How to Filter Out Virtual Voice on Audible

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Since Audible started allowing virtual voice narration, search results have become flooded with AI-narrated audiobooks.

They sound robotic and flat with no soul, depth, or emotional connection. Personally, I would  never spend a credit or a single dollar to purchase a virtual voice narrated title.

Related Article: 99% of Audiobook Fans Say No to Audible’s Virtual Voice

Unfortunately, Audible doesn’t give us any built-in way to filter them out.

The good news? With a simple trick, just a short bit of code, you can hide virtual voice titles from your search results.

Let me walk you through the step-by-step process below.

How to Filter Out Virtual Voice on Audible Website

Either go to the Audible search page directly or go to Audible’s homepage and use the search box in the upper-right corner.

In the search box, type -virtual_voice and it will filter out all virtual voice narration from the search results.

Note: Type it exactly as shown. No spaces or changes.

Your search results will now exclude all audiobooks with virtual voice narration.

You can:

• Use the Filters on the left side to browse by category, format, length, Plus Catalog titles, and more.
• Sort results using the Sort dropdown in the upper-right corner.

You can also add -virtual_voice with a search term to get only human-narrated results for your search term.

For example, If I search for Humor, the third search result is an AI narrated audiobook.

If I add -virtual_voice with my search term Humor, the AI narrated audiobook will not show up in the search results.

Filter out Virtual Voice in Advanced Search

Audible’s Advanced Search is my absolute favorite way to search for my next listen as it offers a wide range of filters and options, making it easy to narrow down exactly what you are looking for.

To filter out virtual voice titles in advanced search, simply add -virtual_voice in the Narrator field. You can combine this with any other search terms and filters you prefer.

For example, if I want to find humorous books in the Plus Catalog that are not AI-narrated, I will.

• Enter Humor in the search term field.
• Type -virtual_voice in the Narrator field.
• Select the Plus Catalog filter to only see books included with my membership.

This way, I will get a list of humorous human-narrated titles from the Plus Catalog.

How to Filter Out Virtual Voice in Audible App

I am not a huge fan of the Audible app’s search feature, but it can still get the job done.

Here’s how to use it to exclude AI-narrated titles:

1. Tap on the Discover option from the bottom navigation bar.
2. In the top search bar, type -virtual_voice to remove AI-narrated books from your results.
3. You can use the Filter option to further narrow down the results by category, length, or any other preference.

If you want to search for a specific topic without AI narration, simply type your search term followed by -virtual_voice.

For example, here are search results while searching Humor and Humor -virtual_voice in the Audible app.

This way, your search results will only include human-narrated titles.

Bonus Tip: Use the Browser Extension

If you want to skip typing -virtual_voice every time you search, try a handy browser extension created by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn for Chrome and Firefox.

When you browse Audible, the add-on automatically scans your search results and removes any titles “Narrated” by a “Virtual Voice.”

Note: If all the results on a page are AI-narrated, you will see a blank search results page.

Below is the example of search results without the extension (showing virtual voice narrated titles)

After installing the extension, the search listing page only shows human-narrated titles and a message at the top lets you know “Virtual Voice Title(s) Removed By DEVIRTUALIZER”.

This is by far the easiest way to eliminate all virtual voice narrations from Audible’s search pages.

Here are the links to download the Chrome and Firefox extensions, along with the developer’s GitHub page:

Download the Extension:

• Chrome / Edge: DevirtualizeAudible on Chrome Web Store
• Firefox: DevirtualizeAudible on Firefox Add-ons
• GitHub: DevirtualizeAudible Source & Updates

Why I Don’t Like Virtual Voice Audiobooks

While AI narration has improved and can sometimes be hard to distinguish from human narration, as an audiobook fan, I can still feel the difference:

• It lacks natural emotion and expression
• It sounds robotic and unnatural pacing
• Sometimes there is poor emphasis on important words
• Limited ability to convey humor or sarcasm
• Awkward pauses and sentence breaks
• Sometimes there is mispronunciation of names or uncommon words
• The tone is flat and monotonous, which makes listening less immersive

In short, virtual voice narration feels less personal and engaging. I strongly believe Audible should give listeners the option to filter out these titles from search results.