A news app called Particle, created by former Twitter engineers, can now track breaking news from podcasts as well as traditional web articles. Following its recent Android launch, the app introduced a feature named Podcast Clips. This feature identifies the most relevant and interesting moments from a wide variety of podcasts and integrates those audio clips directly into its news feed alongside related written stories.
This allows users to play a brief clip while reading about a topic, eliminating the need to listen to an entire podcast episode for a few key comments. Users also have the option to read a transcript of the clip, where the words are highlighted in sync with the audio.
Particle’s CEO, Sara Beykpour, formerly Senior Director of Product Management at Twitter, explained the feature. She stated that for any given news story, if a relevant podcast discusses it, those clips are now included. This provides a broader perspective on what people are saying about the news and the surrounding commentary.
This addition reflects a significant shift in how people consume news. Podcasts have become a major source of news and information for many, with growing trust in the medium. They are increasingly a platform for breaking news and major announcements, particularly from tech CEOs who often choose podcast interviews over traditional media outlets. This makes monitoring podcasts essential for staying current.
Technically, Particle uses embedding models to understand when podcast content relates to a specific news story. These models, provided by the same companies that offer large language models, are not generative AI. Instead, they use vector embeddings to identify relationships. A single podcast might cover numerous stories, and AI helps map those connections and determine where to start and end each audio clip.
The company uses ElevenLabs for transcription, but the precise technology for clipping the audio is proprietary to Particle. This concept of using podcasts to gauge news commentary is gaining traction in newsrooms. For example, The New York Times reportedly uses a custom AI tool with large language models to transcribe and summarize episodes from various podcasts to monitor commentary from specific influencers.
Particle’s Podcast Clips feature is not limited to news stories. Because the app recognizes different entities like people, places, or things, users can visit a page for a notable figure, such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, to see a feed of all his podcast appearances.
Particle has also been developing other features, including its first monetization effort called Particle+. This optional subscription costs $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year and offers premium features. These include using natural language to request news summaries in a preferred style, selecting different voices for the personalized audio feed, accessing an unlimited number of crossword puzzles, and using private questions with the app’s AI chatbot.
The Android release introduced additional updates. The browse tab now features timely stories, such as coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, alongside standard categories like politics and technology. Tapping on any entity now brings up a dedicated page with definitions, related stories, articles, and connected topics.
While Particle is not sharing specific user activity or conversion data, CEO Sara Beykpour noted the app’s international reach prior to the Android launch. On a weekly basis, 55% of its users were outside the United States, with India being its largest market after the U.S., accounting for 15% of its user base.