It’s a good time to be a bookworm; between audiobooks, ebooks, and traditional physical books, there’s not much excuse these days to avoid enjoying a good book. Or a trashy book — I’m not one to judge. In an effort to make reading more approachable, Audible recently launched a new feature it calls “immersion reading” that syncs written words with audiobooks.
Rolling out to Australian users soon, immersion reading is being added to the Audible app, joining the existing functionality on Kindle devices. Enabled via a ‘Read & Listen’ tab within the app, it highlights the text of an ebook while the audiobook plays.
With the new addition to Audible’s app, readers can now choose between ‘Listen’, ‘Read’, and ‘Read & Listen’ modes. All modes synchronise between devices, so readers can pick up where they left off, regardless of the reading mode.
Audible pointed to the benefits of additional reading technologies, citing 2023 research from Creative Australia. According to the data, audiobook usage is higher among First Nations and culturally diverse Australians who may not speak English as a first language. As such, Audible hopes that letting users read along with audiobooks will help make books more accessible.
Audible’s new feature requires readers to own both the ebook and audiobook versions of any given book. According to Audible, “hundreds of thousands” of books support the immersion reading feature at launch.
Audible users can check compatible books by filtering the Kindle ebooks in their library that have a matching audiobook. Discounted audiobooks are available to those who own the matching ebook.
After the US, Australia will be one of the first countries to gain the Listen & Read mode as part of the immersion reading update. Once it’s more widely available, the feature could make books more enjoyable for readers of all backgrounds.
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