Audiobooks have always asked listeners to build a mental picture of a story using nothing but sound. That can be part of the magic, but it can also get tricky when a story introduces a giant cast of characters, jumps between locations, or throws a particularly complicated plot at you.

Audible is now trying to change that. The company has introduced three new features—Character Guide, Interactive Story, and Visual Explorer—that are designed to make listening more interactive without simply turning an audiobook into something that looks like an app full of distractions.

The features use AI alongside creator-directed storytelling, with Audible positioning them as additional layers around the original listening experience rather than replacements for it.

The first is Character Guide, which is launching with the Audible Original Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It is designed to solve one of the oldest problems with complicated audiobooks: remembering who on earth everyone is.

While listening, Audible can show who is speaking in real time on the player page. Listeners can also open spoiler-free character cards containing information about the characters and the performers voicing them, including narrator headshots and biographies.

That could be particularly useful for something like Dracula, where the story involves a substantial cast and multiple perspectives. Audible says Character Guide is also available with its Audible Original George Orwell’s 1984 and will arrive with Exoplanet, the upcoming Audible Original written by Benjamin Percy and executive produced by Andy Weir, on November 5.

There is another AI-powered element coming to Character Guide, too. Audible says listeners will eventually be able to ask questions about the production while the story is unfolding.

But Character Guide is still relatively conventional compared with Audible’s second feature.

Interactive Story takes the idea of an audiobook companion and turns it into something closer to a playable story. Instead of simply listening to a character, listeners can actually have a real-time conversation with one.

The first Interactive Story is tied to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and puts listeners in a conversation with Renfield, Dracula’s famously troubled servant. Renfield begins the interaction by giving the listener a role, a goal, and stakes within the scenario. The listener then responds in their own words, while the character reacts in real time.

Audible says the experience combines generative AI, conversational design, and sound production. Importantly, the company says creators establish the foundations of these experiences, including the opening scenes, turning points, and character persona. That gives Audible a framework for keeping the interaction aligned with the creator’s intended world.

The next Interactive Story will arrive November 5 alongside Exoplanet, created with author Benjamin Percy.

This is an interesting distinction for Audible. Rather than using AI simply to answer questions about a book or recommend another one, the company is using it as part of the storytelling experience itself.

Then there is Visual Explorer, which takes Audible in a different direction.

Coming soon, the feature will add relevant imagery and visual context at particular moments during an audiobook. A listener might see a map showing where a story is taking place or open an image connected to an important moment, while still keeping their place in the narration.

Audible is using The Cultural Tutor’s Grand Tour: The Story of Europe in Six Cities as an early example. Listeners can explore additional imagery and information about landmarks, historical figures, and places mentioned throughout the six-city journey.

That makes Visual Explorer feel less like a traditional audiobook companion and more like an optional visual layer. If you want to stay completely immersed in the narration, you can keep listening. If a location, person, or historical reference catches your attention, there is now another way to explore it without completely leaving the experience.

All three features also fit into a broader shift happening at Audible. The company has increasingly been adding AI-powered tools around its core audiobook business, including Maven, its conversational discovery tool for finding books through natural-language requests.

Audible previously introduced features such as Page Sync, which lets listeners move between print and audio versions of supported books, as well as AI-powered tools that help users discover and interact with their listening library.

The new features take that evolution a step further. Instead of treating an audiobook as a fixed audio file, Audible is beginning to treat the story as something that can have additional layers—character information, visuals, conversations, and other interactive experiences—wrapped around the original narration.

There is an important limitation at launch, though. Character Guide, Interactive Story, and Visual Explorer are rolling out as limited beta experiences for Audible customers in the U.S. and UK. Audible says it plans to evolve them based on feedback from both customers and creators.

That limited rollout also makes sense given how different these experiences are from conventional audiobook playback. Audible isn’t just testing whether people want more information while they listen. It is testing how much interaction listeners actually want from a medium that has traditionally worked best when you simply put your headphones on and let the narrator take over.

The bigger question may be whether these features remain optional enhancements or eventually become a more fundamental part of how Audible designs its Originals. For now, Audible is keeping the original story at the center while experimenting with what can happen around it.

And honestly, being able to ask Renfield what the hell is going on sounds considerably more entertaining than pausing an audiobook to Google it.