Audible is introducing a new way to enjoy audiobooks. Called “Read & Listen”, this feature is a big change for the audiobook app, as it brings the ability to read your book while you also listen to it
Breaking down the walls between Kindle and Audible, Amazon thinks Read & Listen is the most immersive way to enjoy a book, and it’s slowly being introduced across the US (via Good E-reader).
Read along while you listen
The core of Read & Listen is simple: If you own both the Kindle e-book and audiobook versions of a title, you can consume them both at the same time. When you have a Read & Listen compatible book, you’ll open a simple reading interface, along with a moving highlight that shows exactly where the narration is.
Read & Listen is launching with hundreds of thousands of compatible titles in English, German, Spanish, Italian, and French. When you get access to the feature, Audible will scan which of the books in your library has a compatible e-book version, and give you a specific store filter, so you can buy the e-book directly from Amazon.
The feature is similar to the Whispersync for Voice feature on the Kindle app, which syncs up your progress in an audiobook with your e-book, so you can seamlessly swap between the two at once. The aim here is obviously a little different though, as you’ll be listening and reading at the same time.
“Audiobooks count as reading,” said Andy Tsao, Chief Product Officer at Audible. “But now at Audible, you can read with your eyes too. Read & Listen gives book lovers the best of both worlds.”
This feature seems to have been a long time coming too, as Audible claims there’s been plenty of research done that proves this type of “immersive reading” offers the best experience for a lot of people. According to Audible’s stats, people who listen and read at the same time are amongst its most active members. Though we imagine they’re not listening to AI-narrated audiobooks.
It also supposedly boosts retention, making it extremely valuable for students and language learners. Happily, that would also include people listening to J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, which may mean I finally have a chance to get through it properly.
Read & Listen is not available widely yet, and it’s only just being rolled out to select users across the US, so it may be some time before it arrives for you. Hopefully, it won’t be long before it becomes available for everyone else too.
