Name: Blinkist: Book Summaries Daily
Rating: 4.78312 (122732 reviews)

User Reviews for Blinkist: Book Summaries Daily

4.78 out of 5

122.7K Ratings

3 years ago, chessacr

My absolute #1 go-to app for education and inspiration

Indispensable for daily commutes, house-cleaning chores, wind-down time before sleep and many, many other occasions. I tried the free version and loved it, so I decided to go premium and now there is no going back. Apart from the value of the Blinks themselves, I am especially captivated by the calm, reassuring voices of the narrators, such as Amanda Marr and Master York (hope I got their names right). The premium subscription is a bit pricey in my opinion, and this keeps me from giving away more of them as gifts, as I’ve already done with a son and a good friend. It seems to me that it would be both in Blinkist’s best interests and ours that gift subscriptions be cheaper, since this would help build the listener community faster and make sure we keep getting the quality app and content. It would also be nice that the available language options widen in the future, to include Spanish (in my case), so then I could recommend Blinkist to even more people.

9 months ago, Whitneybrookut

Fantastic Concept, App Needs Work

I love this idea. A lot of nonfiction books can be distilled down to some key concepts. This is a way to gain a lot of information and ideas efficiently. The narration is good and I like that there is both written and audio options. My main frustration 2 days in is that I cannot figure out how to manage the order of my playlist. I would like to be able to prioritize the order of listening. It would also be nice to manage different playlists, so I can shift between topics. Overall I think the product is worthwhile, I would just love to see this improvement. The other feature I would like is to add notes about individual books. There is an option to highlight. That’s good if you are reading the printed version, but not as great for audio. Just a small text box for a few take away would be nice. Looking at other reviews, there are a lot of complaints about getting tricked into an annual trial. I am in a trial period and recall the charge and timeframe being clearly explained when I signed up. Maybe this is a new process in response. In any case, I don’t feel like it is in an intentional scam. The price seems fair for an annual- if you actually use the the product.

5 years ago, Scott R H

Be careful! They take your $100 and won’t refund

I thought I’d give this 7 day free period a go and see why it was about. I unfortunately had to leave town and got busy that week and didn’t get a chance to really look into it. I had it scheduled in my diary that day to cancel the renewal but arrived home a few hours too late it seems. As soon as the week expired I got charged $100 and put on an annual plan. No more than 2 hours after this happened, I contacted Blinkist and asked for a refund as I simply hadn’t seen that I’d be signed up for a $100 annual plan if I missed the cancel date. Most of these kinds of apps are monthly at worst and I would have swallowed the monthly fee If I’d missed the cancel date. They told me that they couldn’t do anything and suggested I try iTunes. I’ve contacted iTunes 3 times now and have not had one real response other than an auto response stating it’s not available for refund. I’m furious as I simply can’t afford it right now and you should always have a window after payment for something that as it’s simply a use as you go type of arrangement. Now I don’t even want to use it because it’s left such a bad taste in my mouth. If it’s such a great product, then they shouldn’t have to prey on those that forget to cancel their trial on time to then charge them $100. Pretty unhappy.

6 years ago, small hobbit

One slight problem might keep me from staying

Edit: also, the people they have summarizing the books have a problem with keeping their own personal opinions out of the summary, which begs the question as to what else they might be adding or removing to these. I’ve changed my review to 1 star due to this because I’d really rather just read the actual book and know the author’s actual thoughts than be preached to by a second-hand source. I decided to try this since I’ve been hearing about it everywhere right now. Unfortunately, I don’t have the money for a subscription right now so I’ll have to make due with the one free that’s unlocked daily. The only problem I have is that if you add the daily free blink to your library under a free account there’s no way to delete it the next day because it goes back to being just another premium locked into your library. This makes it really hard to want to stay with this service if you can’t remove things after a lapsed payment since these short form “blinks” could really start to clutter up after awhile. Having a delete option, even if the blink is currently locked due to no being a subscriber, would be a nice improvement. Without it, I’m not actually sure I will continue using this, or even suggest that others use this service.

3 years ago, Cynthia Kamweru

From 1-star to 5!

I originally posted a review because I was charged on the app despite picking their trial period. I emailed them and I got a response within 2 hours. In that time I read 2 book summaries and already highlighted parts of my life that I want to improve, and set out the system to implement them. You can tell I read Atomic Habits by James Clear. So I decided to keep the subscription because reading does bring me a lot of joy but busy life doesn’t allow me to sit and read as often as I’d like. Blinkist allows me to take away the salient points and it’s app is easy to use too. One improvement I’d love is to be able to highlight and add your own notes. This would really elevate the app for me but already I’m loving it. Podcasts are fantastic especially when an author is on them but reading their content allows thoughts to turn into action as you have to sit and read as opposed to multitasking whilst listening. Fantastic app! Thanks again for your quick response!

4 months ago, Wyrds_Stoic

Such a great way to boost your insights.

