Real-time Wikipedia edits, visualized as bubbles and sonified as music. Watch and listen as the world's knowledge is written across 32 languages.
See and hear every edit to Wikipedia, as it happens. Each change appears as an animated bubble — sized by the magnitude of the edit — while a musical note plays in real time. Larger edits produce deeper notes; smaller edits ring higher.
Colors tell the story of who's editing: white circles for registered users, green for anonymous contributors, and purple for bots. Lighter bubbles mark additions to articles; darker ones signal deletions. When a new user joins Wikipedia, a warm pad swells and a blue banner appears to welcome them.
Tap any bubble to see the article title, then tap again to open it in your browser. Tap a new-user banner to visit their talk page and say hello.
Customize the sound to your taste. Choose from over a hundred instruments for additions, deletions, and new-user events. Pick a musical scale — pentatonic or heptatonic — in any of 12 keys and multiple modes. Adjust the root octave and range to shape the melody that Wikipedia writes.
Supports 32 languages, including English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Hindi, and many more.
Based on Listen to Wikipedia by Hatnote (listen.hatnote.com). Developed by Bryan Oltman (bryanoltman.com).
Listen to Wikipedia is a great app, I've been using everyday for years as a crude substitute for a lava-lamp because finding a stores that sell a consistent supply of light-bulbs for them can be problematic. But I would like to suggest a few tweaks. The first and biggest is to include the number of edits being done per-minute like on the website and the option to refresh the app instead of having to reboot it everytime it stops making sound. And also I would really appreciate it if you could please fix the most recent bug with the mobile app. While the website is still functioning fine, the mobile app hasn't been making sound since between 02:30 and 03:00 am last night. I would really appreciate it if you address that bug and have it fixed. Other than that, I really love the Listen to Wikipedia app.
Developer Response
Thank you for the review! We did some work on the backend that provides updates to the app around when you left this review, and they should be fixed.
What can I say?
スッライ
This is beautiful! I would easily pay for this app anyday. The sensual sounds, the lovely circles that appear and fade, this app truly is one of a kind... It's wonderfully relaxing, simplistic, and well put together. It downloads fast so there is no reason not to give it a try! I've spent over 50 dollars purchasing all kinds of apps and this one is a favorite; goes to show how beautiful the power of community (wikipedia) truly is when combined in real time!🌷🌻
Calming
Apple-Pear-2020
This is incredibly calming to have on my headphones while filtering out other noises. The sound is not quite as pleasant as it was when you could stream it through your Internet browser, but that function no longer works. This is a good replacement for now. I turned all of the languages on so that I would get a more vibrant stream of sounds. I would pay for this. It keeps me sane.
Here it is: your moment of Zen.
eaglebtc
The pentatonic scale is very soothing. I downloaded this app during the pandemic, and I'm glad it is still working and being supported today. In these uncertain and anxious times, it's refreshing to have basic apps that do exactly what they say, and nothing more.
Rewritten from the ground up! In addition to all previously existing features, the app supports deep audio customization:
- Choose from over 100 instruments, independently for additions, subtractions, and new-user events
- Pick any of 12 musical keys
- Switch between pentatonic and heptatonic scales with 12 modes — from Major Pentatonic and Egyptian to Dorian, Phrygian, and Locrian
- Adjust the root octave and octave range to shape the pitch
Version 2.0.0
The developer, Michael Oltman, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
