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AI descriptions & audio

beacbeac can draft an interpretive description for a story using AI, and it reads descriptions aloud to visitors using their device's built-in voice.

AI-drafted descriptions

On the Add New Story or Edit Story screen, look for the AI Describe button next to the Description field.

  1. Fill in at least the Story Title and Creator, and attach a photo in the Story Media card — it sits directly above the Description field, and AI Describe works from the attached image.
  2. Tap AI Describe. The button changes to Generating… while it runs.
  3. When it finishes, the generated text appears in the Description field. Review and edit it before you save.

Always review AI output

AI-generated text is a starting point, not a finished description. Read it carefully, correct anything wrong, and make sure the tone fits your venue. You are responsible for the accuracy of anything that ends up in front of visitors.

Audio for visitors

Visitors can get audio from a story in two ways, and they work independently:

1. An audio track you upload (optional). The Story Media card on the add/edit screens accepts an audio file (MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, or OGG, under 20 MB) alongside the photo and video — e.g. a recorded narration, an interview, or music meant to accompany the piece. Visitors see a play/pause player with a seek bar on the story popup; it never autoplays. See Adding a story.

2. The built-in Listen button (always available). Even with no uploaded audio, visitors can tap Listen on the story popup and their phone reads the description aloud using its built-in text-to-speech voice.

For the Listen button, keep in mind:

  • What you write in the Description field is what visitors will hear. Edit it as if it'll be spoken — short sentences, no parenthetical asides, no abbreviations the voice will mispronounce.
  • The voice is the visitor's device voice, not something you select in beacbeac. Different phones will sound slightly different.
  • No admin action is needed to enable it. Every story with a description is automatically listenable, whether or not it also has an uploaded audio track.

Test it yourself

Open the visitor Explore screen, pull up the story, and tap Listen. If anything sounds off — odd pauses, mispronounced words, awkward run-ons — edit the description until it reads cleanly.