Every Lectern update, newest first: what changed, and what you actually notice while reading. Lectern is updated regularly and every release ships through Google Play.
1.31.0
Highlights that follow the text across paragraphs and into tables, Justify that works in every book, and one Kokoro voice pack.
Highlights can run past the end of a paragraph: drag from one paragraph into the next and it stays one highlight in your list, your export and on your other devices
Highlights now work inside tables, and a selection can run from a paragraph into a table
Bookmarks bring you back to the exact page, also in the middle of a paragraph that spans several pages
Justify now justifies every book. Many books quietly switched it off with their own stylesheet. Headings follow your alignment choice, and centred lines no longer get a first-line indent
Kokoro is now a single voice pack of about 349 MB. The smaller one turned out to be slower and to sound worse. A short note explains once that Kokoro is made for fast phones
Moving an older Kokoro download to the new pack asks first when you are on mobile data
Reading aloud resumes in the middle of the sentence you paused on
Comics show a cover for every format, and WebP, AVIF, HEIF and BMP pages open
Your reading position can no longer be overwritten by another device without the sync asking you first
Import and export messages count correctly, and the Kindle import says why highlights were skipped
A 99% reading position no longer marks a book as finished on its own
1.30.0
Publisher sidebars and callouts that look the way the book intended, audio settings that only show what your voice can do, and readable names for the voices on your phone.
Publisher sidebars, callouts and margin icons now look as intended: sidebars read as boxed-off asides instead of body text, margin icons keep their own size, and a book that sets a white background no longer leaves a pale band behind the text
Audio settings only show the controls your current voice can actually use
Kokoro is matched to what your phone can really run, and the system voices already on your phone have readable names instead of raw codes
The welcome tour no longer ends if you cancel the folder picker
1.29.0
Voices that read every language with its own pronunciation, every speech engine you installed yourself, and your saved words as a list you can take with you.
Offline voices now read each language with its own pronunciation. Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese no longer sound like an English voice reading foreign words
The voice list shows the voices of every speech engine on your phone, not only the one Android has set as the default, with the engine named above each group
A play button next to every voice, because a name like en-us-x-iob-local tells you nothing about how it sounds
Voices that were offered but not installed are gone from the list, and each voice appears once instead of twice
Export your saved words as a list, ready for Anki, Quizlet or a spreadsheet
Hyphenation is on by default again, so justified text reads without white rivers. A book that does not name its language is left unhyphenated, because the rules differ per language
1.28.1
Kokoro voices can be downloaded again.
Downloading a Kokoro voice works again. The voice files had been replaced on the server, which made every Kokoro download fail before it even started
Kokoro voices you had already installed stay exactly where they are
1.28.0
Books straight from your computer over Wi-Fi, and a backup that carries your whole setup.
Send books from your computer over Wi-Fi: your phone shows an address and a six-digit code, and nothing leaves your own network
A backup now carries your settings, your voice choice and your catalogs, so a new phone feels like your old one
Restoring asks what to bring over, so pointing at the wrong file can no longer overwrite your setup
A title or author you corrected by hand survives a rescan
Removing a folder no longer removes your books: they move to Hidden books, with progress and highlights intact
1.27.0
A first run that gets you reading, and a voice that fits your phone.
Lectern now opens with a welcome and a short setup instead of an empty shelf
Pick your theme on a real page of text, so you see what you are choosing rather than a colour swatch
No e-books on your phone yet? Grab a free classic from Project Gutenberg without leaving the welcome flow
Once you have a book, Lectern offers the natural offline voice your device can actually run, over Wi-Fi
The folder picker now opens where your books usually are instead of dropping you in Recents
1.26.0
A calmer shelf, two new light themes, and progress where you look for it.
