Millions Are Turning To This App To Pick Out Their Next Favorite Book

Finding time for reading is hard enough without the added challenge of deciding what to read in the first place. According to UNESCO, about 2.2 million books are published each year, and that’s not to mention the almost 130 million books Google predicted already existed back in 2010.

With all this choice, how do avid readers choose what to tackle next? One answer is Blinkist.

Blinkist is an app that shares insights from nonfiction books in 15-minute reads and listens. There are 4,000 titles to choose from across 27 categories like personal development, psychology and creativity.

With bite-sized explainers of nonfiction books, users can take books for a test drive to see if they’ll like them before diving into the full thing. In just 15 minutes, they’ll either find out the book isn’t for them, learn everything they wanted to know about the topic, or decide they want to learn more and buy the full book knowing they’ll like it.

LtoR: The Blinkist founders: Niklas Jansen, Tobi Balling and Holger Seim. Not pictured: Sebastian Klein

The app was originally designed to help people check out more books. Back in 2012, four friends realized they all loved reading nonfiction books, but they struggled to find time for it. When they discovered they could explain the key lessons of nonfiction books in 15 minutes, they created the app to share these and help other busy people fit reading into their day.

“Blinkist has helped me read more — period. I love that I can get the key learnings from 10+ books a week, and immediately implement them in my own life. Blinkist has also helped me filter the books I purchase — if I couldn’t get enough of the Blinks, I buy it.” – Hitha Palepu, entrepreneur and author

Eight years on and the app has exploded in popularity. It now has 16 million users and has won awards from the likes of Google and the UN. As well as helping busy people to fit learning into their lives, Blinkist also helps them pick out their next book and waste less time reading those that aren’t for them. Here’s how.

A Book Explained in 15 Minutes

Blinkist shares the most important takeaways from nonfiction books in bite-sized explainers. This means that instead of the days, or sometimes weeks, it takes to read a book cover to cover, users can get the core ideas in about 15 minutes. With these short explainers, it’s easy to take books for a test drive before deciding whether to read them in full.

Check out bestselling authors and the latest nonfiction books

For example, users can check out Finding Your Element by Ken Robinson on the app. In 13 minutes, they’ll have a solid understanding of what the book is about and all of the most important messages. If it’s sparked an interest in them, they can get the full book and dive in knowing they’ll enjoy it and get something useful from investing that reading time.

To cut down on my impulse book buying I’ve subscribed to @blinkist app – I’ve found that if a book is still interesting after reading the highlights I end up buying the book anyway. I now buy half as many, the ones I do buy are higher quality and more impactful

— Daley Ervin (@daleyervin) July 23, 2019

Learning On the Go

As people are strapped for time, Blinkist has made consuming these explainers even quicker and easier with audio. Every explainer on the app is available to listen to as well as read, so users can test drive titles while multitasking, like when commuting, cooking or working out.

Plus, Blinkist has invested in making its audio content the best it can be. Sound effects, more than one narrator and scripts written with listeners in mind all make the content engaging and entertaining.

What’s more, if users listen to an explainer and decide to go on to read the book in full, many audiobooks are available to purchase right there in the app.

“I’ve used commutes for learning, listening to many audiobooks. I often pick my books by first listening to book summaries in the Blinkist and Instaread apps.” — Yana Welinder, Kraftful CEO and Co-Founder

Apple Thinks Blinkist is a Top App for Lifelong Learning

Blinkist has become known as a go-to app in the education field. In fact, Apple named it one of the top 20 apps for lifelong learning alongside the likes of TED, Coursera and Udemy. In 2019 alone, Blinkist was featured as the ‘App of the Day’ on the App Store more than 500 times worldwide.

With its short explainers outlining important lessons from nonfiction books, it’s easy to learn from the world’s best authors and bestselling titles through the app. With this, people can use the app to find titles that will teach them the skills they need to know.

