Spotify announces AI Recaps for its Audiobooks

Ever fallen asleep while listening to your Audiobook, only to find you’ve forgotten what happened? Well, now you don’t have to, thanks to Spotify’s new AI-powered Recaps feature. This allows you to tap the Recaps button to hear a tailored summary of what’s happened so far up until where you left off. This was supposedly created to help authors and publishers grow their business by re-engaging listeners who might otherwise fall by the wayside.

Spotify claims its Recap feature has been developed in close collaboration with publishing partners. In practice, users must have already started listening to a specific Audiobook for at least 15-20 minutes for the option to appear. However, this will be updated regularly as listening progresses. It also avoids spoilers by covering only the parts of the story that readers have already heard.

Audiobook Recaps is being rolled out gradually and is currently only available for a limited selection of English-language titles on iOS. Publishers with titles already uploaded to Spotify for Authors will be eligible for Recaps beginning December 13, 2025. However, those sceptical of the feature can opt out of eligibility from today. Spotify is launching Audiobook Recaps in a beta version to gather feedback from listeners, authors, and publishers.

Importantly, the company has pledged that it is not using Audiobook content for large language model (LLM) training purposes or voice generation. So, you shouldn’t notice the AI Recap replacing the narration or changing any of the original content. However, if it does, this should be flagged during the beta phase. Spotify is keen to show its commitment to protecting the work of authors and narrators. Time will tell how well its new feature is implemented and received.