The cover carries the status now: format, rating, audio and a set-aside book all sit as small badges on the artwork
Below the card there is only identity left: title, author, and the series or collection behind it on the same line
A book without a cover shows one large muted initial instead of its title twice, so it no longer reads as half loaded
Roomier spacing, slightly narrower covers and a compact search pill that lines up with them
A finished book gets a check instead of a full bar with 100%
Paper: a crisp neutral white theme with maximum contrast, for reading in daylight
Mist: a cool blue-grey theme, for when warm parchment is too yellow and pure white too harsh
Both are available as an app theme and as a reading theme
Reading progress now sits right under the cover instead of dangling below the title
1.25.2
Very long plain-text books stay readable — and Listen no longer stalls on them.
A .txt without blank lines is split into readable sections instead of one endless block
Restoring a book from Hidden books now sticks instead of quietly disappearing again
Listen no longer freezes on such a book
A dictionary whose file uses a three-letter language code (eng, nld) now works
Playback no longer crashes when it starts in the background
One copy-protected book is now described as one, and a damaged file gets a clearer message
1.25.0
The dictionary you import is now the one you actually see.
An imported dictionary is used for every word it knows, instead of being quietly overruled by the built-in one
Books tagged en-GB or en-US get definitions again
A dictionary now lands under its own language, so one per language can sit side by side
Importing a large dictionary shows that it is working instead of looking frozen
A new guide explains the file format and how to convert a public-domain dictionary
1.24.2
Copy-protected books now explain themselves.
Kindle, Kobo and Google Play books use DRM and cannot be opened by any third-party reader — Lectern now says so in your language and points you to them
Refresh no longer silently does nothing while a scan is running
1.24.1
The Indonesian voice can actually be chosen now.
Indonesian is a book language too, so the Indonesian offline voice can be picked for a book
Updated the on-device speech engine to its latest release
1.24.0
Choose what each library folder contributes.
Choose per folder whether it contributes books, PDFs or comics
Switch a kind off and those books step aside; switch it back on and they return, highlights and progress intact
Filter your shelf by format, next to status, rating and language
Kobo .kepub files and .cbt comics are picked up and open like any other book
Lectern speaks Indonesian, interface and offline voice
Removing a library folder no longer leaves its books behind on your shelf
1.23.4
Twelve voices added, one taken out.
Twelve new offline voices, including the first Piper voices for Hindi and Chinese
More choice in Arabic, Portuguese, Swedish and British English
Offline voices no longer mumble at the end of a line, and a sentence trailing off with an ellipsis is read as one thought
Fewer odd pauses mid-sentence: a break now lands on a real comma or clause
1.23.3
The offline voice no longer mumbles at the end of a line.
Curly quotes, ellipses and dashes are now spoken the way each voice actually understands them, instead of being handed characters it cannot read
Most noticeable in dialogue-heavy books, where nearly every line ends in a quotation mark
1.23.2
Sentences that trail off, and dialogue, keep their words.
A sentence that trails off with an ellipsis is spoken as a whole thought instead of a two-word scrap
Fewer odd pauses mid-sentence: breaks now land on a real comma or clause, never inside a phrase
A line of dialogue keeps its opening quote with the words it belongs to
1.23.1
Long sentences are read in one breath again.
Long sentences are no longer chopped mid-phrase — the offline voices read them in one natural breath instead of pausing where no pause belongs
Chinese and Japanese sentences finally get sensible narration breaks
A hiccup in one sentence no longer skips the rest of the paragraph
Pausing mid-sentence resumes without losing words
1.23.0
Lectern measures whether a voice really keeps up on your phone.
Lectern measures whether a voice keeps up, and suggests a lighter one only when it does not
A warm phone no longer swaps your narrator behind your back
The quality rows show which model is really running
Playback controls no longer sit under Android's own buttons, and full screen returns after folding or unlocking
Voices use more of your phone's fast cores instead of a fixed four
A few voice messages were still English in Arabic, Hindi, Japanese and Chinese
1.22.4
Clearing out voices stays calm.
Deleting several voices in a row no longer closes the app
The offer to download a better voice comes back once you have none left
1.22.3
When a voice cannot start, Lectern says why.
