[Feature request] (Android/iOS) Allow tapping screen to turn page in e-reader

[nerdpersonthing]

Currently, when using the e-reader mode to read (non-audio) e-books in the Android and iOS apps, the only way to turn the page forward or back is using a swipe gesture.

In most e-reader apps, as well as most e-reader devices (Kindle, Nook, etc), simply tapping different regions of the screen also works to turn the page in the same way. As an example, see the attached screenshot from Calibre's webserver.

It would be great if this could be implemented in Audiobookshelf for accessibility and ease of use.

One potential implementation that would make sense to me would be adding an option in the "Ereader Settings" menu - a selector labeled "Turn pages with:", with options "Tap", "Swipe", or "Both". In my opinion, "Both" should be made the default, as this is the behavior in the vast majority of other e-readers I have used.

[advplyr]

Have you seen settings in other ereaders that allow you to change how the page navigation works?

[nerdpersonthing]

Sure, here are a few examples.

Calibre doesn't actually have any options to configure its page navigation, to my knowledge - it just functions with both tap and swipe, and doesn't seem to have any way to customize that behavior.

Meanwhile, ReadEra (my preferred document reader on Android) does have some pretty extensive options to customize how its page navigation works - see the screenshots below.

(It refers to navigation by tapping as "Flipping by touch.")

Scheme 1:

Scheme 2:

Scheme 3:

I don't think customization this extensive needs to be in audiobookshelf; merely being able to enable/disable navigation that functions like Scheme 1, or Calibre's layout from the original post, would be sufficient IMO. (Though having the option to navigate via volume buttons as well would be nice.)

[KaiStarkk]

Agreed that detailed customization isn't needed, but a tap option would be very helpful as it prevents ghosting and works better on devices with lesser CPU / refresh rate.

[dathbe]

I support this. I would say that I think the later mock-ups in this thread are better than the one in the original post because most ereaders I’m familiar with will bring up the settings/options when you tap in the middle, but will turn the page if you tap the edge of the screen.

[goodeye1]

I would definitely be interested in this, the swipe is a big throw off for me coming from the kindle app and Libby where I’ve used the tap to swipe page setting for years.