Amazon has long offered the ability to sync ebooks with their audiobook equivalent, a convenient option for those who prefer to read when sitting down but like to continue with the book while on the move. Spotify is currently testing a feature called Page Match, which can pull off the same trick with paper books …
Paper books, ebooks, and audiobooks all have their respective fans, but some people like to mix and match the benefits.
If you’re sat at home reading a book but then need to head out, it can be really handy to be able to continue listening to the audiobook version from exactly where you left off. That’s something Amazon supports with a feature called Whispersync for Voice.
If you like to mix paper books with audiobooks, however, Spotify may be planning to introduce the perfect feature for you. The Verge reports that the company is testing something called Page Match.
The feature works by scanning the page you’re currently reading with your device camera, using optical character recognition (OCR) to identify passages that are then matched to specific timestamps in the audiobook.
Spotify’s description says that it will work both ways around, making it easy to switch back to the paper book once you get home. When you pause the audiobook, Page Match will give you the page number for the paper version.
The site does note that different editions of paper books have different page numbers, and it’s not yet clear how Spotify will cope with this when it comes to the reverse functionality.
As with all features companies test, there’s no guarantee that this one will launch, but it does sound like a cool idea that would be warmly welcomed by some.
Photo by Melanie Deziel on Unsplash