No voice downloaded yet, none in your book's language, or a phone that is genuinely too warm: the reason is on screen, with a button to pick a voice
A voice only reads books it can actually speak, so a German voice no longer reads a Dutch book aloud
A pinned voice that is gone is mentioned instead of quietly swapped for another one
A book from a catalogue or the share sheet joins your sync like any other
A widget tile picks up a cover you swapped
1.22.2
A new cover shows up straight away, and a voice follows the book's own language.
A new cover appears immediately, in your library, the book sheet and the editor
Reading progress pulled in by sync appears right after a scan, instead of only after a restart
Your Better or Best voice choice sticks, and Lectern says so when it cannot switch
The book's own language decides how sentences are split, with the app language only as a fallback
1.22.1
The app language works on older Android, and widgets follow your theme.
Choosing an app language works again on Android 12 and older
Switching back from Arabic no longer leaves the screen mirrored
Home-screen widgets follow the app theme you picked, including Sepia, Midnight, OLED and e-ink
A theme change reaches the widget straight away
Lectern appears under Settings, Apps, Language on Android 13 and newer
1.22.0
Sync carries your reading comfort, and leaves the device to itself.
Letter and word spacing, the tint overlay, the focus mode, PDF night mode and reflow, the comic options and the reading theme now travel to your other device
Speed, pause and liveliness travel together, so read-aloud sounds the same on both
Voice choice and brightness stay on the device they belong to
Settings sync has its own switch, separate from progress and highlights
Receiving a sync no longer counts as a change you made
1.21.8
The voice quality switch works, and the narrator stays calm.
The quality switch actually applies, and says so when your phone cannot manage the heavier model
It shows the setting you saved instead of guessing, and offers a download for the side you do not have yet
A heads-up before the first play on high quality, with a one-tap way back to the lighter voice
Dialogue voices are off by default: the narrator no longer changes timbre halfway through a chapter
You can preview a voice while a book is playing
1.21.7
The library search field types what you type.
Typing quickly in the library search no longer drops or reorders letters
1.21.6
The heavy work moves off the drawing thread.
Filtering, sorting and grouping a large library no longer stalls the screen
Stats waits for its numbers instead of flashing an empty state first
Opening a book's details no longer recomputes the whole library
1.21.5
Lectern opens faster, and the shelf is there when you arrive.
A cold start is noticeably quicker, and the first page turns no longer stutter
The library shows placeholder tiles while it loads, instead of a choose-a-folder message
Your view, tips and banner preferences are right from the first frame instead of popping in
1.21.4
Catalogues get tidier, and self-hosted servers are easier to reach.
A self-hosted shortcut falls back from https to http once, so a server without a certificate still opens, login and all
Rows that hold nothing you can download no longer clutter a catalogue
Rename your own catalogues; the address and your login stay put
A headphone badge marks the books in a catalogue that come with narration
A book that fails to import is reported instead of quietly disappearing
1.21.3
Storyteller connects again, and the timers behave.
Storyteller catalogues connect over the newer format, and fall back to the old one
The sleep-timer and auto-scroll slips from 1.21 are fixed
1.21.2
You decide where the sleep timer cuts off.
Choose whether the timer stops at the end of the sentence, at the end of the chapter, or straight away
The timer in the book is set first and started after, so a stray tap no longer starts it
Auto-scroll comes to a stop at the end of a chapter
The sleep timer no longer catches you out mid-sentence
1.21.1
Searching your own server works again, and read-aloud picks up where it left off.
Searching a catalogue on your own server returns results again
A resumed sentence keeps its own highlight instead of marking the wrong one
The navigation label uses the right colour again
1.21.0
A polish round over everything 1.20 added.
The pinned chapter title takes the colour of the page instead of standing apart
Buttons and fields keep their distance from the system bars again
Placement and colour slips on the new catalogue screens are gone
1.20.0
Catalogues you can sign in to, and a cover to look at while you listen.