Blinkist has been one of the greatest tools and finding the nuggets hidden within the short blinks has enabled me to digest the information on walks, before/on quick meditations, or on a quick break at work. Such an invaluable tool! Thank you again for all of the information you make available. I had a trial and within the full app, there are so many selections from so many genres. I still utilize the free blink a day daily. My challenge to you is for a week to utilize the free blink of a day to meditate on what it was on to help retain the information received then take some quick notes or bullet points to remind you of the golden nuggets, book title, and name. Do this for a week in any chosen area that you want to develop in and do an experiment with it all. I strongly believe you will be hooked and strongly anticipate exploring the full app. Thank you again for all that you do there on the Blinkist Team! It is deeply appreciated! Koley Keller

8 months ago, JWR from CT

Blinkist Does Not Support Apple Family Sharing

As of today, the Apple app store states that Blinkist supports Apple Family Sharing - it does not. Tech support for the app store was kind enough to spend an hour and 20 minutes with me trying to get our family members signed-in as Premium Blinkist members. They referred me to the developer to fix the issue. Blinkist, based in Germany, offers e-mail support. No phone support. With their help, I was successful in getting an additional member added to the primary Premium membership. All Premium members, whether they have Apple or not, have the ability to add an additional Premium member attached to their account at no additional cost. That’s nice, but it is not Apple Family Sharing which “makes it easy for you and up to five family members to share purchases of some of your favorite apps”. Our family participates in Apple Family Sharing and although we are pleased that an additional person can benefit from Blinkist Premium, we are disappointed that others are excluded.

3 years ago, Ninjutsuski

Don't Waste Your Time With Podcasts & Reading Entire Books

If you're an intelligent and a "motivated-lazy" millennial (like me), you're probably familiar CliffsNotes from life in academia. Why waste your precious will power in astute reading comprehension on literature read by thousands? Some gotta be better at it than you (despite you scoring 780 in it on your SAT) and have shared their findings. Here's what you've tried so far: *Searched Audible for book summaries from sketchy companies (where ironically English is their second language). *Tried Medium post summaries. *Followed those self-help gurus that rehash established material in their podcasts only to deceive you. These podcasts are actually made up of 30% sales talk about their sponsor and/or their products and 50% about their guest and 20% about the material in their podcast's title. It's a for-profit show, not PBS. Let's be honest with yourself. None of the above options helped you or made good use of your attention and time. Blinkist makes good use of your time and makes you think. Oh but I have to pay them! The horror! Well tally up all the time you wasted on your attempts to get here over the past year or two and multiply that by your hourly rate. Can you afford Blinkist now? Bet you can and a gift subscription or two! Don't fall for the free stuff - you get what you pay for! Class dismissed!

5 years ago, Midnight Pizza Man

BORING - NOT EVEN WORTH THE TRIAL

First, the way each book is summarized is incredibly boring—even for books with engaging and funny prose. Each summary is written and read without mimicking the original author’s style or voice. It’s as if Blinkist is trying to shorten every book into an excerpt from a second rate dictionary. The “audio” option Blinkist provides makes this even worst. Each Blinkist summary is read in a monotone voice , with little to no inflection, and absolutely no enthusiasm. I thought that maybe—just maybe—I had just been choosing each Blinkist summary poorly, and decided to stay past the trial to find out. Horrible decision. Each summary is written in such a monotone and uniform fashion, I have to force myself to finish a minute-long summary. Second, the audio only works if you have the Blinkist app open—no scrolling through other feeds or doing anything else. When I decided to finally cancel my subscription for the following month, I realized my fatal mistake. Although Blinkist advertises their monthly subscription, with the trial, you will automatically be charged for their YEARLY subscription. Even the company has no hope that their content is enough to keep customers coming back month to month.

4 years ago, Yellowssun

Overall, the contents are so monotonous

I've been using this app for several month, and I realize that it should be explain there are a lot of self development book. I think more than 90 percent of book of here, is self development things. They should have said that. I only recommend this app for the person who extremely like self development book and wants listen only self development book. The reason I purchase this app, is to listen the book. novel, essay, or history, or information book. Sometimes I prefer to read self development book. If I search 'history' on this app. There aren't any history of world. Ah, only one I found fistory of Nigeria. Anyway Ioften come here, because I already purchase 1 year plan, but now, I'm so tired of listening only self development things. Of course self development things are good things, I agree with that. But this app should change their name SELF DEVELOPMENT things like that. I mean, the contents are so cofocused on self development. The contents are so monotonous. I don't usually upload my review on here, but I just stop by here and upload my review just after stop listening self development book again.

4 years ago, Zaphire Borghi

Blinkist is a fancy, expensive time waster

I opted out of the free trial, since I read the reviews and thank goodness I did. Be wary of any app that won’t show you what you are purchasing before they take your credit card number. I can’t even tell if I want a free trial because I have no clue what is behind the locked gates of this app. I was curious but I’m protective of my credit card digits. I asked around to my friends about this app and heard some mumbles about increased productivity but once I dug deeper I realized that none of them actually used the app after the first week but were all charged the $100 because they did not cancel in time! So when blinkist says they’ve got tons of memberships sold it should read, “We tricked a bunch of busy people out of $100 by counting on their inefficiency in canceling within the first week.” HBO does the same thing and no one is mad about it. Just be smart and turn back on this app. There’s nothing to see here without giving them your credit card number and hoping you remember to cancel in time (which you probably won’t because you’ll forget this app exists long before the first week is over).

