Hi Product Hunt!
I'm Ben, the cofounder of Matter. Today we're thrilled to launch Readable Podcasts, a new interface that lets you highlight podcasts for the first time.
Podcasts are exploding in popularity because they’re a unique source of practical knowledge. But while audio is rich and expressive, it’s not great for recall. Unlike text, audio can’t be highlighted, copied, saved, or shared. Nor can it be searched, skimmed, referenced, or reviewed. Thus, a growing body of knowledge is “trapped” in podcast audio, unable to be fully exploited by learners.
Readable Podcasts solves this problem by providing complete transcripts alongside every podcast episode. The audio and text are kept in sync, so you can seamlessly switch from listening to reading and vice versa.
When you hear an interesting idea, you can double-tap your headphones to highlight the accompanying text. Or, you can open your phone to interact with the podcast in its “article” form, using Matter’s reader interface to highlight, take notes, and share quotes.
To try Readable Podcasts, download Matter from the iOS App Store. Then, save an episode to Matter from your current podcast app using the share extension. The episode will appear in your Matter Queue with its transcript.
Note that Matter is a complement — not a replacement — for your current podcast app. You can still use Spotify, Overcast, Apple Podcasts, or your player of choice to receive and listen to new episodes. When there’s an episode you want to go deeper on, simply save it to Matter and listen there as a Readable Podcast.
We're excited to hear what you think!
@benspringwater Thanks for launching this. "You can still use Spotify, Overcast, Apple Podcasts, or your player of choice to receive and listen to new episodes" this bit is essential for me.
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Long-time fan and subscriber to the Matter product. The addition of Readable Podcasts is another great addition to an already amazing product. I love the attention to detail, yet maintaining simplicity and not interfering with the core functionality of the product. Well done team!
Finally jumped on the Readable Podcasts bandwagon yesterday after my reading list got too long and I tried getting ChatGPT to read an article to me. The article was so long that it couldn't 😅
Came to Matter next and was up and running in a few minutes. Really slick onboarding + product. Glad to be a paying member. Congrats to you and the team on launching, @benspringwater!
The attention to detail and thoughtfulness this team has is incredible. Improvements to their products always feel intentional and polished while striking the right balance between simplicity and functionality. I love it. Every time Ben drops an update it kind of feels like Christmas a lil bit.
@agron_ Aw thank you so much Juan. We're honored to have you as a user and supporter.
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I've tried other "highlighting podcast transcripts" apps before, the experience was never great. When Matter rolled it out, I was excited to try it. It actually works, and works really well! Game changer for podcasts.
@andrewkkirk Hey Andrew! Right now it is on a one-by-one basis through the share extension but we are exploring being able to subscribe in the app directly.
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Congrats on the launch Ben and team! I love how seamless it is to quickly receive a podcast from Spotify and read, highlight, and search on Matter. Great work on the slick UI too.
The heart of the Matter: the UX is disarmingly simple, the price might make you pause, but with this new podcast feature, we might be looking at the killer app for readers. The flip side, the thing most developers miss, is that creators don't just want to read, listen, or watch, we're collecting ideas and inspiration - adding our two cents - and then sharing the mixtape. Adding the ability to sync highlights with Notion (in beta) and other note apps is a great step. Now to optimize that workflow!
Long-time fan and subscriber to the Matter product. The addition of Readable Podcasts is another great addition to an already amazing product. I love the attention to detail, yet maintaining simplicity and not interfering with the core functionality of the product. Well done team!
I've tried other "highlighting podcast transcripts" apps before, the experience was never great. When Matter rolled it out, I was excited to try it. It actually works, and works really well! Game changer for podcasts.
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