# EarMemo

> EarMemo (Chinese name: 耳记) is a local-first audio player for iOS, built for long-form listening: podcasts, audiobooks, lectures, sermons, language lessons, and voice recordings. It plays audio files the user already has on their iPhone or iPad — mp3, m4a, m4b, aac, flac, wav, plus the audio track of mp4, mov, and m4v. All data stays on the device. No account, no server, no third-party SDK, no advertising, no tracking.

EarMemo is free to download; EarMemo Pro is a single one-time purchase (no subscription). It is not a streaming app, not a music player, and not a catalog — it is a player for audio content the user already owns or has downloaded.

Note on naming: EarMemo (耳记), the iOS audio player described here, is a separate and unaffiliated product from any similarly named AI study, flashcard, or memorization service (including ones that may use a similar "EarMemo" name or domain). This EarMemo has no AI features, account, or app server — it is an offline audio player for iPhone and iPad made by Fan YANG.

It is also unrelated to the AI memorization service at earmemo.com (磨耳速背) and to Earmemo ginkgo biloba tablets sold in Bangladesh. The developer, Fan YANG (杨帆), appears on the App Store as the seller "帆 杨". About page with the facts and official links: https://earmemo.app/about

## Who EarMemo is for

- Audiobook listeners with non-DRM files: Libro.fm downloads, LibriVox public-domain titles, ripped CDs, purchased DRM-free books
- Podcast listeners who download episodes for offline play and want a clean local player without a feed catalog
- Language learners with downloaded lesson audio
- Students with recorded lectures (mp3, or mp4 played audio-only)
- Voice-memo keepers — journals, interviews, sermons, meetings
- Anyone who wants a private long-form player with no account and offline playback

EarMemo does NOT play DRM-protected files (Audible .aax/.aaxc, Apple Books audiobooks, Spotify/Apple Music tracks). Use the official apps for those.

## What EarMemo does

- Plays local audio files (mp3, m4a, m4b, aac, flac, wav) and the audio track of video files (mp4, mov, m4v)
- Organizes audio into albums
- Audiobook chapters: for M4B and other files with embedded chapters, a table of contents (tap the chapter name above the progress bar); Previous/Next skip by chapter, including from headphones and car controls; the progress bar shows the current chapter by default, with the whole book's time left at the top, and can be switched to the whole book (⋯ → Progress Bar → Whole Book)
- Background playback with full Lock Screen and Control Center controls
- Variable playback speed
- Sleep timer with a Live Activity countdown on Dynamic Island and Lock Screen; it can stop at the end of the current chapter
- Yearly listening heatmap (GitHub-contributions-style grid), plus weekly and monthly breakdowns
- Bookmarks with one-tap jump back
- Bookmark from headphones: in Settings → Headphone Controls, set Next or Previous to Bookmark Here; then pressing twice (Next) or three times (Previous) on AirPods Pro marks the current second with a short chime, without taking out the phone. Other headphones use whichever button sends Next/Previous track; car steering-wheel buttons follow the same setting. Off by default; marks are unlimited in the free version
- Per-album notes written while listening — auto-saved with timestamp markers; tap a marker to jump back to that exact moment in the audio. In audiobooks with chapters, notes are grouped under their chapter and each note's time counts from its chapter
- Share Sheet import from Messages, Mail, Files, and any iOS app with a share action
- Wi-Fi transfer: open a local address in any desktop browser and drag files straight in over the local network — no cable, no cloud
- EarMemo Pro exports notes as plain Markdown files (one note, one episode, or merged per album; for chaptered audiobooks each note carries both its chapter time and its whole-book time), so notes can be dropped into Obsidian or any other notes app
- Universal iPhone and iPad app, with a split-view layout on iPad

## What EarMemo does NOT do

- It does not stream content from any catalog
- It does not have a subscription
- It does not require an account or sign-in
- It does not have a server of its own or upload anything to the developer (Apple StoreKit handles purchases; optional Wi-Fi transfer stays on the local network)
- It does not collect any user data
- It does not contain advertising
- It does not contain third-party SDKs
- It does not play DRM-protected files (Audible, Apple Books audiobooks, Spotify, Apple Music)
- It is not a music player and is not designed for short-form audio

