Perch Reader

Centralizes blog posts and newsletter subscriptions from disparate sources (RSS feeds, email newsletters, web publications) into a single reading interface. Implements feed polling and normalization to convert heterogeneous content formats into a standardized internal representation, enabling unified consumption without switching between platforms or email clients.

Applies large language models (likely Claude, GPT-4, or similar) to generate abstractive summaries of full articles and newsletters at variable compression ratios. Processes article text through a summarization pipeline that extracts key points while preserving semantic meaning, enabling rapid consumption of long-form content without reading full text.

Converts article and newsletter text to audio using text-to-speech synthesis (likely neural TTS from Google, AWS Polly, or ElevenLabs), enabling consumption of written content via listening. Implements playback controls (play, pause, speed adjustment, skip) and likely maintains playback position across sessions for long-form content.

Tracks which articles users have read, partially read, or skipped, and provides a save-for-later feature to bookmark articles for future consumption. Implements state persistence (likely in a user database) to maintain reading history across sessions and devices, enabling users to resume reading and avoid re-encountering already-consumed content.

Ranks articles in the feed based on implicit user signals (read time, save frequency, source engagement) and potentially explicit preferences (starred sources, topic filters). Uses collaborative filtering or content-based ranking to surface high-relevance articles at the top of the feed, reducing the need for manual scrolling through low-interest content.

Synchronizes reading state, saved articles, and feed subscriptions across multiple devices (web, mobile, desktop) using a cloud backend. Enables offline reading by pre-caching article content and summaries locally, allowing users to consume content without active internet connectivity and syncing changes when reconnected.