Web browser extension transforms saved articles into podcasts

Podcastle converts your favourited articles, blog posts and newsreels into digestible audio podcasts

Spotted:  Tired of favouriting an article for later enjoyment, only to forget about when something new turns up? In the online world of information saturation, it can be tricky not to feel as if keeping up with the articles that interest you is more of a chore than a pleasure. 

A new Chrome extension, Podcastle, has a solution: using AI, the third-party-text-to-speech generator converts your favourited articles, blog posts and newsreels into digestible audio podcasts.

To the ML engineer behind Podcastle, Artavazd Yeritsyan, reading is important, but a podcast is more accessible than a written article for those consuming on-the-go. The system works as a browser extension icon, which can be clicked on to instantly save, convert and then play whatever content is on your screen. The system works for the vast majority of articles and converts in only seconds.

The Podcastle voice is humanlike, speaking with breaks and pauses: “Our text-to-podcast converter based on machine learning is our unique offering. The podcasts we generate are very human-like and consider all the emotions and writer’s tone of voice,” says Yeritsyan. The whole process is designed to feel as natural as possible.

However, at the moment it can only convert articles into English. The team has explained that developing the tool into an audio content creator, which could help people such entertainers, public speakers and educational lecturers to quickly create podcasts is also in the works.

The system can be downloaded from the Chrome Web Store.

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