• Spotify now offers AI recaps for audiobooks
• It’s in beta testing on the Spotify app for iOS
• You can catch up with titles in a few minutes

It’s not always easy jumping back into the mid-point of an audiobook, especially if you’re coming back after several weeks or months, but Spotify wants to help: it’s introducing AI-powered recaps of everything in an audiobook you’ve listened to so far.

The feature works a bit like those “previously on…” recaps you see at the start of TV shows, and will “help you easily reengage with a story without needing to relisten”, according to Spotify. All you do to activate them is tap the Recap button on the audiobook page.

The recaps will only go up to your current listening point, so there shouldn’t be any spoilers. They’re available once you’re 15-20 minutes into an audiobook, and are then updated regularly as your listening progresses.

Spotify says the feature is now available in beta for the iOS app, for a “limited selection” of titles in English. Once Spotify has tweaked and refined the feature, and got some feedback from users, it’ll begin rolling out more widely.

Kindle version when?

As per Spotify’s announcement, it isn’t using audiobook content to do any AI model training, and the AI doesn’t replace the narration or any of the original content. It’s just there to help you catch up – and maybe finish titles you previously abandoned.

It’s likely to be useful if you’re wanting to get back into an audiobook you previously abandoned, or if you fell asleep the night before with the audiobook still playing and aren’t sure what’s happened in the plot most recently.

Presumably the recaps – developed “in collaboration with our publishing partners”, Spotify says – aren’t going to hallucinate plot twists or imaginary characters, but if they do, that should be something that’s flagged up during the beta phase.

This is something that would be useful for the written word too, if you’re paying attention, ereader makers? An AI you can get recaps from, and ask questions of, about everything you’ve read in a book so far sounds incredibly useful, whether you’re reading an e-book or need a companion app for your real book.

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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.