Thanks to short-form content, the majority of people (including me) have terrible attention spans. AI entering the picture has only made this problem worse. Every other person seems to be dropping a long video link into an AI chatbot and asking it to summarize it. However, the summaries you get are completely text-based, and while they do help you get the gist of a video without needing to watch it, they fundamentally rip out the personality, tone, and nuance that make videos engaging in the first place.
Given I do sometimes need to watch extremely long videos for college, I've been doing something similar -- except I don't use an AI chatbot like Gemini or ChatGPT. Instead, I upload the video(s) into a NotebookLM notebook and ask targeted questions. It's better than a summary of the entire video and allows me to actually digest the information. However, I think that still rips out the essence of actually watching a video.
Nowadays, I've been using an AI browser to watch YouTube, since it lets me watch the actual video while using the browser's built-in AI assistant to be more efficient. But recently, I stumbled across an open-source tool that might just be the best balance I've found so far.
TLDW builds on what other AI tools get wrong
It actually gets it right
TLDW, which is an acronym for Too Long, Didn't Watch, is an open-source tool and unlike NotebookLM, an AI browser, or an AI chatbot, it's built specifically to help people learn from long YouTube videos. In a Substack post, the founder of the tool, Zara Zhang, explained how TLDW was inspired by her own pain points when learning from YouTube.
Similar to what I mentioned above, she wasn't a fan of text-based summaries, and that's how TLDW was born. The tool fixes pretty much every issue there is with using an AI chatbot or even NotebookLM for watching YouTube videos, especially how they typically generate generic summaries that are always text-based. TLDW aims to do the opposite by preserving the tone and delivery of the original video.
At the time of writing, TLDW is completely free to use. There do seem to be quite a few sites with very similar names, so you can use this link to make sure you're on the right one. Once you're there, you can get started by simply pasting a YouTube URL. To save your videos and analysis, you will need to create an account, but you can still try the tool out without signing in.
TLDW's highlight is its highlight reels feature
Pun fully intended
The way TLDW achieves the goal of preserving the tone and nuance of a video is through its highlight reels. In the Substack post, Zara explains how AI has typically been used to cut down content into the shortest possible form. This comes at the expense of personality and voice. Instead of compressing, TLDW focuses on filtering and curation. Instead of giving you a text summary, TLDW's LLM analyzes a video transcript to identify the "most high-signal parts of a video." You can then quickly watch those curated highlights directly from the source, hearing the creator's own tone, pacing, and delivery.
When I first tried the tool, my immediate thought was -- different people likely have different reasons for watching a video. What is an important moment to me might not be the same for someone else. For instance, say I'm watching a phone review. As a journalist who cares about benchmarks, I'd want to see the performance tests, thermal throttle checks, and real-world usage breakdowns. On the other hand, an average user might just want to know how the device feels from a software and battery standpoint.
Fortunately, TLDW accounts for that, too. In addition to the highlight reels it generates automatically when you add a YouTube video, there's also a + Your Topic button you can click. This allows you to surface highlights specifically tailored to whatever you care about.
There's a tool I've talked about previously, Gistr, that offers similar functionality through a feature called Moments. However, you can't currently choose custom topics in Gistr, and it only surfaces clips it deems significant.
The tool can explain terms right in the context of the video
No more textbook definitions
When you're watching a YouTube video (or even reading something), you're bound to come across jargon or terms you're hearing for the first time. Naturally, you copy the term and then paste it into Google or an AI chatbot. However, the issue with this approach is that it only gives you the textbook definition, not what it means in the specific context of the video you're watching.
Like NotebookLM and Gistr, TLDW relies on the transcript of the video for all of its functionality. This means it can use the transcript to understand how the speaker is using that term and then explain it based on the actual context. What's also great is how easy TLDW makes working with the transcript as you watch. For instance, say you're watching a video (or a highlight reel) and come across a concept you don't fully understand. You can simply highlight the word or phrase, and two options will appear: Explain and Take Notes.
All you need to do is tap Explain, and you'll be redirected to the tool's Chat panel where it'll unpack the term for you in plain English. In the Chat section, you can also ask any other questions you may have about the video. Because TLDW only uses the video's transcript, you don't have to worry about it pulling in random information or inventing context that isn't there. Everything stays grounded in what the creator actually said, so the explanations feel much more accurate and relevant to what you're watching.
Try TLDW ASAP if you need a smarter way to watch YouTube
I've been using AI to consume YouTube content for a while now, and while AI browsers and NotebookLM were helpful, I knew I needed a better way to actually grasp the key points without losing the creator's tone and delivery. TLDW merges the best of both worlds, and even though it's a fairly new tool, it's already solid.
