While Medium is trying to make its blogging platform more interactive by debuting a host of content formats, the consumption of the same has been limited to paid subscribers. It may have placed everything up behind a paywall but there now exists a Chrome extension that can help you add audio to any of your Medium stories.
This Chrome extension, called Play, has been gathering upvotes on Product Hunt because it gives the creators a chance to add another realm of interactivity to their stories. It allows them to include audio transcriptions of their stories with just a tap of the button. Using this extension, you will be able to listen to your favorite author’s words in the background while you continue to do your work.
To add audio transcriptions to your stories, download the Play Chrome extension and see it make an appearance in the Medium editor. You can continue writing your story as Play will come in handy when you’re ready to publish it. Tap on the Publish button at the top right to notice a new “Publish with Audio” button, coupled with toggles for changing the audio speed and transcription voice. You’re free to select from a collection of 18 voices and uplift your story’s engagement. You can use this extension to add audio to existing stories or listen to any existing story on Medium as well.
Though you may not have embedded an audio player with the transcriptions into the story, Play makes a “play” button available on most of them. You don’t even require to open any story to read it, but instead you can simply tap on the play button to hear the robotic voice read out loud the contents of the story. You can just delete the embed appearing in the Medium editor to remove the audio transcription from your story.
While it may be a positive addition to the story, the flip side can be destructive for Medium creators. The Play extension could result in the reduction of appreciation (claps) of the content as users will just come, hit the play button to listen to the content while doing their errands and then close the tab without appreciating the efforts of the author. This will result in lower income for the content creators on the platform.
Medium is tediously trying to monetize its blogging platform with a subscription tier, which comprises of subscriber-locked and audio stories. Play interferes with their ongoing plan for monetizing the platform’s content and Medium could possibly block the usage of this plugin to uphold the character of its blogging platform. It was a great use case for the technology and wows everyone by converting any Medium article into a mini-podcast.