For example, if a user just got promoted to a management role and wanted to swot up on the latest leadership techniques, they could dive into that category on Blinkist to find titles on the subject. Then, they could check out the explainers for a few titles—like Charismatic Leadership, The Hero Factor and Serve Up, Coach Down, for example—before deciding on which one suited them best. The same goes for parenting advice, nutrition tips or investing strategies.

“As a productivity coach and one of the life long learners, I can’t tell you how happy I was to find Blinkist. If you enjoy nonfiction reading and are short on time, Blinkist will be your new favorite app.” – Karen Trepte, HuffPost

Over 90 Thousand 5-Star Ratings

However, it’s not just big organizations like Apple that are fans. Users themselves rave about the app, too. There are more than 90 thousand 5-star ratings from Android and Apple users and 75% of all user ratings are five stars.

Many users even mention in their review that they use Blinkist as a way for deciding what to read next:

“There are so many books I want to read, and not enough hours in the day. Now I can get the ‘low down’ on books I’m interested in, only purchasing the books that genuinely intrigue me.” — 5-star review

“Found Blinkist to be an invaluable app. The insights are great to see if I would like to read the full book or give a quick snapshot on a topic I’m interested in.” — 5-star review.

Get Inspiration from What Top Minds are Reading

When Blinkist asked some of its US users what their biggest challenge was when it came to learning, 41% said that it was the amount of information out there and not knowing where to start. The same can be said for books with the millions of titles out there to choose from.

To make finding new books easier, Blinkists has created expertly-curated collections. Instead of just turning to friends and family, users can turn to thought leaders and interesting public figures for recommendations. Blinkist’s collections include the top picks of people like Arianna Huffington, Bill Gates and Brené Brown.

Blinkist also shares what titles are trending among its users, so it’s easy to see what books are creating a buzz and could be worth checking out.

Find books by reading or listening to short explainers on Blinkist

Get Tailored Recommendations

As well as recommendations from well-known names, the app also gives users recommendations tailored to their tastes. Once users have read a few titles on the app, Blinkist learns what kind of books they like and starts recommending others they’ll probably enjoy based on their history.

“There’s so much information in the world today, and it seems as if there is less time than ever before. Blinkist’s team of experts sifts through books for me to find the signal and avoid the noise.” – Aidan McCullen, Athlete & Media Personality

This makes finding similar titles quick and easy, meaning users can spend less time searching for books and more time actually reading them.

Expand Your Reading Horizons

It’s all too easy to get stuck in a reading rut and only pick up books from go-to authors or in favorite topics. Blinkist helps users get out of their bubble with a variety of categories to explore.

There are categories to do with work—like entrepreneurship, leadership and productivity—and personal life—like nutrition, relationships and finances. Plus, there are categories for different interests like history, politics, science and biographies.

It’s easy for users to dip their toe into an unknown topic with the bite-sized explainer. For example, if they’re curious about stoicism or American history, but not sure if they’re interested enough in the topic to pick up an entire book on it, they can check out a 15-minute explainer on the app to get a feel for it. This is much less time-consuming than starting a book and realizing halfway through it’s not for them.

What’s more, 70 new books are added to the app each month, so there’s always something new to check out.

“I read a lot of management, self-improvement, and entrepreneurial books through Blinkist because I can gain specific knowledge on my industry or on ways to improve myself.” – Steven Renwick, CPO of Regis24

One of the World’s Best Apps

As well as Apple, other big names have taken notice of Blinkist. The app has won awards from the UN for its contribution to the education field, from Google for its design and from the International Sound Awards for its audio style.

Beyond awards, the app has been praised by everyone from Forbes to TechCrunch, The New York Times to The Guardian. Even Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, is a fan.

With all these awards and big names behind Blinkist, users know the explainers are written by experts and book recommendations are coming from a trusted source and world-class app.

@blinkist is the most efficient way I know of to decide which #books to buy and read. Probably highest ROI on any of my #SaaS subscriptions.

— Horacio Lupi (@horaciolupi) August 11, 2019

Blinkist is the learning app that makes finding books you’ll love quick and easy. If you’re looking for your next read, download Blinkist to make sure it’s something worthwhile.