Nearly a year after introducing podcast service on its platform, Amazon Music is rolling out automatically generated, synchronised transcripts for select podcasts in order to improve user experience.
The transcripts will match the audio you’re hearing, and you can toggle around them to jump to specific parts of the audio, The Verge reported. Usually, podcasts are meant to be listened to but there are also those that would like to read the content discussed in an episode. The facility is, currently, available on both iOS and Android-supported devices in the United States. for The move, apparently, is also aimed at competing with the likes of Spotify and Google Podcasts that are offering auto transcription of podcasts on their platforms to some extent.
Transcripts will also be available for certain shows from American Public Media, audiochuck, Cadence13, The New York Times, Stitcher and TED, like “My Favorite Murder,” “Crime Junkie,” “Modern Love” and “This American Life”.
Also Read: Agritech startup Gramophone raises USD 10 mn for expansion
Creators on Apple Podcasts can include transcriptions in their show notes, which are then searchable in the app, but they are not synced with audio in this way. This feature can also be useful for finding a certain place in a podcast if you want to revisit an episode later — while dragging the cursor along, users will be able to see previews of the words being spoken, like scrubbing a video and seeing thumbnail previews. As an audio-only medium, transcriptions are essential for podcasters to reach deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences as well.
