Spoken Beta V0.8.2: Dual Narration, Previews, and Explore!
Dual Narration
Romance authors, you asked, and we listened! Introducing Dual Narration. Common in romance audiobooks, dual narration mirrors the novel’s structure, where chapters alternate between characters’ viewpoints – typically hero and heroine. And while the default is dialogue within a chapter being read entirely by its assigned narrator, the author can go into passages, separate out the lines read by the other character, and choose that line to be read by the opposing voice. Which means, technically speaking, we now also have DUET narration!
Explore Page
What was previously known as the “search” page will now be known as the “explore” page. With the introduction of channel follows in v0.8, channel tags have now become an even more important part of the Spoken experience. Browse the new explore page to find your followed channels, as well as the channels trending on Spoken! Another great improvement to the explore page is that the display channels now show three across rather than two.
Social Cards
With the 0.8.2 release we’ve beefed up the social sharing experience. Sharing your profile or project, whether it be via text or social media, will now show the profile picture or cover art associated with it. Along with a description that includes likes/listens for a project, and followers/listens for profiles. This makes sharing your content even more interesting and engaging!
1 Minute Preview Playback
Ever since version 0.6, users who come across Spoken have been able to interact with the platform without the need for signing up, which we call guest mode. We’re excited to announce an upgrade to guest mode that allows users to listen to a 1-minute preview of any Spoken project for free. Send your projects to family and friends for a free preview of your work!
Intro fixes for projects that don't have Narrator
With the 0.7 release came the Author introduction feature, where you can introduce your work, or have your narrator introduce your work, OR you can do both. One use case we ran into is that some stories don’t have a distinguished narrator. You can now choose from any of your characters/voices to introduce your project.
