Spotify debuts audiobook recaps, offering tailored audio summaries to reengage listeners

Spotify is rolling out audiobook recaps, a feature that delivers short audio summaries tailored to each listener’s last position within a story. These recaps are designed to help listeners reengage with audiobooks they might have paused after a busy week, a doze during a session, or when they need a quick refresher before resuming listening.

Unlike full summaries, recaps only cover the part of the book that has already been played, functioning similarly to a “previously on” segment in television. This approach ensures users can catch up without revisiting content or encountering spoilers. Spotify emphasizes that recaps are meant to reduce friction, streamline the listening experience, and encourage seamless immersion.

While the feature activates after 15–20 minutes of listening and updates regularly with user progress, Spotify is careful to address concerns about content rights. Recaps leverage artificial intelligence, but Spotify does not use audiobook content for large language model training or voice generation. The new summaries avoid replicating the original narration and do not replace the main audiobook.

At launch, this feature is available in beta on iOS for a selection of English-language titles, with broader availability planned in the future.