5 months ago, Learnoholic

PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP

I have been a long time user of Blinkist. I absolutely loved the app and have always liked learned little nuggets of knowledge along the way, and even picked up a couple books for deeper reads. BUT, recently they updated the UI (user interface) on the Blinks themselves and it’s atrocious. I don’t know what the design team was thinking. Instead of a clean page that you scroll down for each idea and swipe for the next page/chapter, which was clean and minimalistic (and not distracting), they instead put a non removable HUGE and annoying bar in the bottom which you can’t remove and shows you were you are along the book. Instead of swiping to the next chapter, it’s just an endless scroll to the bottom which I hate. I like that type of design for articles online, but for book summaries which are longer? Absolutely awful. There should be an option to opt out or stay with the old UI in the setting menu. That way, people who like the new design can stick with it vs scaring away loyal and older customers. Just give us options please

2 years ago, Wanderingella

Finally a way to read the books I want in the time I have

I love reading. I’m also neurodivergent. I tend to get overwhelmed by large books, especially self help books because I don’t know if I’ll have time to get through the whole thing. This app solved two problems. It’s allowed me to read the books I want to read and get the takeaways I want to get with the time I have. It’s also allowed me to improve my relationship with my phone. Instead of scrolling through social media, I can now improve my mind and get back to work feeling motivated and not dragged down. I really appreciate this app. I’d love a wider selection of books about science or history, but as someone who really loves reading about self improvement, there’s more than enough here to keep me engaged. Big thanks to the whole Blinkist team for reading all these books and giving good notes on them.

4 years ago, AC -... Reviews

Perfect blend of an audiobook, spark notes and a podcast!

This app is amazing. It’s the perfect blend of an audiobook, spark notes, and a podcast. I have already recommended it to a number of my friends and family. I work in a time intensive role and used to love reading and constant learning, specifically nonfiction. I’ve found audiobooks are great - but I don’t have much time or attention to dedicate (and sometimes I want to drive and workout in silence to decompress). Then podcasts have a lot of extra ‘fluff’ sometimes. Blinklist gets down to the points in a concise manner, just like our favorite spark notes growing up. I love walking away with new information and insights with only ~15 minutes spent. It’s definitely worth the price. The only downside is it doesn’t have an Apple Watch app version. I’d love to be able to download to my watch and listen while out for runs/walks without having to bring my phone.

1 year ago, Behavcoach

I have a list of 100’s of books to read and this saves me so much time…

Now, you might think that Blinkist has replaced reading books in their entirety for me. If you thought this, you would be wrong. I do not consider reading a blink (Blinkist summary of a book) to have a read a book. I also don’t use Blinkist to be able to post on social media that I read 50 books in a month. Just like any tool, it serves a purpose and you have to know what that purpose is. I read books to be able to input knowledge, frameworks, principles, and be able to quickly and consistently implement those into my life. Blinkist is amazing for this! I have a list of hundreds of amazing books that I would like to read that will probably change the way I think, feel, and act. I can read a Blink, quickly understand the framework and implement it in my life. But, Blinkist serves another very useful, time saving purpose… It allows me to very quickly get an idea of whether reading a book in its entirety would be worth my time for the depth of insight and knowledge it would provide. I use it as a filter to quickly weed out books that are not worth my time, so I can have time to read the books where every sentence deserves my attention regardless of how long it takes me. This is why Blinkist is amazing!

4 years ago, STK Clothing Co.

Needs more books but overall a great app

I’ve been using Blinklist for about 3 weeks now, and in my short time using this app, I don’t have many criticisms. As an avid book reader myself, sometimes its hard to find the motivation to read one. Some unfortunately just drone on and on, without presenting the underlying message in a easily digestible manner. This app provides a shortcut for users who simply just don’t have the time and or patience to sit and read for hours on end. The book summaries, provide it users with the authors main points, and while relatively short, are quite insightful. If I had one criticism with this app, it’s that it NEEDS MORE BOOKS! The content of the app is encompasses a lot of subjects, but at times seems “limited” in quantity. (I use that word sparingly). Overall I think that blinklist has the potential to be a groundbreaking app, but the developers need to refine it more and add a lot more content. In conclusion, it’s a great app, totally recommend!

3 years ago, Willing to listen

Becoming Enlightened

Wonderful to have so many ideas, views, and knowledge at my fingertips. I find myself stopping the blinks and taking notes. These are books that I wouldn’t normally purchase because I could not afford them monetarily or time wise (not enough time to read). Probably the most important thing I have learned this past year plus has been to listen to people whose opinion differs from mine. I am learning why they have their beliefs. That they have them for many different reasons. You know we all are just trying to find meaning in our lives. We are trying to understand the world. Just like everyone else who has been alive. I also will purchase a book whose blinks I have listened to if I want to go deeper. Thank you for adding meaning to my life! I usually listen when I am doing something else like cleaning or cooking.