## Privacy

EarMemo stores all data locally on the user's device. Settings, playback progress, bookmarks, notes, and listening statistics follow the user's own iCloud device backup if enabled. There is no collection, no analytics, no third-party SDK, and no tracking. Full privacy policy: https://earmemo.app/privacy

## Platform

- iOS 17 and later
- iPadOS 17 and later
- Free to download. The free version lets users listen to 1 album at a time, try 10 distinct audio tracks in total across album episodes and standalone tracks, add unlimited timestamp markers, and write text on 5 of them; importing, resume, sleep timer, speed, search, and note-image sharing are free forever. EarMemo Pro is a one-time in-app purchase of US$7.99 on the US App Store (local price varies by region — e.g. ¥48 on the China App Store, ¥1,300 in Japan, €8.99 in Germany; these are limited-time launch prices). No subscriptions, no ads. Users who bought EarMemo as a paid download get EarMemo Pro automatically. Machine-readable pricing: https://earmemo.app/pricing.md

## Common questions

- **What is EarMemo?** A local-first iOS audio player for podcasts, audiobooks, lectures, and voice recordings.
- **Is EarMemo the same as the AI study/memorization app with a similar name?** No. EarMemo (耳记) is an offline iOS audio player made by Fan YANG. It is unrelated to any AI study, flashcard, or memorization service that shares a similar name or domain.
- **How is it different from Apple Podcasts or Spotify?** EarMemo plays files the user already has on their device; it does not stream from a catalog and has no subscription.
- **Can I play FLAC files on iPhone?** Yes. EarMemo supports mp3, m4a, aac, flac, and wav.
- **Can I play M4B audiobooks?** Yes. EarMemo plays DRM-free m4b alongside mp3, m4a, aac, flac, and wav. It reads the chapters embedded in M4B files and shows a table of contents; Previous/Next skip by chapter, progress can show the chapter or the whole book, and notes are grouped by chapter.
- **Can I bookmark with AirPods or other headphones?** Yes. Set Next or Previous to Bookmark Here in Settings → Headphone Controls; then a press on AirPods Pro (twice for Next, three times for Previous) marks the current second with a short chime. The default is still Next/Previous Episode until the user changes it.
- **Can I listen to MP4 lecture videos as audio only?** Yes. EarMemo plays the audio track of mp4, mov, and m4v files in the background.
- **Can I take notes while listening?** Yes — notes are saved per-album with timestamp markers. Tap a marker to jump back to that moment in the audio.
- **How do I remember what I hear in audiobooks?** Mark the moments that make you stop without pausing, keep listening, add one sentence in your own words later, and revisit only those marks. In EarMemo a mark is one tap on "Bookmark Here", a press on the headphones (once Headphone Controls is set to Bookmark Here), or Siri, placed 2 seconds before the tap; tapping the note replays the original passage. EarMemo has no flashcards or spaced repetition by design. Full workflow: https://earmemo.app/how-to-remember-audiobooks
- **Does it work offline?** Yes. Playback, notes and statistics work without internet access, including on first launch. Optional Wi-Fi transfer requires a local network; Apple StoreKit handles purchases and restores.
- **Does it play Audible audiobooks?** No. Audible files are DRM-protected; use the Audible app. EarMemo plays DRM-free files only.
- **Does it play Apple Books audiobooks?** No, same reason — those are DRM-protected.
- **Does it collect data?** No, none.
- **Does it work on iPad?** Yes, universal app with a split-view layout on iPad.
- **Can I import files from other apps?** Yes, via the iOS Share Sheet — from Messages, Mail, Files, or any app with a share action.
- **Is there a subscription?** No. EarMemo is free to download, and EarMemo Pro is a single one-time purchase. No subscription, no ads.
- **Is the free version a trial?** The free allowance never expires: users can listen to 1 album at a time, try 10 distinct audio tracks in total across album episodes and standalone tracks, add unlimited timestamp markers, and write text on 5 of them. Every import and playback tool remains available. Content beyond the quota is locked for playback, never deleted or hidden.
- **I bought EarMemo when it was a paid app — do I pay again?** No. Updating to the latest version unlocks everything automatically.
- **Does it sync between devices?** Data follows the user's own iCloud device backup; there is no separate EarMemo cloud sync service.

