Google Play now offers speed control and bookmarks for audiobooks
In January, Google launched its Play Store audiobook category and today, the company has released a handful of updates that will improve the user experience. Now, you’ll be able to bookmark parts of your audiobook that you’d like to return to. Just tap the Bookmark icon and you can easily come back to it whenever you’d like. You’ll also be able to control the speed at which your audiobook plays. Slow it down to as low as half the speed or bump it up as much as three times faster.
Additionally, Google is introducing Smart Resume. Whenever you jump back into an audiobook after pausing it, Smart Resume will rewind back to the start of the word or sentence you left off on, so you can more easily get back into the story rather than wonder what’s going on. And now, you can incorporate your audiobook into your Google Assistant-managed Routine. Whatever you have your Routine set to do, you can add audiobooks to it through the Google Home app.
Lastly, Family Library allows users to share audiobooks and ebooks with up to five family members. Now, 13 additional countries will have access to this feature. Users in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Chile, Mexico and South Africa can now share audiobooks and ebooks through Family Library and those in Japan can share audiobooks.
Audible already has most of these features, so working them into its own audiobook service is necessary if Google wants to compete with its already-established rival. These features are available now on Android, iOS and Google Assistant devices.
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