Questions, answered.

A reader for your own books and documents. It opens PDFs, EPUBs and many other files, remembers your place on every device, can read to you like an audiobook, and lets you read with friends and book clubs.

No. On Windows, Android and Linux you can use your library, read, take notes and listen without one. You only need an account for friends, clubs, syncing between devices and the Vault.

Windows 10 and 11, Android 7 and up, and 64-bit Linux. On anything else, including a Mac or an iPhone, use the web reader in your browser.

PDFs, EPUBs, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, Markdown, notebooks, code, images and comics. Each one opens as itself, so nothing is converted first.

Download the latest version from the download section and install it over the one you have. Your books and notes stay where they are.

A book on this device is a file on the phone or computer in your hand. A book in your cloud has been synced, so it follows you to your other devices and downloads when you open it.

Not to read. Connect it if you want to sync, because your synced books, reading places and notes are kept in your own Google Drive, in a folder called SynKitab. Sending a friend a PDF or EPUB over 64 MB needs it too.

Choose SynKitab in the “Open with” list. The first time, you are asked whether to keep a copy. Keep a copy adds it to your library. Just read it opens it now and does not keep it once you close it. You can change this any time in Settings.

Yes. Books on your device and books you have downloaded open without a connection. Your place syncs when you are back online.

Open a book’s menu and choose Open in Edit Arena. You see every page as a thumbnail. Select the pages you want, make your changes, then tap Save changes.

Reorder, rotate, crop, delete and extract pages, insert pages from another PDF, merge PDFs, compress a file and add a watermark. Word, comic and other files can be turned into a PDF first.

Yes. Every saved edit is a new version, so the earlier one is still there to go back to.

Yes, PDFs and EPUBs, like an audiobook. It has a player with speed control and a sleep timer, follows along word by word, turns the pages for you, and keeps playing in the background. Select any text and choose Read from here to start there. Scanned pages can be read too.

Your device’s own voices work straight away. On Windows, Android and Linux you can also download more natural ones, Supertonic, Kokoro, Kitten, Pocket and Piper, in Settings under Voices. They work with no internet once downloaded. Tap the star on any voice to keep it at the top of its language. The web reader uses your browser’s voices.

A mood sets how a book is read: the pace, the tone, the silences and the sense of space around the voice. Choose Audiobook, Immersive, Action, Thriller, Horror, Study or Calm in the audio dashboard, each with a few presets. The words of your book never change. Downloaded voices get the full effect; device voices change pace, pitch, volume and pauses.

You can send books to friends, and a friend is someone you both follow. If only one of you follows the other, they appear under Not friends yet until you both do.

Open the book’s menu or the reader, tap Share, pick your friend, confirm you are allowed to share it, and tap Send. It shows up in your chat with them.

Yes, once they accept it, it becomes theirs. A file travels as a one-time copy, which is removed from our storage after they have it, or after a week.

A way to read one book with one friend. You each read your own copy, at your own pace, and always know where the other is.

See your friend’s face on the page they are on and a dot on the reading slider, updating live. The book stays pinned at the top of your chat, so you can talk about it as you go, and you can leave each other notes on the pages. Either of you can stop at any time.

Tap Share on a PDF or EPUB, pick your friend and switch on Read it together. They get an invitation to join. If they don’t have the book, you can send them your copy or they can ask you for it.

A group reading books together, without spoiling them for each other. Tell the club how far you have read, and everything past that point stays locked until you get there.

Chat in a room for the whole club, for each series, each book and every chapter. Line up what to read next and keep the finished books. Start debates, vote on theories, compare characters, and see members’ highlights if you want to. You also get a reader card with your favourite characters, hot takes and badges.

A private club is by invitation or code, and can keep a book’s file so members can download it. A public club can be found and joined by anyone signed in, and shares conversation, never files. Each member reads their own copy.

Organisers tap add a book and pick one from their library, or choose From this device for a file that is not in it yet. Members can ask the organisers for a book instead, from the same place or from Share. Clubs read PDFs and EPUBs.

In a private club the file goes to every member, so you confirm that you own its rights, that it is in the public domain, or that its licence allows sharing. If you do not have that right, open More details and turn off Keep the file in the club. The book is added without its file and members bring their own copy.

Yes, members can download a club’s book in one tap. By default they read it in SynKitab and it leaves their device when they leave the club. Organisers can change this for the whole club with Members may keep and share their copy in the club menu.

As little as the app needs to work, and we sell nothing about you to anyone.

With no account: your books, notes and places stay on your device. Once a day the app sends a random install number, your device type and the app version, so we can count how many copies are in use. That number is not tied to you, and nothing about your books or what you do is in it.

With an account: your email address, the profile you choose to fill in, who you follow, and what you choose to share with friends and clubs.

If you sync: your reading places, highlights and notes. Your books go to your own Google Drive if you choose it, and then we don’t hold the files.

No. Direct messages are end-to-end encrypted, so we store them but cannot read them. We can see who messaged whom and when. Club chats are different: they are not end-to-end encrypted, so members, and whoever runs SynKitab, can read them.

A locked place for private books. A book in it is encrypted with your password before it is stored, so we keep it but cannot open it.

Yes. Deleting your account in Settings removes your books, notes and history from the server. There is also a page for it, and every detail is in the privacy policy.