Introducing Bytes - An AI-powered progressive web app (PWA) that delivers news to users in an innovative and user-friendly way.

Hello everyone! Today I am introducing Bytes, the project that I have been working on for the past 1 month.

🤔 What is Bytes?

Bytes is an AI-powered progressive web app (PWA) that delivers news to users in an innovative and user-friendly way. With its infinite scroll format and AI-generated short summaries of articles, Bytes provides users with a fast and easy way to stay up-to-date on the latest news and events.

Whether you're on the go or simply looking for a more efficient way to consume news, Bytes is the perfect solution. The app is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, with a clean and modern interface that puts the focus squarely on the news.

Check out Bytes here!

It is recommended to use Bytes app for the best experience!

You can install Bytes as an app directly on your desktop or mobile by clicking on the install button in the top bar. If you don't see the install button, it means that you have either already installed the app or your device doesn't support PWA.

👀 Why did I want to create Bytes?

Staying informed about current affairs is important to many people, including me, as it allows one to keep up with the latest developments in the world around them. However, with so much information available from a variety of sources, it can be overwhelming to try to read and digest all of it. Many people may not have the time or inclination to read through lengthy articles regularly, yet still want to stay informed.

This is when I thought building a good app that provides summarized article content can be incredibly valuable. By providing concise and easily digestible summaries of news articles, such an app can enable people to stay informed about current affairs without having to spend hours reading through multiple articles. This can help people to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the world, even when they are short on time.

⭐️ Features

Bytes offers users access to real-time news updates from four different countries, namely India, the USA, Australia, and the UK. With updates being provided every 10 minutes, users can rest assured that they are receiving the most up-to-date and relevant news from these regions.
Bytes leverages the power of Artificial Intelligence to provide users with a summarized version of each news article. This feature allows users to quickly and easily get an overview of the key points and main ideas presented in the article. By utilizing state-of-the-art NLP-based MindsDB models, Bytes is able to generate highly accurate and relevant summaries that capture the essence of each article. This feature not only saves time for users but also provides them with the necessary information to make informed decisions about the news they are consuming.
Bytes also offers sentiment and emotion prediction for each news article, allowing users to quickly assess the tone and overall theme of the article. This feature provides an additional layer of information that can aid in understanding the news and its potential impact.
Bytes provides a seamless and smooth experience, allowing for an infinite scrollable list of all articles without any noticeable lag or delay.

⚙️ Tech stack

NextJS with TypeScript
TailwindCSS
React-query for network requests
Prisma (ORM)
Newsdata.io APIs (for real-time news data)
MindsDB for text summarization and prediction models
MindsDB-JS-SDK for connecting with MindsDB from the backend
Azure functions for backend tasks
Database - Azure Database for MySQL (Cloud-hosted MySQL DB)
Vercel (for cloud deployment)

🤯 How does Bytes work?

An Azure function is triggered every 10 minutes and a random selection is made from a group of four countries - India, the USA, Australia, and the UK - along with several categories. Then based on the randomly selected country and categories, the relevant articles are fetched from the newsdata.io real-time news API.
Once the articles are fetched, the contents are sent to a text summarization model in MindsDB, which generates a concise summary. This summary is then fed into both a sentiment prediction model and an emotion prediction model for analysis. Once the summarization and prediction data are generated, it is inserted into the database along with the original article data.
The front-end design presents an aesthetically pleasing interface that facilitates the seamless display of articles in an infinite scroll format. This feature allows for a more engaging and immersive user experience, as it enables a smooth and uninterrupted flow of content.

💪🏻 Challenges

The primary challenge that was encountered in the development process was the creation of high-quality and comprehensive summarized content. The content received from the newsdata.io API was often filled with redundant or unnecessary information, while the MindsDB text summarization model occasionally generated incomplete summaries. To address this issue, a custom logic was implemented to ensure that only fully-formed sentences were included in the final summarized content. This resulted in a more refined and accurate output that better served the needs of the user.
Another significant challenge encountered in the development of the platform was to ensure that the front-end design was both visually appealing and interactive, while also maintaining a readable and well-organized codebase. Specific tasks included creating an infinite scrollable format for articles and optimizing the loading time for articles, both of which necessitated the implementation of a sophisticated and streamlined codebase structure.

🚀 Future roadmap

Adding user authentication and providing personalized news recommendations tailored to each user's preferences
Adding like and save buttons to each article
Add support for news from additional countries, as well as the ability for users to select the countries for which they would like to receive news updates
Push notifications in PWA
Optimizations in code and creation of better AI models

and much more!

🔗 Useful links

👋🏻 Conclusion

A note from me to the MindsDB team

All predictions and summarizations in Bytes are made possible by the innovative technology of MindsDB. As the creator of Bytes, I wanted to take a moment to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to the MindsDB team. Thanks to their cutting-edge technology like AI tables and models, Bytes has been able to provide users with accurate predictions and concise summarizations, allowing them to stay ahead of the game and informed on the latest news and events.

A huge thanks to everyone who read this article and explored Bytes. Let me know what you think of it in the comments! Thank you and have a nice day!