Early access · Android first
Brainshelves is for the moment after a chapter, an article or a video, when something stood out and is about to be forgotten.
Say out loud what stood out. Brainshelves turns it into a short list of ideas, you keep only what is true, and the ideas come back to you later.
kinds of source: books, articles, Substack, YouTube
kinds of idea it listens for
questions to go deeper on each
Books, articles and videos share one shelf.
How it works
Six steps, in the order you meet them. The first four take a few minutes after you read or watch. The last two happen over the weeks that follow.
A book, found by title, author or ISBN, scanned from its barcode, or added by hand. Or a link shared from your browser, the Substack app or YouTube. For a link, only its public details are kept: title, author, site and picture.
Open it when you put the book down, and talk. There is no script and no clock to beat: pause whenever you need to think. Before your first recording, the app explains where the audio goes and asks for your agreement.
Brainshelves turns what you said into a short list of ideas: realizations, concepts, frameworks, quotes and things to do. Keep, edit or discard each one. Nothing reaches your library until you confirm, and you can report a suggestion that is wrong.
I keep trying to fix the flow when the problem is the stock. My inbox isn't a speed problem. Nothing ever leaves it.
Where an idea can be used, you say when you would use it and what you would do. Speak it or type it. A framework you can name the moment for is one you are more likely to reach for.
Before speeding up what comes in, check whether what goes out is quietly blocked.
An old note returns when you open the app, or as a reminder at a time of day you choose. You set how often. The ideas you kept get a second chance to change something.
From your archive
The time is going to pass anyway. The question is what you leave in it.
Four Thousand Weeks · Oliver Burkeman
Take a note into the journal. Three questions help you think it through, then dated pages hold small experiments of your own. Answer by voice or by hand, and ask for a suggested experiment when you are stuck.
Why we're building it
You finish a book, close a long article, reach the end of a video, and something in it mattered. By the next week you could not say what. Highlights pile up where nobody reads them, and notes taken mid-chapter interrupt the reading they were meant to serve.
Brainshelves starts from a simpler habit. Put the thing down and say what stood out, the way you would tell a friend. Talking is quicker than writing and closer to what you actually thought. The app does the sorting, you do the deciding, and the ideas come back later so they have a chance to change something.
It began as a web app one person built for their own reading. It is being rebuilt for Android so that other people can use it. It is deliberately not a notes app or a productivity system: once the ideas are kept, the book can go back on the shelf.
What we chose, and what it costs
You talk instead of typing notes while you read.
Cost: it needs a quiet minute and a connection. You can always write a note by hand instead.
The AI suggests. Nothing is saved until you confirm it, and a bad suggestion can be reported.
Cost: a short review after every recording.
Recordings go to Groq, which says it does not train its models on what you send. AI services whose free tiers do train on your words were ruled out.
Cost: a smaller choice of AI, and a daily allowance for each person.
For an article or a video, Brainshelves keeps the title, author, site and picture. It never stores the article or the transcript.
Cost: it cannot summarise a link for you. The ideas have to come from you.
Not yet
The app is built from one codebase for both. Android comes first, and iOS follows.
The web app can search your notes by what they mean. The phone app does not have that page yet.
Free for now. Features, limits and pricing may change.
Platform
Android first · iOS later
App
Expo · React Native
Speech and ideas
Groq · Whisper, GPT-OSS
Library
Supabase · Vercel
Your data
Recordings are turned into text and then deleted. Your library is private to your account, and you can take it with you or delete it whenever you like.
longest a recording is kept
Deleted once it has been turned into text. A daily clean-up removes anything left behind.
at most, at Groq
Groq may keep what it processed for up to 30 days to check for misuse. We cannot shorten that.
ads or sold data
No advertising, no behavioural analytics, and nothing sold or rented to anyone.
export or delete
Export your library as Markdown, or delete your account and everything in it.
What the app tells you before your first recording
Who handles your data
Your library, sign-in, and short-lived audio storage.
Hosts the website and the server the app talks to.
Speech to text, and the AI that finds your ideas.
Short crash reports. Never your journal, transcripts, voice or email.
Sign-in with Google if you choose it, and book search through Google Books.
Early access
Before Brainshelves can be published on Google Play, a group of testers has to use it for two weeks. It is new: features, limits and pricing may change, and some things will be rough.
Closed test
Write to us and we will send you the invitation link. Then:
What the app asks for, and when
Only while you record.
Only to scan a book's barcode.
Only if you turn on the daily reminder.