The internet is full of great written content, but it can be challenging to find time to read it all. What if you could turn every article you wanted to read into an episode in your own personal podcast feed?
This problem has primarily been approached with apps like Pocket, which give you a place to “save for later.” That works pretty well, but you do still need to find time to actually read the articles. We’ll show you how to turn the articles into essentially mini audiobooks that are delivered through a podcast feed.
The app we’re using is simply called “Listening,” and it’s available for iPhone, Android, and Chrome. When you first sign up, you’ll be asked to choose your podcast app of choice. The options are Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Spotify, The Podcast App, Castbox, Castro, PodBean, or import the feed to another app.
After you pick a podcast app, you’ll have a new feed in it titled “Articles, Blogs, Videos & Emails ~ listening.io.” This is your own personal podcast feed, and it’s where all the articles you save will be available to listen. Now let’s start saving some stuff to it.
Sending an article to the podcast feed works pretty much like sharing anything else from a mobile web browser. Once you’re on the page of something you’d like to read later, bring up the browser’s share menu and select the “Listening” app.
Alternatively, you can open the Listening app and paste the article URL in the text box and tap “Send to Podcast.” It typically takes around 3-5 minutes for the article to appear in the podcast feed.
The Chrome extension is simply a button in the toolbar. Click it when you’re on a page you’d like to read later, then select “Send to Podcast.”
It’s really as simple as that! One important thing to note is you’ll start with a free trial, which includes the first five hours for free. They say this is about 12 articles, but it depends on the length. You can upgrade to eight hours for $6 per month, or all the way up to 45 hours for $25 per month.
If you’re the type of person that prefers an audiobook over a real book, this is a great way to “read” more of the articles you find online. The text-to-speech voice is actually pretty good, too, unlike a lot of other similar options. Give it a try!
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