I’ve been trying to find a new way to stay informed without relying on social media. My attention has been pulled by TikTok and X for way too long, and I wanted to try something different.
I started thinking what if we could actually own our algorithms? What if we could choose when to let them entertain us, and when to turn on focus mode and only get what we care about?
To experiment with this, I built a small app. The idea is simple:
You describe what you want to follow.
AI figures it out and pulls fresh content for you every hour.
It only fetches what you tell it to. Nothing extra.
Currently this demo app is more useful if you want to be focused on something (for example, you can follow recent stablecoin regulation updates). I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks and it’s helped me stop bouncing between X and LinkedIn.
We're launching in App Store in 30 days, here's the link to join our waitlist: www.a01ai.com.
In the meanwhile, we open up some 30 TestFlight seats for IH friends. It's not perfect yet, but if you want to try it out and give us your feedback, here's the direct access: TestFlight.
I know It’s still far from the full vision, but it’s a step in that direction.
Would love to hear what you think!
This is brilliant — and super relevant. Glad someone is tackling this problem with a fresh perspective.
thanks!!!
I'll wait until it comes out and give my opinion, but I can say that it looks very good.
thanks!! here's a TestFlight link if you wanna give a try: https://testflight.apple.com/join/k9VmwRkc (it;s still quite rough yet)
Is there potential - risk of echo - chamber from news sources it pulls from?let's say if I'm following the "list that doesn't exist" news ..or some other stuff like that?
hey, that’s a really good point. while we’re giving people a way to “focus,” it’s just as important to make sure they still see a range of perspectives. we’ve been thinking about ways to handle this — for example, with political topics, we plan to include sources from both the left and right to provide a balanced view by default. it’s definitely something we want to be thoughtful about and build into the design. really appreciate the insightful question!
I really like this concept. I feel like I would quickly like to categorize my interests into different streams. Tech, cooking, dogs. But would that defeat the purpose and simplicity?
hey! you can create as many “focuses” as you want, and make them as broad or specific as you like. if you want separate streams for different topics, it can totally do that. or if you just want to stay focused on one thing, that works too. you’ve got full control. not sure if that answers your question, but happy to clarify more!
just tried it. works for me! can i save an article i read?
hey yes this is the next we will roll out