Ever wanted to talk with a character halfway through an audiobook? Audible is about to let you.
The Amazon-owned audiobook giant announced three new AI-powered features, and the headline act is a real-time conversation with a character from the book you are listening to. First up: Renfield, Dracula’s tormented servant, who will apparently speak to you first.
The features are called Character Guide, Interactive Story and Visual Explorer. Audible says they were “built in close collaboration with creators, using AI to enhance the listening experience”, and they are rolling out this autumn as a limited beta for US and UK customers.
Why we care: audiobooks have been the one corner of entertainment where you could just lie down and let someone read to you. Audible has decided that is not enough.
Three New Ways To Listen
Character Guide is the most practical of the three, and it is available now. It exists to solve a problem anyone who has tried a Russian novel in audio will recognise: keeping track of who is who. “Customers have reported this can be harder to do in audio than in print, where they have a visual reference,” explained Audible. The guide shows you who is speaking in real time on the player page, offers spoiler-free character cards that spotlight the performers behind each voice, complete with narrator headshots and bios, and will soon let you ask questions about the production as the story unfolds.
It launched on 1 October with the Audible Original Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is also available in George Orwell’s 1984, and will be included with Exoplanet, a new Audible Original by writer Benjamin Percy with executive producer Andy Weir of The Martian, out on 5 November.
Visual Explorer, coming soon, surfaces relevant imagery at key moments while you listen: a map of where a story is unfolding, say, or an image tied to a pivotal scene, without losing your place. Its launch title is The Cultural Tutor’s Grand Tour: The Story of Europe in Six Cities.
And then there is Interactive Story, which is the one everybody will be talking about.
Meet Renfield
Audible describes Interactive Story as “a bonus experience beyond the original narrative.” Each one “features real-time conversation with a character brought to life through a unique combination of generative AI, conversational design, and rich sound production.”
The first accompanies Dracula and follows Renfield. In Audible’s words: “The character speaks first, assigning the listener a role, goal, and stakes; the listener responds in their own words, and the character reacts in real time.” The next one, coming on 5 November, is set in the world of Exoplanet and was created with Benjamin Percy.
Ella Purnell stars as Mina in Audible’s Dracula
The Dracula in question is Audible’s all-star adaptation from the summer, whose English-language cast, per the July announcement the release links to, includes Jonathan Bailey, Ella Purnell, Louis Partridge, Aimee Lou Wood, David Jonsson, Lesley Manville and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Whether the chatbot Renfield sounds anything like the actor who plays him is not something the release addresses.
“These new features invite listeners into a story in ways that simply weren’t possible before,” said Audible’s Chief Content Officer, Rachel Ghiazza, in the release. “We’re excited to build on these while working hand in hand with creators, because we know that more time spent with stories benefits everyone who helps bring them to life.”
Who This Is For
Audible is not shy about the target audience. “In this case, AI is allowing us to create new interactive experiences that today’s listeners, especially younger audiences, are craving,” said Andy Tsao, Chief Product and Analytics Officer at Audible. “We are opening up entry points into stories that are still part of the authors’ vision, but that make our customers’ experiences more personal and unique.”
Sheehan Quirke, better known online as The Cultural Tutor, is the creator quoted on Visual Explorer. “I was able to shape what listeners see and when they see it, so the imagery isn’t just illustrative but is genuinely part of the storytelling,” he said. “It’s a new way to elevate the experience and bring listeners even closer to the world behind each chapter.”
The Catch
Audible’s release leans hard on the phrase “faithful to the creator’s vision.” Creators, it says, define the foundations of each Interactive Story, including the opening scenes, turning points and character persona, “with Audible’s product design ensuring the story stays faithful to the creator’s vision all the way through.” A generative model responding to your own words in real time is, by definition, improvising. Audible is saying the guardrails hold. It is not saying how, or what happens when a listener decides to take Renfield somewhere Bram Stoker never did.
The release gives no price, and does not say whether these features are included with existing memberships. It does not mention voice cloning, or whether the characters’ voices are synthetic, or how authors and narrators opt in beyond the line that Audible is working closely with creators and publishers.
For UK listeners, the good news is you are included: the beta covers US and UK customers from the start. The less good news is that “limited beta” and “rolling out this fall” mean you may not see Renfield in your app for a while, and Audible says it will “evolve these features based on customer and creator feedback.”
Still, if you have ever finished a book and wished you could ask one of its characters a question, Audible is about to find out whether that wish survives contact with reality.
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