Spotify eyes seamless switching between physical books and audiobooks

New Delhi: Spotify has recently upgraded its audiobooks feature with several new capabilities to make it easier for users to discover and listen to audiobooks on the platform. This upgrade brings the latest feature that will enable users to sync audiobooks on Spotify with the physical copies of the book. It will let the users continue listening from where they last stopped reading the physical books. Spotify is now collaborating with Bookshop.org, which will enable users to buy physical books through Spotify.

Spotify is also coming with the latest feature called Page Match. This tool will let users move between a physical book or e-book and its audiobook version while staying synced to the same point in the story. The users can scan a page of their book with their device camera inside the Spotify application. Spotify then finds the matching spot in the audiobook, and it starts playing it from that point. If the users return to reading later, they can scan again to pick up at the correct page. The Page Match feature is built on the beta rollout of the Audiobook Recaps feature last year.

This latest feature will be available on iOS and Android by the end of February for the mostly English-language audiobook titles. These updates come as Spotify looks for the latest ways to expand its audiobook offerings by offering and testing paid features. While the audiobooks and Page Match will continue to be available in the limited free forms, the company has also stated it may try subscription options for the additional features in the future.

Spotify has also been reported to be rolling out the Audiobook Recaps feature to Android devices. Spotify has also extended it beyond its earlier iOS-only availability. This latest feature will offer short recaps based on where the listeners last stopped in the audiobook. When users return to an audiobook, they can tap the Recap button at the top of the title’s page to hear a summary of the story so far. The first recap becomes available after listening to around 15-20 minutes of the book.