Audible wants to help your audiobook clips go viral

Would you be as happy sharing a well-written chunk of Dickens prose as you are a YouTube clip of kittens doing something cute? The Amazon-owned Audible thinks so, which is why it's introducing a new feature today to make it easier to share 45-second clips of whatever you're listening to.

As Wired reports, the audiobook emporium is calling the new feature Clips and sharing said clips is as easy as tapping on a button in a corner of the mobile app. There are options to trim and tweak the audio to get it spot on, and users can then save the clip for their own use or share it with the wider world.

For the time being, all you get is a link to the Audible site where the clip can be played: there's no clever audio embed feature yet, which might limit its appeal. However, if you're desperate to share a line of beautifully crafted prose then the option is now there.

Grin and share it

It's possible to add your own notes and commentary to the clip, so the feature set is fairly standard as far as sharing anything online goes - as all you get is a single URL, it works everywhere from Facebook to SMS.

You don't have to share what you save of course - you could just use the new service as a clever bookmarking tool - but Amazon obviously wants to extend its audience reach to grab the attention of new members as well as highlighting brilliant audiobooks in its library.

Will Audible's Clips be able to out-meme the GIF and the Vine? It's too early to say, but if you're an existing subscriber keep your eyes out for the feature appearing in the official mobile apps in the very near future.

If you'd like to give Audible a try, why not sign up to a 30 day free trial? You'll be able to choose from a choice of over 200,000 audio books and enjoy a great book while driving, exercising or just leaning back at home and relaxing those tired eyes.

• Get your 30 day free trial at Audible