Spotify adds Audiobook Recaps to get you up to speed

Spotify has added a tool for audiobook listeners who have a habit of forgetting what they just heard.

Currently in beta, Audiobook Recaps is the streaming platform’s newest feature, which sounds a lot like Recaps, which was recently added to Amazon’s Kindle. Announced in a blog post on Thursday, Spotify’s new tool is “designed to help listeners get back to the stories they’ve written” by providing a brief refresher on the story so far.

It appears that these recaps are AI-generated, but Mashable has reached out to Spotify to clarify.

So, how do recaps work? When you turn on an audiobook you’re already listening to, a Recap button will now appear on the page that you can tap to hear the summary. According to the company, recaps are activated only after you listen to the first 15-20 minutes of a book and will be continuously updated as you listen. The important thing is that the recaps will come without spoiling anything ahead.

As of now, recaps are only available in Spotify’s iOS app on mobile and desktop with a selection of English-language books — so if you don’t see a recap on your book, it’s probably not in the range. More specifically, audiobooks are currently only available to Spotify Premium subscribers in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg.

In its post, Spotify said it developed Audiobook Recap with its publishing partners, and Mashable has reached out to Spotify for more information on how it actually works. Since launching audiobooks in 2022 (after acquiring audiobook platform FindAway in 2021), Spotify has signed multiple publishing deals with major and independent publishers including Bloomsbury, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Blackstone Publishing, Crooked Lane, Alcove Press, and many others. By 2025, Spotify’s library contains over 500,000 English-language books, triple its number at launch, and half of Premium users are reported to have listened to at least one.

In 2024, Spotify said it had “paid hundreds of millions of dollars to publishers on an annual basis”, though payments reportedly vary by individual deals, as outlets such as Bloomberg, the Guardian and The Bookseller, as well as the Authors Guild, have delved even further.

Overall, in its Q3 2025 earnings report, Spotify said the number of subscribers grew 12 percent to a total of 281 million.

Meanwhile, the company has recently been adding new features, including regular wrapped-style listening stats in Spotify, managed accounts for kids, the ability to search and play for free accounts, custom playlist changes, and finally launching the long-awaited lossless audio. But the company is also facing a lot of opposition from the artists.