6 years ago, GlazeyNCrazey

The best app I've ever downloaded

I've had this app for just a few weeks. In that time I've read nearly 40 blinks, and I can tell you without a doubt it is THE BEST MONEY I HAVE EVER SPENT!!!!! I've learned numerous amounts of information in various different subjects: science, psychology, self help/ improvement, and read the biographies of countless individuals. I truly feel in these last few weeks I've become wiser and learned more about the world than I probably have in the last 2 years (I'm an 18 year old college undergrad just for context). It's changed the way I approach my life too. I feel more secure, happy, and go about life with a much more positive and confident attitude. I reflect on myself more, actively seeking new experiences and love meeting new people. It's just made me so happy in life. Endless thanks to all the people who made this app. It's the best thing I've ever paid for!!!

3 months ago, Bonovox66

Just Okay.

I’ve been hearing about Blinkist for a long time. They advertise on some of my favorite podcasts. After 4 months and about a book a day (sometimes more) I’m ready to write a review. Summarizing books in 15 minutes, sounds like a great idea right? Well as a teacher I can tell you that I’ve read elementary school book reports that are better summaries and do a better job of laying out the main ideas. Also, the over use of AI is evident. I know that some of the books are read by an AI voice bot but I’m starting to wonder if some of the transcripts are created by ChatGPT because they read very much like the work my students are turning in that was AI generated. I was really done with this app after a couple weeks but based on all the great reviews I went ahead and got the year subscription. Wish I hadn’t… But it’s not all bad. The app has been great for revisiting older books and concepts I’ve read but needed a refresher on. I would not rely on this to “learn” but as a refresher it works great. Also, I think it’s useful in discovering what books not to waste my time reading as a few books on my reading list were eliminated after listening to their summaries on Blinkist. Overall, if you’re using this for a review session it’s great. I will also mention the Blinkist podcasts are well produced as well. But if you want to learn something new, skip this and ask ChatGPT or Perplexity to write you a summary. It’ll be just as good.

5 years ago, Butterfly74

Horrible Experience

I submitted the request for support below and the response I received stated that they were unable to assist me because my purchase was made through apple not directly from them. However my request (if they really read it) was really asking that the app that I paid for actually work. I would love the concept and love to free blink or two I was able to read but cannot rate them well because I did not get full use of the product I paid for. "I signed up for the trial. Asked to to cancel subscription on the day you charged me for the full subscription. You would not cancel and refund my money, however the subscription has not worked for me for the entire time. When i attempt to read an article it prompts me to subscribe again. Please ensure that i have access to my subscription (and extend it for free) or refund me my money. I will report this to apple and write a review describing how terrible my experience has been with the app and service from your company." Alison, Troubled customer

4 years ago, UsingD-App

Love it!

Blinkist offers me time to go through the important parts of a book (I tend to wander and have difficulty focusing understanding books when authors tend to overdo) It also gives me enough idea whether or not I should purchase the whole book version or not. I like the other contents that are added: the motivational snippets, interview of notable people who I am not familiar with. It is easy to use. I like the fact that I can choose between reading or listening to it. The price I paid is reasonable to what I get fr the app. I just wish I could figure out how to repeat a a part of the book (or a chapter blink) than repeating fr the very beginning of the book. If you are after novels to transport you somewhere else, this is not the app you would like to have.

5 years ago, Simony Simon

Needs better filter-ability

Loving this product! I think it’s providing an invaluable service to people who don’t have enough time to read full books. However, what needs serious work is the filter possibilities for my added books. I need semantic and qualitative filters, like what subject areas the books belong to, what topics they cover, and/or how welled rated they are by readers. Blinkist tries to “solve” this by allowing for manual tagging, but this does me no favors if I’m looking for something to read and haven’t read any of my books yet. Moreover, the overhead of adding tags is cumbersome. A better UX, such as auto-tagging and/or tag suggestions on adding a book to your list, could alleviate the issue. Regardless, Blinkist needs to be “smarter.” For a service seeking to simplify reading tons of awesome content, Blinkist sure makes it overwhelming to ultimately choose your book from your own list.

3 years ago, kajzebold

I love this app, but I wish there were more languages

I think this app is wonderful in that it allows for you to be introduced to a variety of books in greater detail than you would normally be if you were to just read the synopsis/summary blurb on the inside cover. I also love the fact that it has options in English and in German— it’s great for those who are bilingual in those two languages if you select either German or English language options in the settings. What I wish the app did have, though, were more language options for us who are polyglots or who want to get better at listening to other languages. So maybe introducing other languages such as French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Korean, etc. I think would make this app better.

4 years ago, sebaaa98

Highly recommend

Before I download the app, I was reading a few reviews and I saw a few negative ones. For this reason, I have decided to write a review. I never write reviews but this app deserves the exception. A complete app with meaningful information. An app with the possibility to read and listen accurate blinks. What I like to do is read the blink in the morning and listen the audio at night; getting the full context of the blink is key to increase knowledge. Perhaps, reading the full book will give you a deeper understanding; however, the blinks will give you key insight in short period of time. I would like to say thank you for those that crear the app. I am a very active reader. In fact, I read around 3 books per month; now, I can consume one book per day. Great app, I love it!

