Spotify's latest free update is so cunning, I'm amazed it's not been done before

Spotify is rolling out a couple of new features, with one in particular being so ingenious that I'm surprised it doesn't exist already.

I attended the launch of audiobooks on the streaming platform a couple of years ago and the section has grown significantly since. However, I often find myself distracted while partway through a book and only return a considerably amount of time later. The new feature is therefore directly aimed as those like myself.

Rolling out in beta form to iPhone owners (and iPad) is Recaps. This allows users to tap into a short audio summary of a book that is being continued after some time away. It means you won't have to rewind or re-listen to sections – you can find out what happened before you took your break.

All you need to do is tap the Recap button at the top of the audiobook page to hear a summary of what's happened so far. And it'll work even if you only listened to 15 to 20 minutes of a book.

As the recap will only contain information on the part of the book you've already listened to, it won't contain any spoilers either.

Also coming to Spotify

In addition to Recaps, Spotify has updated its Shuffle functionality. Starting today, Premium users can make benefit of fewer repeats in the auto-shuffled playlist, yet also switch back to the previous version if that one's preferred.

The new Shuffle experience is now switched on by default, but Standard shuffling can be activated in the settings. This could result in more repeats though, as it's more random in its song choices (from your library).

This latter feature is available to all Spotify Premium subscribers, not just those with iPhones.