Free Android App · AI-Powered

Your library,
summarised.
Your way.

Drop any PDF — textbook, business book, research paper — and BookInShorts turns it into sharp AI-generated summary cards you can read in minutes or listen to while commuting.

Download for Android Free · No account · Works offline
9:41● ▲ ■
Page 3 of 24 Chapter 2 · Habits
The Power of Tiny Changes
Small, consistent improvements compound into remarkable results over time. A 1% better every day leads to 37× improvement in a year. Identity drives behaviour — become the person who does the habit.

"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."

1×
🤖
AI Summary
Generated in 3s
The Problem

Your reading list keeps growing.
Your reading time doesn't.

We live in the swipe economy — TikTok, Reels, and infinite scroll have rewired our brains for 15-second hits. Deep reading feels harder than ever. Yet the ideas that actually move careers forward still live in books.

Average attention span: 8 seconds · Average business book: 7 hours to read · Knowledge retained after 1 week: <20%
📱

The Attention Drain

Every swipe trains your brain to expect the next hit. Sitting with a 300-page book feels like fighting your own nervous system — and you're not alone in that struggle.

⏱️

The Time Tax

A business book takes 6–8 hours to read. That's a full workday — a luxury most people can't spare, especially when a scroll session delivers the same dopamine in 10 minutes.

🧠

The Retention Gap

Even when you do finish a book, research shows you retain less than 20% within a week. The ideas fade before you get a chance to act on them.

How It Works

From PDF to insights in under a minute.

Three steps. No cloud uploads. No account needed. Your books stay on your device.

1

Import your PDF

Pick a book from your device storage or paste a URL. BookInShorts handles text extraction automatically — including OCR for scanned books.

2

AI generates cards

The app splits your book into passages and sends each to your chosen AI model — Gemini, Claude, GPT-4, or a local Ollama model. Each passage becomes a clean summary card.

3

Read or listen

Swipe through cards like a social feed, tap to read the full passage, or hit play and let the narrator read it aloud. Bookmark the insights that matter.

Features

Everything you need.
Nothing you don't.

🃏

Swipeable Summary Cards

Every chapter passage becomes a full-screen card with a compelling title, a crisp 2–3 sentence summary, and a key quote — ready to absorb in 30 seconds.

🎙️

Hands-Free Narration

A built-in voice player reads your summaries aloud. Pause and resume where you left off, change speed on the fly (0.75× – 2×), and skip to the next card without touching your phone.

🔖

Smart Bookmarks

Save any card to your Bookmarks collection. Key quotes, chapter insights, and page references are all preserved so you can revisit the ideas that matter most.

⚡

Your AI, Your Rules

Connect your own Gemini, Claude, or OpenAI API key — or run completely free with a local Ollama model. You control the intelligence and the cost.

📄

Full Text Always Available

Every summary card links directly to the original passage. Disagree with a summary? Read the source and form your own view.

🔄

One-Tap Regeneration

Not happy with a summary? Tap retry on any card and the AI re-summarizes that passage on the spot. Consistent quality across every book.

See It In Action

Designed for the way you actually read.

Every screen built around focus — no ads, no distractions, just the ideas that matter.

My Library
📘
Atomic Habits
72% · 18 cards
🧠
Thinking Fast & Slow
38% · 9 cards
💡
Zero to One
Done · 22 cards
🚀
The Lean Startup
12% · 3 cards

Your Library

All your books in one place, with reading progress at a glance.

5 / 18
Chapter 3 · The 1% Rule
Small gains, compounded daily, reshape your entire identity
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. A 1% daily improvement results in a 37× better outcome after a year. The key insight is that outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits — you don't rise to your goals, you fall to your systems.

"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."

1× Full text

Summary Cards

Each passage distilled to a title, insight, and key quote — ready in 30 seconds.

11 / 18
Chapter 6 · Identity Change
Every action is a vote for the person you want to become
True behaviour change is identity change. The most effective way to build a lasting habit is to focus on who you wish to become, not what you want to achieve. Each small action casts a vote for your new identity, gradually shifting your self-image.

"The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader."

1.5× Full text

Hands-Free Narration

Listen at your pace — commuting, cooking, or working out. Resume exactly where you paused.

← Summary Card
Full Original Text

The aggregation of marginal gains is a philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do. Sir Dave Brailsford believed that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved each one by just 1%, you would get a significant increase when you put them all together.

Most people overestimate the importance of defining moments and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. Often it seems easier to make a radical change. The problem is that the...

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Full Original Text

Always one tap away. Verify the source, read more context, or just go deeper.

Bookmarks
Atomic Habits · Ch. 3
Small gains, compounded daily, reshape your identity
"You do not rise to the level of your goals."
Zero to One · Ch. 5
Monopolies drive progress; competition destroys value
"Competition is for losers."
Thinking Fast & Slow · Ch. 2
System 1 governs most decisions without conscious effort
"Nothing in life is as important as you think it is."

Smart Bookmarks

Save the cards that hit different. Revisit ideas from any book, any time.

AI Setup
Choose your provider
🦙
Ollama
Local · Free
✦
Gemini
Google
🤖
Claude
Anthropic
⚡
OpenAI
GPT-4o
Ollama Server URL
http://localhost:11434
Model
llama3.2:3b
Connected · llama3.2 responding
Save & Continue →

Your AI, Your Rules

Plug in Ollama, Gemini, Claude, or OpenAI. Run free locally or use your own API key.

Swipe to explore all screens
AI Providers

Plug in the AI you already trust.

BookInShorts works with all major AI providers. Bring your own API key and pay only for what you use — or run Ollama locally for zero cost.

Ollama (local / free)
Google Gemini
Anthropic Claude
OpenAI GPT-4
Privacy First

Your books never leave your phone.

We built BookInShorts around one rule: your data stays yours.

  • All PDFs, summaries, and bookmarks are stored locally in an on-device SQLite database.
  • No account required. No sign-in, no tracking, no telemetry.
  • Text is only sent to the AI provider you choose and control — never to our servers.
  • Use Ollama locally and the app works 100% offline, with zero data leaving your device.
  • Open codebase — you can read every line of the summarization prompt we use.
🔒

Zero-server architecture

BookInShorts has no backend. There are no servers collecting your reading habits, no databases storing your book list, and no way to share your data — because we simply don't have it.

Start reading smarter today.

Free to download. Works with any PDF. Bring your own AI key and own your reading experience completely.

Download BookInShorts APK
Android 7.0+ · ~180 MB · No account needed