11 months ago, johnny-1955

Blinkist gives me a wide range of choices

I do love reading real books, but sometimes I just can’t commit to plow through 500 pages. A Blinkist version gives me a strong sense of what the book is like, and if I really am motivated, I can go back and actually read the original. Otherwise I’m fine just reading summaries. I am able to become familiar with the contents of books that I would otherwise never bother to open. I even read blinks of books that I actually have read just to see how good the summaries are. They are as good as you can squeeze in to 20 or 25 minutes. I do wish that sometimes they would give a deeper treatment to some titles, maybe make them 50 minutes or an hour to read.

6 years ago, demattia

Looking for more Balance and less Bias

I love the idea of this app, but after two and a half months of reading the free books almost every day the unacknowledged bias present in the types of books offered and the ways that the summaries are written is getting old. Certain world views (which I imagine naturally mirror the creators/ writers own) are written about in incredibly positive lights, for example Eastern religion and philosophy with titles like “Why Buddhism is True” without a balanced (let alone positive) look at really any other spiritual or religious world views. I can’t say I blame them, it makes sense to me that people would naturally select books they like and agree with to offer in a service like this, but because of what the platform is, I feel like they need to find a way to be either more neutral or more honest about the bias they are bringing in to these summaries. Hire some people who don’t agree on the big questions of life - then offer books from a wider variety of world views and I think there is a 5 star idea here.

4 years ago, Tonyanopholese

Pandemic

Very informative. Thinking about origins and the chain of infection I developed thoughts relative to vectors within vectors. Almost sure SARS 2 would not have spread exponentially worldwide without air travel both internationally and across borders. It might be interesting to trace infected cases by traveled routes of origin and destination points and overlay on maps. This would give a new meaning to the phrase “fear of flying”. Cruise ships have long had problems before SARs2. Similar to confined spaces on airplanes only thousand instead of hundreds in close proximity with vectors disembarking and reembarking at several ports of call. This is scary. Control of vectors with international ground stops and docking and quarantining cruise ships and vectors might give timely preventive intervention to trace the source and slow the spread.

5 years ago, electather

The service is amazing. The app. Not so much

I like Blinkist. It changed my morning routine entirely. Now i get to listen to the main ideas of a book instead of listening to same old music i used to listen to on my way to work. It couldn’t get any better. As a service it’s amazing and well worth the money. But the app. It’s a whole other thing. It does not have any bugs. It works fine. But many of the functionalities are not easy to access. For instance downloading a blink is not easily done. ( i had to look for it. Then i found out i should play a blink. Then change it in play list then i can download it. Just why?) or the fact that I cannot play a blink and browse the app. It’s just not possible. All these functionalities are implemented but poorly. That’s the only thing keeping this app from 5 stars

1 month ago, JungleSports

If it worked, I would rate higher!

Most of the time when I open the app, it says I’m offline, which I know I am not. I’m on my computer, kids are streaming, etc. I have to completely close the app, and restart the app numerous times before finally it works. This has been happening frequently now for the last month or two. I’ve uninstalled the app to no avail! I’m in the technical field, so I know what I’m doing. I’m running the latest iOS, there is nothing on my phone to disrupt the internet connection, which is very strong in my residence with a mesh router setup. I have had a subscription for numerous years to Blinkist but am seriously considering stopping it due to this frustrating issue. This is a five star app, but I am currently rating it as 1 due to this issue and to hopefully get the attention of the devs. Devs, please look into this and try to find a fix! When it works again, I’ll update my rating to its proper 5.

2 years ago, Loren Groves

Saved items auto save text but not audio

I saved 63 items and I was trying to download them all for my travel on my iPad so I could read them on the plane. The audio is cool but I’m a faster reader and like the highlight option. I didn’t realize that the text is automatically saved when I save the item! This is an amazing feature that I recommend Blinkist call out. (Maybe a “text saved” icon vs “audio saved” option?) Audio download wise, I tried download one item at a time without issue. Trying to download multiple items at a time fails 90% of the time. Trying to download all the items at the same time fails 100% of the time.

5 months ago, Bara'ah Sinjab

Missing features

This app has cut down my reading time and saved me probably much regret. I love the dual feature of reading and listening to Blinks. I do have a few comments for feedback: - there is no “mark blink as…” option. Once you start it, you have to finish it. And sometimes it auto replays a blink you already finished it. The auto play setting is annoying, and it cannot be turned of. Please add a “mark blink as completed/unread” feature. - the collection is pretty localized around specific categories and popular books. It would be appreciated if you diversify the collections. For example, I’m an educator but there are very few blinks in that department. - the icons for the books don’t match the actual book covers. This is to create a cohesive design look for the app, but can be very confusing for customers looking for books based on the cover. If you must use your own cover design, keep it consistent with the actual book cover, such as using a similar color theme or icons (for example: atomic habits is gold and white with an atom and a bunch of dots on the cover; have something consistent with that on the Blinkist app

4 years ago, TimmyComedian

The best

I have to be honest here, I’ve tried a few of these apps and Blinkist is the best in so many directions. First they always are giving away a free book of the day; and it’s always on the subject of the day. During the Impeachment process the book was on impeachment, during COVID it was about viruses, and as the crisis with systematic racism moves to the forefront in the nation’s collective conversational consciousness, those are the books highlighted and free. You couldn’t find a better way to be well informed if you tried. If someone rates this less than 5 stars that’s just a picky person and not related to this app. Some people just can’t be happy. Even with an amazing app like this. Maybe they need a house plant. Or a hobby.

