Persimmon: Research Simplified

Explore arXiv/SocArXiv with AI

Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.

Browse and search arXiv/SocArXiv, use AI to break down complex topics, save and annotate papers, follow your favorite researchers, and stay up-to-date on research! Welcome to Persimmon, the ultimate AI-assisted research exploration tool for iOS! In a world where scientific breakthroughs are accelerating faster than ever but many struggle to keep pace, Persimmon bridges the gap between cutting-edge research and everyday understanding. Designed for researchers, scientists, students, and anyone with a passion for discovery, the app transforms complex arXiv and SocArXiv paper abstracts into digestible, tailored insights using the language models of your choice. Whether you’re diving into machine learning, quantum computing, or macroeconomic trends, Persimmon makes research accessible, engaging, and available at your fingertips. Why Persimmon? The sheer volume of scientific research published today is staggering. Thousands of papers flood leading preprint servers like arXiv and SocArXiv each week, making it nearly impossible to stay informed without specialized knowledge. At the same time, scientific literacy is declining, with many people feeling disconnected from the innovations shaping our future. Persimmon tackles these challenges head-on by simplifying the process of exploring, understanding, and saving research papers – no PhD required! Key Features: - Customizable AI Summaries: Choose your preferred OpenAI-compatible language model (LLM) to generate summaries. Control costs and model preferences with your own API configurations. - Switch Between Providers: Seamlessly toggle between multiple LLM providers (e.g., OpenAI, Mistral, DeepSeek, Claude, custom models) using secure, on-device saved settings. - Tailored to Your Level: Set your expertise level (beginner, intermediate, or expert) for each topic to receive summaries that match your understanding. - arXiv & SocArXiv Search Made Easy: Find papers instantly with full-text search across arXiv and SocArXiv. Filter by categories to discover what interests you. - Offline Access: Save your favorite papers to read without an internet connection. - Daily Updates: Never miss a breakthrough! Get automatic notifications for the latest arXiv and SocArXiv papers in your chosen fields. - Privacy First: Persimmon respects your privacy. There’s no data collection, tracking, or analytics. - Breezy Performance: Built entirely in SwiftUI with minimal dependencies, Persimmon is snappy, intuitive, and optimized for iOS. - AI-Optional: Prefer raw data? Use Persimmon as a no-frills preprint browser. How It Works: 1. Set Your Interests: Select arXiv/SocArXiv categories or topics that fascinate you. 2. Choose Your AI Model: Configure your preferred LLM and expertise level to personalize summaries. 3. Explore & Save: Dive into abstracts, search papers, or save key findings for offline access. 4. Stay Informed: Get daily notifications to keep up with the latest advancements in your field. Privacy & Control: We believe knowledge should be private and empowering. Persimmon stores all configurations and preferences securely on your device – accounts are absolutely not required. Optional cloud syncing of preferences is available via Persimmon Cloud. Your exploration stays yours. Persimmon is completely free to use, with a setup time under 30 seconds. At best, it becomes your go-to tool for staying ahead of the curve. At worst, you’ve got a sleek, private browser for preprints. Either way, we’re excited to help you unlock the world of research. Join the movement to make science accessible to all. Download Persimmon now and start exploring the future of knowledge – one paper at a time.

  • 5.0
    out of 5
    2 Ratings

Release 0.4.0 - "Help, I'm Syncing!" Welcome! In this version, we wanted to focus on enabling you to access Persimmon from all the devices you may want to. To wit, here are all the new additions in this release: 1. User accounts and sync: If you use Persimmon from multiple devices, this one is for you. Now, you can make an account with Persimmon Cloud and sync interests across devices automatically! If this isn't for you, Persimmon is still completely functional without an account on each standalone device - we won't ever love you any less. 2. Articles by followed authors: A new tabbed view displays articles from the authors you follow. We're not fans of Instagram but this feed-structure is genuinely pretty useful. 3. "Feeds" page: A new interface for configuring sources (arXiv, socArXiv) and their respective subjects can be found in Settings. 4. Native PDF/link viewing: View the contents of PDFs or webpages from arXiv/SocArXiv inside Persimmon by default. This can be changed in Settings > Preferences to route to your default browser instead. 5. API status indicator: A new panel can be found in Settings that shows information (status, latency metrics, etc.) for all the APIs that Persimmon can call, making troubleshooting connection issues easier. Other Improvements - Streamlined onboarding flow for new users. - Fixed a critical bug leading to incorrect author/article search results from arXiv. - Fixed a bug showing no articles for authors from SocArXiv. - Narrowed the OSF API to show only authors from SocArXiv and no other sources. - Fixed a bug that resulted in incorrect removal of some authors common to arXiv and SocArXiv. - Fixed a bug where the subject tags would randomly shuffle positions inside article tiles. We're hard at work on a native macOS port of Persimmon (coming very soon) and more exciting features on the Persimmon Cloud side that make analyzing research papers using LLMs even more intuitive and expansive in scope. See you in the next update, enjoy!

The developer, Momenta Lab LLC, 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

    The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More

    • Supported Features

      • Dark Interface

    Seller
    • Momenta Lab LLC
    Size
    • 24.6 MB
    Category
    • Education
    Compatibility
    Requires iOS 18.1 or later.
    • iPhone
      Requires iOS 18.1 or later.
    • iPad
      Requires iPadOS 18.1 or later.
    • Mac
      Requires macOS 15.1 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
    • Apple Vision
      Requires visionOS 2.1 or later.
    Languages
    • English
    Age Rating
    13+
    Copyright
    • © 2025 Momenta Lab LLC