Ukrainian developer Oleksandr Bolyachiy has released Libly, a player for Apple devices that generates text from audiobooks and highlights words directly during playback. Previously, the application was only available for Android devices.
Ukrainian developer Oleksandr Bolyachiy has released Libly, a player for Apple devices that generates text from audiobooks and highlights words directly during playback. Previously, the application was only available for Android devices.
The developer shared this on Reddit. According to him, Libly allows users to read and listen to books at the same time, and the transcription itself is performed on the server so as not to overload the smartphone's processor.
The speech recognition model supports 25 languages. In addition to converting audio to text, Libly offers contextual translation of words and expressions in 73 languages - the system explains the meaning of a term taking into account the content of a specific passage, rather than using a standard dictionary. The player also has a Smart Recaps function, which generates short retellings of listened fragments for those who have lost the thread of the plot.
Basic use of the application is free, but full transcription of audio files and generation of short recaps require a Premium subscription. The author explains this by the high costs of server computing resources.
"To convert an entire audiobook into text, a lot of computing resources are required. The translation also takes into account the context and explains what the word means in this particular passage. You have to pay for this every time you use the functions, so it is not yet possible to offer a one-time purchase that would cover them forever," said Oleksandr Bolyachiy.
At the same time, the developer shared a tip for users: in one billing period of the subscription, you can get about 160 hours of transcription (100 hours immediately and about 60 more hours before the end of the term). The user can transcribe the desired library of audiobooks and cancel the subscription - the recognized texts will remain in the application. In the upcoming updates, the author also plans to add a contextual search function.
The author separately addressed concerns about the collection of private data, as stated on the App Store page. According to him, the application does not track geolocation via GPS, and the approximate location is determined only by IP address via the Firebase system. This information is collected only if the user gives explicit consent when the application is first launched.
The Android version of the Libly app was released on Google Play in April.