2 years ago, Adrianomartino

I’m “reading” 2-3 books a day

I love the idea and the execution. The narrators are engaging and the blinks get to the core concepts fast. There’s also some music and sound effects here and there that help you keep entertained and even push the story forward. What I like about Blinkist is that I can listen to a whole book on my way to the swimming pool and to another one on my way back! I would love though a feature to highlight or search words from books I’ve listened to, and to have links to a full store where I could buy the full books for books that have enticed me, but that I want to read in their entirety. Overall, fantastic job!!!

1 year ago, Broke Bitizens

Not very transparent

I recently attended a conference where a previous employee spoke, I was really impressed with what was expressed and decided to check out the app. I signed up for the free trial of premium with the idea that this company was going to remind me before any charges were made to continue the premium subscription. Today was the last day of the trial and I did not get any kind of reminder, if it was a notification it was not obvious. I presumably had today to cancel, but nope was charged $99. The app itself is fine. It was definitely glitchy at times when trying to both read and listen. I checked out quite a few that I had already read just to see and the blinks were accurate. With that I can see the selection getting old pretty quickly. So with all the new AI out there you can get book summaries for free. Plus there’s always the library. I’ll stick with them.

4 years ago, Juan 14 56

Excelente reading source

Since I was born I found the habit or reading kind of stressful,and always that I tried to focus on reading it consume many of my energy. While using blinklist,I have enjoy each of everyone of the audiobooks that I have listened. Therefore I found this art of reading more like listening a movie. I recommend this app greatly to everyone and most,to how want to find any knowledge,and enjoy learning. There are thousands of books by any topic. If you are someone trying to making reading a habit and lack for some motivation or simply someone looking for specific information in short time,this is your app.

5 years ago, ChickenJoe_

Great App for Discovering New Books

5-Stars because the app works well and it does what it advertises. Also, customer support helped me resolve my hardware issue I was having (not due to their fault). Review: 15 minutes is too short of summary for an entire book, but it gives you a good idea about whether that book is an ideal read for you or not. I think I may prefer a 1-3 hour summary. A 1-3 hour “summary” may be short enough to listen in a day or two during commutes, but long enough to gain a better understanding about the true contents of the book. I switched over to audible because for me, I’d rather listening to a full book for 10 hours, than listen to a 15 minute synopsis.

2 years ago, SteveB179

Blinkist-Great Product!

Blinkist is a supporter of a Podcast I listen to so I tried it. I’ve been reading Blinkist “Blinks” for a little over a week now. Already it is clear that I am better informed about a whole range of issues. I’ve actually read Blinks from some books I already read and found the accounts to be highly accurate. The premium version allows me to send Blinks to my Kindle. This is highly valuable for avoiding eye fatigue from reading the iPhone screen. Blinkist has enabled me to read eleven books I would not ordinarily have time to read. A Blinkist typically takes between 10 and 20 minutes to read. If you are curious by nature, get Blinkist. Highly recommended!!

5 years ago, NH3Terraformer

Perfect bite sized book snacks between Audibles

I listen to an Audible book 3-9 times a week and alternate between fiction and nonfiction. Sometimes I am traveling or have business meetings or jet lag and cannot keep the attention and focus to keep 20 characters or dates or concepts in my mind. By playing Blinkist books at 2x normal speed I can squeeze in a book while standing in line, riding in an Uber or as a bedtime story. These short and predictable burst are nice complements and I can always buy the Audible version if I like what hear on the Blinkist version. I also like the 3rd person referring to the author. Listening to so many audiobooks, I get weary of hearing the personal pronoun “I...I...I...” hundreds of times a week. I just want the information, not to be the author or be forced to see through his or her eyes, especially when the author is a whiner or complainer or bragger. There is a cool dispassionate neutrality to the Blinkist summaries. So, I’m a happy customer and hope my friends all sign up and raise the number of books they absorb the key messages of by one or two orders of magnitude per year.

1 year ago, BubbaJoeBobMac

Service is Good, App not so much

While overall I like the content they provide. The app as a lot of annoyances. To start off they don’t respect your push notification preferences. They have an option to turn off “recommended reading” notifications as well as other options. It turned it off yet still got notifications, had to turn off notifications for the app completely in the system settings. Second the nagging in the app is obnoxious. It constantly pops messages in the app to use different features. For example the spaces feature, if I have dismissed the message to start using that feature for the hundred time. The odds are I know it exists and that I don’t have and use for it. So stop nagging me about it alight! Sorting is also lacking. Why can’t you see recently added items that are also “unread.” It’s annoying to see already read/listen to items keep showing up in different lists. I want to easily see content I haven’t already seen. Why does the app make that so difficult? Again I like the summaries they provide, but the app hampers the experience. I hope they work to improve the experience.