A listening view puts the cover on screen instead of text while a book is read aloud
Sign in to your own catalogue, with shortcuts for Calibre-Web and Storyteller
Search a catalogue, sort it, and see at a glance what you already have
The sleep timer leaves a bookmark at the last place you were awake
Continuous scrolling can stop at the end of a chapter, and jumping to a paragraph asks for a double tap
1.19.1
A tap on a widget lands in the right book.
Opening a second book from a widget no longer leaves you in the previous one when you press back
Widgets grow with their tile: taller means more books instead of empty space
Only the books you are actually reading appear
The progress shown on a widget is always up to date
1.19.0
Widgets for your home screen.
Continue reading: one tap opens your book exactly where you left off
Make the widget taller and it lists your recent books with their progress
A stats widget with your reading streak, today's reading time and the books you finished this year
A reading hub that puts both side by side, with nothing to set up
1.18.1
Read-aloud can no longer fail in silence.
A book can no longer race to finished without a word of audio: playback stops with a clear message when a voice or the audio output fails
A scanned PDF without a text layer says there is nothing to read aloud instead of hanging
Support for the 16 KB memory pages of the newest Android devices
1.18.0
Lively reading, carried by voices and pauses.
Expression now comes from dialogue voices and natural pauses; the artificial pitch shaping is gone, so narration always sounds as clean as it does in calm mode
English books: quotes with a clear he or she keep their matching male or female voice, switchable under Advanced
A trailing she told him is recognized as dialogue attribution too
1.17.2
Attributions that no longer sound like sentences.
In lively reading, short attributions like he said or she told him get the quick, thrown-away delivery a human narrator uses
1.17.1
Smoother honorifics.
No more unnatural pause after Mr. or Mrs. when it stands before a name in the middle of a sentence
1.17.0
Narration measured against real audiobook narrators.
Pauses calibrated against human audiobooks: more breath after paragraphs and long sentences
A scene break now gets a real pause instead of running straight on
English books: quotes with a clear he said or she said get a matching male or female voice, switchable under Advanced
Short questions no longer chirp, and paragraphs no longer start too high
1.16.1
Cleaner narration.
Fixes a subtle doubled colouring in 1.16.0: ordinary sentences use the untouched audio again
The heavier processing runs only where it matters, on questions and emphasized words, which is easier on the battery
1.16.0
Voices keep their own character.
Pitch shaping no longer changes how a voice sounds, most noticeably on male voices
Quotes are spoken with a livelier version of your narrator's voice, while the he said stays the narrator
Question intonation is back at full strength
Italic emphasis lands exactly on the word that carries it
1.15.0
Free books become part of your library.
A new + in the library: pick an ebook folder, or discover free books
Project Gutenberg with cover shelves, categories, search and endless scrolling — tap a book for its details, download it and open it straight into the reader
Two new catalogs: DBNL with about 7,000 Dutch classics, and Ebooks libres et gratuits with 3,200 French titles
Downloads keep running when you leave the screen, and the same book is no longer downloaded twice
Two read-aloud fixes: long sentences no longer sag downward, and the rise on a question no longer glides for seconds
1.14.0
Intonation inside the sentence.
A question rises on its final syllable instead of rushing the words before it
Sentences drift gently downward and their last words linger, the way a narrator lands a line
A single italic word gets its own accent instead of tilting the whole sentence
Fixed: words that suddenly sounded short or hurried, and a shrill tone on the lighter voices
1.13.0
Natural narration in every language, and room tone your way.
Dialogue marks in Chinese, Japanese, German and French are recognized, and Arabic and Hindi questions get their own melody
Italics and bold now audibly lean into the phrase
The faint room tone is quieter and continuous, with a new switch in the reader's audio settings to turn it off entirely
A gentler top end takes the synthetic edge off the voices on your device
1.12.0
The book's punctuation finally reaches the voice.
