Spotify launched Page Match on February 5, 2026, and it’s genuinely impressive. This feature solves a problem many readers face: the awkward transition between physical books and audiobooks. Instead of fumbling to find your place, you simply scan a page with your phone’s camera.
How It Actually Works
From Paper to Audio: Reading your paperback but need to drive somewhere? Open Spotify, tap “Scan to listen,” and point your camera at the current page. The app uses OCR technology to identify exactly where you are and instantly jumps to that precise timestamp in the audiobook.
From Audio to Paper: Want to settle into bed with the physical book after listening during your commute? Tap “Scan to read” and scan any page. The app tells you whether to flip forward or backward, even highlighting the specific paragraph where the audio stopped.
What makes this particularly clever is the precision—it doesn’t just find the chapter, it locates the exact sentence.
What You Need to Know
Access: Premium subscribers can use their monthly audiobook hours for this feature. Free users can access it too, but only for audiobooks they’ve purchased through Spotify.
Availability: Currently rolling out for Android and iOS, covering about 500,000 English-language titles. Full access is expected by February 23, 2026, with plans to expand to more languages.
Integration: Page Match works with Spotify’s Recaps feature, which provides AI-generated plot summaries—helpful if you’ve been away from a book for a while.
The Bigger Picture
Spotify isn’t just syncing formats; they’re positioning themselves as a comprehensive reading platform. You can now buy physical books directly through the app via their Bookshop.org partnership, which funnels 90% to 30% of profits to local independent bookstores. This makes the feature feel less like pure corporate convenience and more ethically grounded for readers who want to support local businesses.
Technical Advantages Over Amazon
Unlike Whispersync, which requires Amazon-purchased files and specific device ecosystems, Page Match works with any physical book or e-reader (Kindle, Kobo, etc.). There’s no metadata requirement—the app reads what’s on your page and matches the sentence structure. This flexibility is significant.
Page Match represents a thoughtful approach to modern reading habits. It acknowledges that people genuinely do switch between formats based on context—commuting, exercising, relaxing at home—and removes the friction that previously made this annoying. For anyone who bounces between physical books and audiobooks, this feature is worth trying.