshelf. Now, when a book comes up on hold, no matter what library it’s coming from or which card I used to place the hold, it shows right up on my shelf.
- You can easily see your prior Libby activity. This means I can quickly see which books I’ve checked out in the past and re-place holds on ones I didn’t finish or get to.
- You can see how long the hold lines are. Every book, whether you’re just browsing or you’ve already placed a hold, shows you not only how long the hold lines are but how long you can expect to wait for your turn to come up, whether that’s three weeks or six months.
- Every book shows you if it’s available in another format. If I’m looking at an e-book, toward the bottom of the description, it’ll show me if my library has it as an audiobook as well. I love this feature.
- You can read or listen to a sample of any title without downloading anything or having it open in a new window. The sample is just right there in the app, ready for you.
- You can set it to automatically download your items or only download when you ask it to. Because I share my cards with my girls, I don’t necessarily want 300 Boxcar Children audiobooks automatically downloading to my phone, so I’ve set it to just download when I choose. It’s one click and then I have my books, without having to clog up my phone with their books!
- You can choose to stream if you’re on wi-fi instead of downloading. For all those people who’ve asked me about their audiobooks taking up too much space, this is for you! I haven’t personally had any problem with them taking up too much space on my phone, but it’s nice to have the option to just stream instead of downloading.
What doesn’t the Libby app have?
- It currently doesn’t have a wish list feature like Overdrive did. Although you can use tags to basically make your own wish list, so I don’t really miss it. And word is that a wish list feature is coming.
- It isn’t compatible with all devices.
- You can’t yet request that your library buy a book for their Overdrive collection. This is my only real complaint about the Libby app, but they promise it’s coming soon.
A couple of questions about using Libby by Overdrive:
- Is there any reason to use both the Libby and Overdrive apps? You can’t anymore because the Overdrive app is no longer available.
- If you check something out on Overdrive, is it also checked out on Libby (and vica versa)? Yes! So I can see everything my girls have checked out whenever I log into Libby, which I like.
- Can I try out the Libby app without downloading it? Yes! You absolutely can which I think is so fun. Give it a spin on their page here – it’s a ridiculously powerful demo and is JUST like using it on your phone.
I know people miss the Overdrive app (because change is hard for all of us!), but when I compare the Overdrive app and the Libby app, the Overdrive app felt to me like it was built for a desktop and then was kind of wedged into app format.
The Libby app, on the other hand, feels designed especially for use on phones and it’s just so smooth, streamlined and WAY user friendly.
If you haven’t tried it out, I highly recommend you give it a spin! It’s so clean and easy (and free).
And if you have other questions about either Overdrive or Libby, please ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer!
I have used the Overdrive App for years and love it…Recently, I got a new phone and needed to re-download my apps – when I went to download Overdrive, there was a note about it no longer going to be supported and to use Libby instead, so I just went ahead and downloaded Libby. I haven’t used it yet because I have to renew my library card first (we have to renew every 2 years), so once I renew my card, I should be able to jump on and use Libby. Thanks for the post comparing the two.
I do love the Libby app as well however, I feel there is one downside that was not mentioned in the article. Libby needs internet access to continually play the audiobook. This is usually not a problem for most of us until one hits the road for vacation hoping to listen to audiobooks on the long car ride. This became apparent to our family when we took a road trip and tried listening to an audiobook on Libby only to have it cut out on us every time our cell coverage was limited or nonexistent. However, we did find a solution to that which is another app, similar to Libby, called Hoopla. When listening to audiobooks on Hoopla, the book can be downloaded beforehand, and then we never had our book cut out on us throughout our trip. Just thought it is something to note as we often don’t think about these things until we are on the road trip and lose our audiobook mid-sentence.
Happily, that’s not true. On your bookshelf in Libby, just click the little cloud with a downward arrow in the top left corner next to your book title and it’ll download it to your device so you can listen to it offline!
I love Libby… I need to figure out though – I use Libby in my car but I use Overdrive when I get to work & they’re not synced where I left off going between the two. Does Libby have an online site?I need to look
I have switched from Overdrive to Libby and mostly I like it better. My only issus is that often when I am finished listening-arriving at my destination or I have the cleaning done-I will stop it and bookmark it. Then when I go back to start listening, I find that it has been running on its own and I am ahead a few pages or chapters. I have learned to always book mark my place but why does it do that. Is there something I am doing that causes it to continued on. It is my only concern.
I’m finally used to Libby, but after using Overdrive for so long, I still prefer Overdrive because of the things I CAN’T do with Libby.
Like you, I wish I could request my library to purchase books – a MAJOR irritation with Libby.
I recently discovered another thing I don’t like. I too have cards from two different libraries. I was at my holds limit at one library, but not even close at tried other. I wanted to put a book on hold, but of course I couldn’t at the one library, obviously, but its wait time for a hold on that book was shorter than it was at the OTHER library. I tried to place a hold at the other library, but Libby WOULD NOT ALLOW IT, because it said the wait time was shorter at the library where I couldn’t place a hold. So…YOU CAN’T CHOOSE which library to use in that case. Boy, was I ever MAD. And I still am.
I have long used Overdrive with an Ipod nano. I do not have a phone that has apps. Due to forcing Libby I will not be able to access books as I have been for years. I can not carry my computer with me, much of my use of Overdrive was on the go. Not being able too make recommendations to the library is a nuisance, but not being able to use the service except when tide to my computer is is ridiculously bad for me. I really can not see any reasonable justification other than to be able to collect data more data, the data they couldn’t get, from the overdrive app users. Are you aware of why this change is being forced?
The people writing the reviews are clearly using a different app to the Libby that I downloaded. My library forced me to dump Overdrive, which was working just fine, and install Libby. I would classify it as “User Hostile” software and one of the clunkiest apps on my phone. Features I lost when I had to switch to Libby included the ability to bookmark a page, delete a book I’ve read from the wish list — even find the Wish List button easily!
I can’t change the font to sans serif, which I preferred in Overdrive and have to navigate to the phone’s settings to adjust the brightness, then re-adjust when I’ve stopped reading.
Why do so many people “love” an app that I am frustrated by daily?
Just to update since you’ve written this post, Libby does have a “notify me” feature for books it does not have – if you don’t find it in the search, select “deep search” and then select notify me. I think this also acts as a recommendation feature for the library. It’s not as great as the overdrive “pre-hold” option and its search is less advanced than overdrive, but at least it’s something.
If/when a book comes in, you will get an alert to put it on hold. I think this may happen before it is shown on the “what’s new” section so you get a bit of a jump on the hold.