Ellipses and dashes are heard: a sentence trails off, an aside gets a lighter touch
Dialogue between quotation marks sounds a little lighter and quicker, with more air around it
A new chapter opens with a beat of air and a calmer first line
Pauses are no longer digital silence, and resuming mid-sentence no longer clicks
1.11.0
Narration styles, and read-aloud that breathes.
One row in the audio settings sets speed, pauses and expression together: Story, Brisk, Calm or Plain
Real pauses at dashes, colons and between sentences — about half a second, the way a human narrator reads
Questions genuinely rise at the end, and paragraphs no longer all start on the same note
New installs start with Story
1.10.1
Stopping read-aloud really stops it.
Pausing or closing the reader ends the narration right away instead of quietly keeping your device busy and warm
Switching between text-to-speech and a linked audiobook asks first, so a linked audiobook and your position in it can no longer disappear on a tap
A failed voice download can be retried instead of staying stuck on queued
An installed voice can no longer be lost when an update goes wrong
1.10.0
Read-aloud picks the right voice for every book.
Lectern chooses the best available voice on its own, based on the book's language and what your device can handle
Dates, numbers, abbreviations and pauses are spoken more naturally, with the highlighting staying in step
Names and unusual words can be corrected for one book or for everything you read
Voice downloads resume after an interruption, are checked for integrity and continue in the background
A replaced cover can be restored to the book's original one
1.9.6
The table of contents and chapter navigation were rebuilt.
Nested parts and subsections now appear in the contents list and jump to the exact section
Links inside a book open the right place instead of the top of the file
The contents list marks the section you are actually reading
PDFs show their outline and current section too
1.9.5
A crash when switching E-ink mode on and off is gone.
Toggling E-ink mode while reading no longer crashes the app
1.9.4
Performance and maintenance.
Lower memory use and a faster start
Covers found online are stored smaller, keeping the cover cache compact
1.9.3
PDF and FB2 polish.
PDF: tap the page to show or hide the reader controls
PDF: external links ask before leaving the app
FB2: numbered lists show 1. 2. 3. instead of bullets
1.9.2
Calmer reading and a tidier voice picker.
Publisher text colours that would be unreadable on dark or sepia fall back to the theme colour
The read-aloud voice picker is a centred dialog instead of a menu over the page
1.9.1
Read-aloud voices remember your choice.
"Auto" remembers your voice per language
Clearer voice names, and your pick sticks
Choose Kokoro quality, Light or High, when both are installed
Instant, fully offline app-language switching
1.9.0
A broad stability and rendering pass.
Sharper PDF text: headers and footnotes no longer swallow words
Better multilingual rendering for Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Hindi
Your reading position sticks inside long paragraphs
Smarter read-aloud voice routing and language detection
1.8.19
Small refinements and stability.
Quiet improvements under the hood
1.8.18
Clearer voice choice and better e-paper support.
Picking Piper or Kokoro without a downloaded voice opens the download sheet instead of quietly playing the system voice
Colour e-ink support, with a Grayscale or Colour screen-type choice
Flat, bordered surfaces and fewer motion artefacts on e-paper
1.8.17
E-ink polish and fuller stats.
Clearer text highlights and read-along tracking on e-paper
Screen-only controls are hidden on e-ink, where they do nothing
Comic and PDF reading counts toward your stats and reading time
1.8.15
E-ink mode and Italian.
New E-ink mode: crisp high-contrast black and white, auto-detected, one switch in Settings
Italian added; German, French and Dutch are now fully translated
1.8.14
Library filter fix.
Tapping "more of this author or series" clears active filters, so you see every matching book
1.8.13
Smarter library grouping.
Books in a series stay together
Tap an author or series to find more of them in your library
Authors, series and collections that differ only by capitals or spacing now merge
Optional auto-fill looks up missing titles, authors and covers
1.8.12
Footnotes, formats and audio polish.
Footnotes and cross-references open with a tap, including study Bibles
Verse numbers and note marks are no longer read aloud
"Open with Lectern" works for MOBI, AZW3, FB2 and comics
FB2 tables and lists render properly
1.8.11
Truer publisher formatting.
