Show HN: HN Watercooler – listen to HN threads as an audio conversation https://ift.tt/NTjty3v

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Show HN: HN Watercooler – listen to HN threads as an audio conversation Hi HN, here's something fun to play with. It takes any HN thread and turns it into an audio conversation so you can listen to the thread while doing other things. I've seen many previous attempts to turn HN threads into podcasts, but they all shared a common issue IMO: trying to reduce the very rich back-and-forth into a single-thread single-reader boring podcast. Instead, I wanted to hear the actual debate from the actual thread! So I asked Claude 3.7 to build this for me as a browser-only app. It just needs a thread URL and an Elevenlabs API key (this all remains in your browser, you can check the source code, it's only 3 files, there is no server storage of anything). To make the resulting audio experience as natural as possible, each commenter has a different voice. Commenters who appear multiple times in the thread have the same voice, and introduce themselves. A bit of context is also introduced when coming back "up" from deeply nested comments. You can play the resulting audio or download it for later listening. I'm planning to later add the ability to load multiple threads so I can have a playlist generated for listening in the gym! Any comments or improvement suggestions are appreciated! https://ift.tt/l7tXB0L April 18, 2025 at 12:24AM