Hey folks,
I am one of the co-founders of Recast, an AI-powered service that helps you enjoy any text article on the web in an easier, faster way.
In brief, Recast turns any text you care about into a short, news-style explainer podcast using AI. Much more than a summary, our virtual hosts actually have a back-and-forth conversation, which makes all the difference. You can submit your own, or discover what other users have already recast. Recasts are shorter than reading the whole article would be, plus listening is often a much more palatable way of consuming knowledge, as you can listen to a Recast on a walk, on the commute, while doing the dishes, etc. Here’s a couple of Recasts you can listen to directly:
- In Norway, the Electric Vehicle Future Has Already Arrived from New York Times
- Dear Sam Altman- There was never an era of making models bigger from DataDrivenInvestor
- China isn’t waiting to set down rules on generative AI from MIT Tech Review
- In cosmology, all our errors lean the same way. The implications are... interesting from The Egg And The Rock
Several visually impaired users mentioned your website and that we should post recast here since it made reading articles on the web much more enjoyable for them compared to regular screen readers.
We are still a very young company and a small team and we are constantly working on improving the accessibility of our app and we'd love to get your feedback!
Thank you so much.
Comments
I'm glad VI people like this but it's not for me.
I can just use my screen reader to read articles if I need to.
Yes adds get in the way sometimes but as a screen reader user I can work around them.
I don't think this will take off hugely in the blind comunity as we already have a tool for this.
The back and forth thing is interesting but not something i'd personally pay for if that is what you need to do.
I love it!!!!
Hi there! What a really cool idea! I love the back and forwards thing. It’s definitely an interesting way of making articles more readable. And I love the voices. Well done! Very creative, most definitely impressed.
A great idea for free
Hi! Thanks for making this app for free, and the major features for free to access. I find this idea really cool, it's a creative way to listen to news articles. Though I would remain skeptical about the ability to sum up articles or documents we provide in person, what's published by the developers is quite enjoyable. Hopefully I can be continue to be interested about this app and use it to discover interesting stories.
I'm so glad people like the app.
Just cause it's not for me doesn't mean it's not useful.
I'm surprised but happy that people enjoy the app.
It just goes to show, just cause I don't find an app useful doesn't mean I should speak for others.
Business model and conversion content
Thanks for the feedback! We intend to keep the app free to listen to what others have converted. Our costs are in the conversion side of things: those GPU hours for AI are expensive!
We will be experimenting with different models there. Currently free users can convert articles from "larger" publishers (we have a list of about 1000 of those). Essentially anything you encounter in the public feeds in the app was converted for free. If you'd like to convert something from a smaller/niche source, you'd need a subscription for that and that stays private to you and does not appear in the feeds in the app.
As for being skeptical about the conversion, in our experience the content gets converted quite well to the format but sometimes it has rough edges around the conversational flow. But we are actively working on the format itself and expect to improve if in the coming months and offer more options to give users some control.
Power Consumption and lock screen
Hi!
I have 2 pieces of feedback to share:
1. My phone gets really hot when the app is opened, and the over all consumption of battery is very strong, nearly 30 percent of battery is consumed within half an hour of using the app.
2. I have a habit of locking the screen when listening to audio files. However, minutes after locking my screen, the app crashes and the file stops playing. The only way to get it back is to restart the app.
Hope this helps!