Bible verse numbers render as small superscripts instead of full-size text
Wider support for publisher stylesheets, so richly formatted books look closer to their design
1.8.10
The page keeps what the author put there.
Poems keep their line breaks instead of collapsing into one justified block
Scene breaks render as a gentle centred ornament instead of a bare grey line
1.8.9
Android 15 edge-to-edge, fully resolved.
Removed the last deprecated display API behind a Play Console warning; nothing changes visually
1.8.8
Android 15 ready.
Cleared a deprecated edge-to-edge display API flagged on Android 15
1.8.7
Kindle files, SVG and picture books.
Real-world Kindle files (AZW3) open with images and a real table of contents
SVG illustrations, inline SVG and SVG covers now show up
Children's fixed-layout books open as full-screen pages with pinch-zoom
DRM-protected EPUBs get a clear explanation instead of garbled text
1.8.6
A stability sweep of more than forty fixes.
A library rescan can no longer wipe a book's reading position, bookmarks and highlights
With sync on, a highlight deleted on one device stays deleted
PDF keeps your page when you switch between scroll and page view
The play button works again after an audiobook finishes
Calibre-Web downloads no longer overwrite each other
1.8.5
Read-along navigation and calmer tap zones.
Tapping text in any chapter jumps the narration there
Previous and next chapter buttons for audiobooks with several chapters
Tapping the page opens the menu by default; page-turn tap zones are off by default
1.8.4
Read-along restored.
EPUB3 read-along works again, and rendering is back on the intended path
Linking your own audiobook is a standard option instead of an experimental one
1.8.3
Audiobooks resume where you left off.
Linked audiobooks continue instead of restarting from the beginning
Removed the experimental on-device read-along for your own audio files; it could not reach reliable sync
1.8.2
A render fix for EPUBs with named entities.
Books that showed empty or one-word pages, no cover and a very late first chapter now render fully
Contents pages fill properly instead of putting one entry on each page
1.8.1
Audiobooks and read-along.
Read-along for EPUB3 books with built-in narration: the text highlights sentence by sentence, and you can tap any line to jump there
Adjustable playback speed, shared with read-aloud
Playback pauses for a call or when you unplug your headphones, then resumes
An audiobook filter and a headphones badge in the library
1.7.0
Chapter info under the progress bar.
A chapter line under the progress bar: page within the chapter, pages left, or off
1.6.1
Reader settings polish.
Reader settings reveal the page behind them, so no text is hidden while you adjust
Scroll inside a settings tab without the panel sliding shut
1.6.0
Reader settings redesigned.
Five focused tabs, Type, Display, Focus, Audio and Advanced, instead of one long list
The book itself is the preview: move a slider and watch your real text change
Preset name and Reset or Save sit permanently at the bottom
1.5.1
Settings preview polish.
The live typography preview stays pinned while you scroll the rest of the settings
1.5.0
Reading focus modes.
Dim the paragraphs you are not reading, a line band, auto-scroll, sentence focus and word-by-word Quick Read
A pacer at your own words per minute, for both scroll and page mode
A word-spacing slider and soft colour tints for visual stress
Live typography preview in the reader settings
1.4.2
Sync, covers and audio fixes.
Bookmarks and highlights trigger automatic sync
EPUB covers with spaces or brackets in the filename appear again
A failed audio sentence is skipped and playback continues
Faster book opening
1.4.1
Voice crash fix.
Fixed a crash the first time a Kokoro voice was played
1.4.0
Premium voices, now multilingual.
Kokoro v1.0 with 53 natural voices across eight languages
Choose a lightweight or a high-quality pack, and switch any time
Voices grouped by language
Lock-screen controls show the chapter that is actually being read
1.3.0
Stats, backup and sharing.
Multi-year stats: browse your reading history year by year and share a year as a card
Reading backup: export your progress, sessions and highlights, then restore them on a new device
An optional setting to open your last book on launch
