Particle, an AI-powered news application developed by former Twitter engineers, has expanded its capabilities to encompass news breaking on podcasts in addition to content published on the web.
Ahead of its recent Android launch, Particle unveiled a new feature called Podcast Clips. This innovation identifies the most compelling and pertinent segments from a wide array of podcasts, integrating these clips directly into its news feed alongside related articles.
This means users can now play a brief audio clip while reading a news story on Particle, eliminating the need to listen through an entire lengthy podcast just to find a few seconds of relevant commentary. An alternative option allows users to read a transcript of the clip, with words highlighted in real-time as they are spoken.
“We’ve done that basically for any news story — if there is a podcast that is talking about it, or relevant at all, we’ve got all those clips,” Sara Beykpour, Particle CEO and former Senior Director of Product Management at Twitter, informed TechCrunch. She added, “It’s a really cool way, when you’re reading a story or learning about a story, to get a breath of what are people saying about this? What’s the commentary?”
This new functionality recognizes a significant and ongoing evolution in the news consumption landscape. Podcasts are increasingly becoming a trusted source for news and a primary destination for breaking stories and major announcements from public figures.
Notably, tech CEOs have been observed seeking out amenable podcast hosts to disseminate their viewpoints, often in preference to engaging with traditional media outlets, a trend reported by Bloomberg in 2024.
This shift underscores the growing importance of monitoring podcasts for anyone aiming to stay comprehensively informed about current events.
Beykpour clarified that Particle employs embedding models to discern the relevance between podcasts and specific news stories. These models, while supplied by the same providers as LLM models, are distinct from generative AI technologies, she explained.
“We use vector embeddings to understand that these different parts of the podcasts are related to these different stories,” Beykpour elaborated. “A single podcast might cover 10 or 20 stories, so we use AI to understand that. We also use AI to do some of the logic around clipping, and understanding when to start a clip and end a clip.”
For transcription services, Particle utilizes technology from ElevenLabs. However, the precise methodology for identifying optimal audio clipping points constitutes a proprietary aspect of Particle's technology.
The strategic move to integrate podcasts for deeper commentary around news mirrors a growing interest among traditional newsrooms. As Nieman Lab highlighted this month, The New York Times has developed a custom AI tool leveraging LLMs to transcribe and summarize episodes from numerous right-wing and conservative podcasts, aiming to better understand the narratives propagated by influencers within those spheres.
Particle’s Podcast Clips feature extends beyond mere news stories. Given the app’s capability to recognize various entities—such as individuals, locations, or objects—users can navigate to a dedicated page for a prominent figure, like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and view all their podcast appearances neatly organized in a feed.
Beyond this, Particle has been actively developing other features. The company has introduced its first monetization effort with Particle+, an optional subscription priced at $2.99 per month or $29.99 annually. This premium offering unlocks features such as news summaries generated in a user-preferred style via natural language, customizable voices for the personalized audio feed, a “Listen to the News” function, unlimited crossword puzzles, and private query support with its AI chatbot, among others.
While Particle has not disclosed specific user activity or conversion rate data, Beykpour did emphasize the app’s significant international user base prior to its Android release. Weekly data indicates that 55% of Particle’s users reside outside the U.S., with India representing its largest market globally after the United States, accounting for 15% of its user base.
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