6 years ago, DRAHB

Why We Love

I am a psychotherapist with a 25+ year career. I am constantly seeking tools for myself and my clients as we continue on our personal growth journey. I stumbled across this app and purchased it immediately after perusing it’s content. I have recently divorced after 31 years, 4 kids, and 1 granddaughter of being married to a Narcissist. I am an empath and even though I am a trained and licensed clinician, I have struggled to understand how I could have possibly have stayed in such an unhealthy union for so long. As I prepare to share my story in whatever format that will be, I must continue my life long journey of learning and this app is PERFECTION! It will continue to empower my daily commitment to become my BEST self!

1 year ago, Daniel202020

Great Customer Service

I downloaded the app as part of the 7 day free trial I signed up for. The app works great and the product is exactly as advertised. I just won’t use it enough to justify the subscription, and surely enough, I forgot to cancel in time and was charged for the year. I sent an email to customer support and they quickly canceled my subscription and refunded my money no questions asked. I am giving them 5 stars and definitely considering subscribing in the future. I’ve had so many bad experiences from companies acting deceptively and inconveniencing refunds to squeeze out pennies that I wanted to give them a shout out. Great company.

2 years ago, DrewCamKen

Practical and Thought Proviking

Some times you are so immersed in situations it hard to see past the immediate situation. The tips listed in this book provide a different perspective and really make you think about your own situation giving realistic and sound advice to start making positive and pro-active change . I really like the advice about keeping a gratitude journal! You don’t realize how good your life is until you mast a list and write it down. Things happen for a reason and sometimes you have to be flexible, adjust and go with the flow. Counting your blessings goes long way and learning to say “NO” is a good thing!

6 years ago, Wellness App

Read a Book Every Day!

This platform is the best way to amass lots of knowledge in a short period of time! Leaders are constantly on the go and need the best ideas of the day in small bite sized chunks without sacrificing focus on the most valuable ideas. Listen to the best books on every topic imaginable and get short actionable steps to implement the ideas right away! Not only do you absorb every key concept in 15 minutes or less, you can save notes on the key concepts to your mobile device, and order the full book from your favorite platform. This is the best investment a lifelong learner can invest over the course of a year!

1 year ago, d4v1dd

So good, so much potential

The content and the wisdom that I’ve been finding in the blinks have been indispensable. I I love the power behind the brevity of the contents, but the downside is that you can go through so many of these blinks that some of the lessons can be forgotten. It would be great if there was more interactivity or actions and follow ups, that can be taken over the course of time. I do most of these while out for a walk, and I would love if there was a way to get reminders or notifications on follow up actions in the future. Even having something like workbooks or notes that could be collected as sort of like a personal library of notes, actions, highlights, or reminders.

3 years ago, BobUT1989

Expensive and shallow

I have read through a few “blinks” of recent books I have read. Not only do the blinks miss key concepts, they are also shallow and leave a lot to be desired. Some writers, like Michael Pollan, write very beautifully. The writing is just as much of an experience as the actual information within the book. The blinks capture none of this. This is essentially an expensive version of the free website “sparknotes. Don’t waste your money. If you are a busy person and don’t have time to sit down and read, try audiobooks. You still get the full concepts, and will be able to interpret them in your own way- not through some other writer. For people who spend the $100 on this app- try to think back to a blink you read over a month ago. Do you actually retain any of the information? My guess would be no.

6 months ago, keipher

I made a mistake in purchasing this schlock

To their credit Blinkist does offer an outline for a good number of books, but the outlines are too basic. I would say it’s best use is to determine whether you want to read the book or not. You’re not going learn much by reading or listening to these summries, our brains will not remeber things out of context very well. If the author of the book was a fantastic writer and made their book really interesting, it is lost in these summaries. I didn’t really use Blinkist past the first couple of weeks because it’s so incredibly lame. These summeries tend to more turn off my brain than engage it. It’s hilarious that they try to say in advertisement that this is for intellectual … lazy wannabe intellectuals perhaps.

2 years ago, Cmclatcher

Love the service, but the app could use a lot of work.

I absolutely love this service. The combination of written and audible summaries, just the perfect length, make it a great annual investment. Really disappointed, though, in the app. Couple of things that drive me nuts. Newer titles stop until you read them. I get it. They want people to repeat titles and by forcing you to dig your phone out of your pocket when you were exercising, you begrudgingly offer a review. However, when I’m trying to listen to a few books in a row while exercising, I find it very annoying. Also, the flow of the app is clunky. For instance, I struggle with the difference between the library, the queue, saved, favorite, etc. It could really benefit from a UX overhaul.

6 years ago, RhetTbull

Big library but poor quality summaries

I really wanted to like this app/service. I read a lot and having access to quality book summaries would be very valuable. Unfortunately Blinkist doesn't deliver. Pros: there are a lot of books in the library...I was surprised that nearly every title I was interested in was available in the app. Cons: the book summaries ("blinks") are really subpar and don't provide a good overview of the book. I read several and they just skim the surface often missing the main idea of the book. I read blinks for books I've previously read and they never covered the big ideas in the book. Instead, they tend to focus on one or two themes in the book often missing the big picture and never providing a good synthesis. These are more like long book reviews rather than executive summaries.

