PRODUCTIVITY
Accelerated vs. Blinkist vs. Headway: Best Learning App 2024
Comparing Book Summary App Features for Self-Improvement & Growth
I recently published an article on Illumination titled 3 Apps to Make You the Smartest Person in the Room. Little did I know it would go on to do so well in terms of reach and stats (shameless self-brag incoming in 3…2…1…)
I had covered three of my most-used apps, namely AcceleratEd (for non-fiction book summaries), Podurama (for listening to podcasts) and Vocabulary (for improving command over the language as a non-native English speaker).
In addition to the validation-inducing views and claps, I enjoyed reading the comments from you all and some of you were kind enough to share other apps in similar categories — some I was already aware of and others were totally new to me. So being the researcher I am (was???), I decided to try them all out.
This is Part 1 where I will be covering the apps recommended for book summaries. Part 2 and 3 will cover alternatives to podcast listening and vocabulary improvement scenarios.
Let’s begin! 🚀
P.S. Since price is, without a doubt, one of the most crucial factors in the decision-making process, let’s address it upfront before diving into the details. For comparison, here are the annual subscription charges (at the time of writing):
AcceleratEd $79.99 per year
Blinkist $99.99 per year
Headway $119 per year
All three have various promotions running, so depending on when you visit their website, you might get lucky with a good discount (keep an eye out — Black Friday is on Nov 29 and Boxing Day is Dec 26th).
AcceleratEd
They position themselves as a holistic EdTech app — rather than just a book summary app. As per their website, their mission is to ‘empower people to build better careers, health, and lives’, who may otherwise fall into the cycle of doom-scrolling (for those who may not know, doom-scrolling is mindless scrolling through social media at the end of which, at best, you don’t really gain any useful knowledge and at worst, your mood gets negatively impacted).
To this end, in addition to book summaries, they also have sleep stories and meditation guides — think Headspace and Blinkist combined in one app. I was already paying $70 and $99 for my annual Headspace and Blinkist subscriptions, respectively, so I was happy to cancel them both after switching to AcceleratEd lifetime membership (for $199). Plus, they offer magazines covering short articles from four categories — tech, mind & health, science, and business & leadership. Finally, they offer daily news across 6 categories — politics, business, tech, science, health, and sports.
On the free tier, they offer one book summary a day (just like Blinkist and Headway) but I find their choice of the free book to be slightly superior (read: popular on GoodReads) than the other two.
AcceleratEd’s USP is their newest feature: AskTed, a chatbot (most likely powered by ChatGPT or some other LLM) that enhances your reading experience.
Simply highlight the text and use AskTed to decode abbreviations, clarify niche terms, explain concepts in an ELI5 manner, or answer questions about the summary. For instance, I found it particularly useful when reading One Up On the Wall Street, and wanted to learn about the formula for “p/e ratio” in chapter 5.
On average, a book takes roughly 15–20 mins to listen, less if you read. Features like highlight, download, etc work as expected across all three apps, so no major surprises there. However, the list of recently read/listened books could be made more visible in this app, as it is currently tucked away under the Library section.
The Daily Insights is an interesting feature to get tidbits of knowledge from books in under 10 seconds and they can be used as feelers for a book (i.e. to decide if you want to invest more time on it). They have a few curated book collections such as Noble Prize Winners, NY Times Best Seller, Warren Buffett’s recommendations, etc.
Blinkist
Prior to switching to AcceleratEd, Blinkist was my absolute go-to (I still have its annual subscription which runs out in Feb). The “What’s in it for me” section at the start of each book was a useful thing to decide if the book is a good fit for me.
My one major beef with Blinkist (and one of the many reasons why I started looking for its alternative) is their recent UI change. Previously I could swipe left to go to the next chapter, but now they have merged all chapters into a single screen, requiring continuous scrolling to keep reading. I don’t think it would be a deal-breaker for most, but for me, it is reminiscent of the infinite scroll (designer Aza Raskin’s notorious invention) which kept me spending endless hours on YT Shorts, Quora, and similar platforms — exactly the kind of experience I was trying to escape.
On the positive side, akin to AcceleratEd, Blinkist has curated book collections in the form of challenges like 42-Day Personal Growth Challenge, books by Tim Ferris, Shortcasts, etc. For fiction readers, they have recently added few fiction books to their collection although I don’t think summaries work well for fiction books which are usually more enjoyable when read/listened to from start to finish to keep their full impact. Non-fiction books, on the other hand, can often benefit from being shortened since authors tend to repeat the same main ideas over many pages.
Finally, not a problem with Blinkist per se, but a suggestion for all three apps — it would be nice if the book’s text being listened to gets highlighted simultaneously as it’s being spoken. The reason why I highlight this under Blinkist’s section is because this problem is exacerbated with Blinkist’s new UI — when someone clicks on a blink/chapter/key idea, the audio doesn’t start exactly at that point but instead jumps to a few sentences before or after. This makes it hard to follow along with the text version and know exactly where the audio is. In case of AcceleratEd and Headway, both apps have a 1-chapter per page kinda layout so the audio always starts from the top of the chapter.
Headway
I am a sucker for simple, decluttered, clean-UI apps and Headway takes the cake in that regard. You can easily look at in-progress books, highlights, and more under the Library tab, while recently added summaries can be found under the Explore tab.
The app is geared towards making each learning step fun and rewarding. To this end, they offer various N-Day reading challenges, where you must complete N books in N days, and they dole out numerous trophies and awards for accomplishing them.
Headway’s daily microlearning sessions are comparable to AcceleratEd’s Daily Insights — i.e. you quickly scan a 1-liner insight from a book chapter. Similar to Blinkist, they have curated collections like Managing Money, Marketing Tricks, Dopamine Detox guide, etc.
(This might be an unpopular opinion, but) I couldn’t get on board with the narrator’s voice for many of Headway’s books, especially after using the other two apps. Let me explain — I don’t mind whether the voice is human or AI-generated, but majority of their narrators (both male and female voices) overemphasize each word to the point where it becomes difficult to listen continuously. Having said, that, if you are a visual learner, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker for you.
On a positive note, I thoroughly enjoyed their spaced repetition feature, which helps you ‘remember’ your favorite insights by turning them into handy flashcards that can be revisited at your convenience. They can be useful for storing motivating quotes and entrepreneurial advice. Similar features are available on the other two apps too.
Final Verdict
Simply put — to each his own! All three apps are geared towards learning and self-development, although each approaches things in a different way. While AcceleratEd is aimed at supporting personal growth (through meditation guides, sleep stories) and professional growth (by offering insights from various sources such as books, magazines, and news), with an integrated chatbot acting as a tutor to guide your learning, Blinkist is great for those who enjoy a variety of curated collections. Headway is best suited for those who value revisiting material and making revisions as part of their learning goals.
I intentionally didn’t comment on the quality of summary as summaries are very subjective and by its very nature will miss out on some part of the original text. For what it’s worth, I read couple of popular dense books across all three apps and found there were no noticeable differences in the summary quality — all of them had plenty of examples, use of simple layman language and a concise length. So, it really boils down to the price point and the user experience.
Regardless of which app you pick, use it as a quick way to scan a book and see if it piques your interest. Remember it won’t be a substitute for the whole book. It is only meant to give you a taste of the book and if you like it, the next best step would be to dive into the full version on Audible or get a physical copy for that complete experience. These apps aren’t meant to replace traditional reading but can greatly amplify your learning trajectory by allowing you to read smarter and not harder!
Happy learning 🚀
