This is a superb idea. Haven't tried it (in UK) but it looks like a very simple and easy user experience, also a very novel application of the Twilio API. Is there a limit on the call length? I'd be also interested to hear if you're using a combination of machine transcription and human or just machine?
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@_jamesmundy No limit AFAIK. The interview gets split into segments though.
@binoyxj that must be to get around Twilio's 2 minute limit for recording transcription. Wonder how good the transcriptions are if they are done by machine?
@_jamesmundy Thank you so much James! There's no limit on the interview time, but as @binoyxj pointed out, we do splice the interview up into 5 minute segments when it's published to your Anchor station. (That's less of a technical limitation and more because we want to respect the format of our platform, where stations are made up of <5 min segments.)
Currently, the transcriptions are automatically created - we're using IBM's Watson to generate them - so we definitely recommend reading through and adjusting the transcriptions before posting them. But our hope is that this saves you at least a few steps!
@mayafish Any plans to apply some sort of post-processing to enhance the interview audio fidelity? The audio output right now is not so appealing IMO. Are the audio over wired/ POTS telephones any better?
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I like the team Anchor's attention to detail. Every other publisher need is being taken care of, with lots more in the pipeline.
"Built-In Interview Features:
Heads Up: If you want to schedule an interview ahead of time, you can send a text from within the app with all the details your interviewee needs.
Transcription: We automatically email you a transcription of your interview as soon as you're finished recording it. If you're a journalist or blogger, this is a handy way to help you share your interview in text format. Even if you're not, it's still fun.
Drafts: After recording an interview, you have the option to publish it immediately or save it for later. If you're not ready to publish it yet, you can also choose to send it to the Clipper (our browser-based tool) to edit it, chop it up into smaller segments, add transitions, and more.
Sharing: Once you publish your interview, we'll text a link to the person you called so they can listen, applaud, and share! As with any other kind of segment on Anchor, you can share your interview on social media, embed it on your website, export it as a video, and more."
@binoyxj Hey Binoy! You're right that the feature currently only works with US phone numbers (although fun fact: since the call goes through twilio and not through actual cellular service, you can call US numbers from other countries - you just can't yet receive a call). We wanted to test this feature and work out any kinks in one region before we take it international, but we do plan to support other countries very soon. Most helpful thing for us is for you to submit a feature request for the country you want supported, to help us prioritize when we get there: support.anchor.fm
Love Anchor and have been using it since the launch of 2.0. Being able to set up an interview is huge, especially since I'm new to the platform and wouldn't get call-ins regularly. I think a lot of people could turn into young Judd Apatow's with Interviews!
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