Spotify rolls out AI time-synced podcast transcripts so you can read along

Spotify has launched a new feature that offers auto-generated, time-synced transcripts of podcast episodes. This development is part of Spotify's latest efforts to improve its platform, which also includes AI-powered voice translation in numerous languages, shared group listening feature, or their Audiobook integration.

The podcast transcripts will be accessible to all users, both free and premium, globally in the upcoming period. The feature is designed to work with "millions of episodes" from a variety of podcasts. There is no exact date, but the company has revealed that they will be rolling out the feature to all their users in the coming weeks, so we can assume it won't take long.

To use the podcast transcription feature, users can access a transcription preview by scrolling down the "Now Playing View" during an episode (almost similar to how you look up for real time lyrics on songs). Once there, you can expand the preview into a full-screen view by tapping the upper-right corner. As the podcast progresses, the corresponding words in the transcript are highlighted, facilitating synchronized reading and listening. Spotify has also revealed that they plan to add more updates with new functions, such as the possibility of including ways to add media to transcripts, although when these updates will arrive is still a mystery.