2 years ago, AmazoniaOjai

The Genius Who Struggles to Read

I’m a member of Mensa, the society for the geniuses, but have a block when it comes to reading. Go figure! Growing up, I got by in school by reading Classics Illustrated, the comic book version of the great books. Now, couple my disability with the fact that I’m an information addict and you can see the challenge! Well, problem solved once I downloaded the Blinkist app. Now I can cruise through the highlights of “pages” of books whose ideas and stories are endlessly fulfilling. I’ve been listening as I walk and now walk about 20,000 steps a day! Lol. Get it…it’s an investment you won’t regret.

4 years ago, Bennypapa

Double billed, login errors, poor cx exp

I reached out to customer support to let them know that 1) my login would never work and there was a bug. Finally I got it to work on my own. Then, it showed I had 2 accounts. I emailed support and they said they would look at it. No response until I was double billed. Then they mentioned I needed to contact Apple as if it was their fault, which doesn’t make any sense because if I was double billed they could have refunded the one they saw. I even provided a screenshot of the 2 accounts it was showing. Blinkist has tons of potential, especially once they provide the option for full audio and digital text (read along with audio is something that would really be neat), going further would love to see multiple languages so you can learn new ones and read along with the voice, while cross comparing to the other language.

Description

A WORLD OF KNOWLEDGE IN YOUR POCKET Get powerful ideas in minutes—not hours or days with our summaries of today’s most transformative books. With 6,500+ key insight summaries in audio or text, plus personal guidance through topics from our experts and curators, whatever you want to learn, you’ll find it here. 29+ million people already trust Blinkist to help them grow and maximize their potential and their time. Join us and learn smarter, not harder. — GET THE KEY INSIGHTS FROM 6,500+ BESTSELLING BOOKS & PODCASTS • Blinks: Read & listen to book summaries from top titles in 15 min • Shortcasts: Get to the heart of transformational podcasts • Sharpen your professional skills with the best business books & podcasts • Grow with the most impactful self-improvement titles • Discover new perspectives with bestsellers on economics, science, history & culture • Find inspiration with the latest trends & ideas in your professional field — GROW WHEREVER YOU ARE: ENJOY BOTH AUDIO & TEXT • Listen to audio versions of our book insights to easily fit learning into your day • Learn hands-free at the gym, in the car, or doing chores with Autoplay • Download book & podcast key insights to listen offline — LEARN & GROW TOGETHER WITH BLINKIST SPACES • Curate Spaces—your learning playlists—to organize toward your goals • Share your Spaces for FREE with anyone you want to learn with, even if they’re not on Blinkist yet — ENJOY PERSONALIZED RECOMMENDATIONS & EXPERT-CURATED LISTS • Always know what to read or listen to next—we’ll suggest titles based on your interests & goals • Let a pro lead you through today’s must-know topics and apply what you learn right away with interactive tools and activities. • Discover new ideas & find motivation with recommended book lists curated by experts — BENEFIT FROM A PERSONAL TOUCH • Focus only on top books—our editorial team carefully selects every book • Listen to Blinks of Podcasts, made with the podcast creators for exclusive new insights • Enjoy lovingly written summaries of key ideas by experts with a passion for explaining complex topics in simple, beautiful language — LEARN THE WAY SCIENCE INTENDED • Thanks to a format based on neuroscientific research you'll quickly make headway • Understand easily through crystal clear language & short, powerful content — IN THE PRESS "Blinkist is an intriguing new app that encourages you to read more nonfiction books... It’s a fun and fascinating way to discover new and interesting topics" -The New York Times "There is no such thing as too much knowledge. If you would like to expand your horizons but don’t have the time to read, Blinkist is a speedy and convenient way of learning" -TheNextWeb "Blinkist offers a terrific service—great ideas distilled down to their very essence. For those of us who are deeply curious about new ideas on success, happiness, innovation, progress, and more, it’s a great start." -Forbes "The audio feature is an awesome way to dive into a book while folding laundry or cooking a meal." -BuzzFeed — HOW WILL YOU LEVEL UP? Getting started is simple. Download the Blinkist app now & sign up for a free 7-day trial with unlimited access. When you’re ready, choose a monthly or annual plan! With Blinkist Premium you’ll have access to: • 6,500+ book summaries • audio versions of all key insights from books • expert & curator led audio Guides through today’s must-know topics • personalized recommendations from the Blinkist editors • offline mode so you can enjoy your favorite book insights without Wi-Fi • a send-to-Kindle feature If you choose the Blinkist Basic plan you can still enjoy 1 title selected by us, every day. Ready to make headway? Download Blinkist today! Terms of Use: https://www.blinkist.com/en/tos Privacy Policy: https://www.blinkist.com/privacy.html Questions? Suggestions? Speak to a real person at Blinkist! Our trusty customer support team is just an email away—simply write to [email protected]