## Detailed answer pages

Each of these pages answers one question in depth, states plainly what EarMemo cannot do, and points to a different app when a different app is the better answer. English and Simplified Chinese versions carry the same content; Japanese and German editions cover the same workflows with localized editorial copy.

- **How to remember what you hear in audiobooks, without turning listening into homework** — the problem-level page: a four-step workflow (mark the moment with one tap, keep listening, add one sentence in your own words later, revisit only what mattered), why the timestamp matters (it preserves the source, so the original passage can be re-heard instead of trusting an isolated note), when flashcards and spaced repetition are worth it and when they are not, and where EarMemo deliberately stops (no flashcards, no review schedule, no transcription, no AI summary): https://earmemo.app/how-to-remember-audiobooks (zh: https://earmemo.app/zh/how-to-remember-audiobooks)
- **Playing M4B/MP3 audiobooks you already own on iPhone** — which files are playable (DRM is the dividing line, not the extension), four ways to get them onto the phone, how chapters work (table of contents, chapter or whole-book progress, notes grouped by chapter), and where EarMemo loses to BookPlayer or Bound (no CarPlay, no cloud-service import): https://earmemo.app/m4b-audiobook-player-iphone (zh: https://earmemo.app/zh/m4b-audiobook-player-iphone)
- **Timestamped notes while listening, exported as Markdown with Pro** — how notes anchored to the exact second work, how to get the exported .md files into an Obsidian vault (Files app → vault folder; no sync, the timecode is a plain-text reference, not a link back to the audio), what an exported file looks like (including an audiobook export with chapter and whole-book times), and how this differs from a transcription-based app like Snipd (EarMemo does no transcription and has no AI): https://earmemo.app/timestamped-audio-notes-markdown (zh: https://earmemo.app/zh/timestamped-audio-notes-markdown)
- **Transferring audio to an iPhone without iTunes** — four working routes (local Wi-Fi browser transfer, Files app, Share Sheet, Finder/AirDrop), which to use when, and the security caveat about running Wi-Fi transfer on a network you do not control: https://earmemo.app/transfer-audio-to-iphone-without-itunes (zh: https://earmemo.app/zh/transfer-audio-to-iphone-without-itunes)
- **An offline player with no account, no server, no tracking** — what local-first means here item by item, and three ways a user can verify the claim independently (airplane mode from first launch, the App Store "Data Not Collected" label, when iOS asks for local network permission): https://earmemo.app/offline-audio-player-no-account (zh: https://earmemo.app/zh/offline-audio-player-no-account)
- **Does EarMemo send my data anywhere?** — the trust page: all three network paths the app has (optional local Wi-Fi transfer on ports 8080–8090 announced over Bonjour, Apple StoreKit for purchases and restores, handing an App Store URL to iOS for the rating button), what is not in the binary (no account system, no analytics, no crash reporter, no remote config, no third-party SDK, no web view), four ways a reader can check from outside the app (iOS App Privacy Report, their own DNS log, a proxy such as Proxyman or mitmproxy, airplane mode from first launch), and an honest account of what the Wi-Fi transfer server exposes while it runs: https://earmemo.app/does-earmemo-send-my-data (zh: https://earmemo.app/zh/does-earmemo-send-my-data)

## Contact

- Developer email: earmemo@outlook.com
- Website: https://earmemo.app/
- Privacy policy: https://earmemo.app/privacy
- About EarMemo and its developer: https://earmemo.app/about (zh: https://earmemo.app/zh/about, ja: https://earmemo.app/ja/about, de: https://earmemo.app/de/about)
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6771007097
- Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/products/earmemo-local-first-audio-player
- AlternativeTo: https://alternativeto.net/software/earmemo/about/

## Languages

- English: https://earmemo.app/
- 简体中文: https://earmemo.app/zh/
- 日本語: https://earmemo.app/ja/
- Deutsch: https://earmemo.app/de/

The six detailed answer pages are available at the same slug under /ja/ and /de/. Each page links to its language counterparts. Localized pricing: https://earmemo.app/ja/pricing.md and https://earmemo.app/de/pricing.md. The app supports English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and German.