Retell App Review: Here’s What You Need to Know

I’ve been exploring the Retell app for a while now, and it’s been an interesting ride. 

The app caught my attention with its promise to help build better reading habits and make summaries more accessible.

I tried its key features, from the personal plan to the habit tracker, and here’s my experience with it—both the good and the not-so-good.

The setup process is impressive and super easy. Once you install the Retell app, it asks you a few questions and lets you pick your favourite categories and books. These choices help the app customize your experience. But here’s a tip: take your time answering because your personalized plan is created based on your responses. Want to know more? Check out my “What Stands Out” section for extra details.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Personalized reading plan
• Habit tracker to build a reading habit
• Well-structured text summaries with customization options
• Fun challenges

Cons

• AI-generated voices in most audio summaries
• No option to save highlights or quotes
• Technical glitches, especially with text summaries
• Premium plans are expensive compared to competitors

App Interface: First Impressions

Retell’s interface is clean and easy on the eyes.

It’s simple to navigate, though it’s a bit disappointing that there’s no dark mode.

When you open the app, you’re greeted with visual guides presented in a story-style format, followed by categorized book summaries.

It also shows you which books are trending for the year or the month.

The app has four main tabs:

• Home
• Plan
• Habit
• Library

I’ve already mentioned the Home tab, and I’ll get to the Plan and Habit tabs later since they’re the real highlights of this app.

The Library tab is where all your saved stuff lives—favourite books, visual guides, collections, and marathons.

You’ll find out more about collections and marathons in the next section.

Read more: StoryShots review

What Stands Out

Let me share the features that make Retell stand out from other book summary apps.

These are the things that caught my attention and might help you decide if this app is right for you.

1. Personal Plan

Retell has a dedicated Plan tab that creates a personalized plan just for you.

This plan is based on the answers you give during the setup process—so, like I said earlier, it’s important to answer thoughtfully.

For example, I carefully answered all the setup questions, and Retell created a 28-day plan tailored to my interests. Here’s how it’s organized:

a. Daily Read

This is your daily reading journal.

It shows the books recommended for you each day, tracks how many you’ve finished, and even offers rewards for completing summaries.

b. Progress

This section lets you see how you’re doing.

It shows your profile, overall progress, and areas where you can improve.

c. Book List

This is a full list of the books included in your plan.

You can either binge them all in one go or stick to reading one book a day.

Read more: Headway app review

2. Habit Tracker

The Habit Tracker is a brilliant addition to the app.

It helps you build a daily reading habit by tracking your progress.

According to research, it takes about 66 days to form a habit, and Retell uses a fun habit tree to motivate you to stick with it until you reach that milestone.

The Habit tab also works like a reading journal.

It shows which days you’ve read during the month, keeps track of your daily streak, and even has an option to set reminders to stay consistent.

3. Visual Guides

I really liked the visual guides in Retell.

They’re basically infographics that give you key insights without needing to read the full book.

Every day, you’ll see a few guides highlighted on the homepage, and there’s a dedicated section where you can browse even more.

The selection is a bit limited right now, but I’m hoping they’ll add more soon.

Read more: Uptime app review

4. Collections

Collections in Retell are curated groups of books recommended by well-known figures like Mark Cuban or Jeff Bezos, or by top publications.

You’ll find these under the More to Explore section on the home page.

For instance, the Forbes Recommends collection offers seven remarkable reads packed with 56 key insights, all of which can be absorbed in just 129 minutes.

With so many collections available, there’s a lot to discover and learn from.

5. Marathons

Marathons are another fun feature in Retell.

They’re like challenges designed to help you improve specific skills over a set time.

On the homepage, scroll down to the Boost Your Skills in 4 Weeks section to explore the different marathons.

I tried the Intelligence Marathon, which focuses on developing key skills.

It’s a fun and structured way to learn and grow while keeping things engaging.

Audio Summaries: My Experience

I have to admit, the audio summaries in Retell didn’t quite impress me.

Most of them use AI-generated voices, which honestly aren’t the easiest to listen to for long.

There are a few summaries with human narration, and those are much better, but the numbers are very limited.

Listening to a summary is straightforward, though. Just open the summary and tap on the Listen button.

Text Summaries: My Experience

Reading on Retell was a better experience for me.

The summaries are well-structured with short paragraphs, bullet points, and quotes sprinkled throughout, which makes them easy to read.

However, the app doesn’t allow you to save quotes or highlights, and I think that’s a big drawback for a book summary app.

I also ran into a frustrating glitch.

Whenever I tried to open a summary to read, it would take forever to load, and sometimes the summary wouldn’t open at all.

The strange thing is that this only happened while reading, not when listening.

On the bright side, the app does let you customize the background color and font size, which adds a nice touch to the reading experience.

Pricing Plans

The Retell app offers a free plan where you can access one summary per day. If you’re looking for more, there are premium plans available:

• Monthly: ₹1,699
• Yearly: ₹7,500 (includes a 7-day free trial)
• Lifetime: ₹9,900

Note: Keep in mind, that these prices might change with promotions or discounts, so it’s a good idea to watch for deals.

When it comes to the premium options, the lifetime plan feels like the only one worth considering.

The monthly and yearly plans are quite expensive, especially compared to competitors like Blinkist.

My Takeaway

If you’re someone who wants to build a reading habit, Retell can be a helpful tool.

The personal plan feature is a standout, making it easy to stay on track with your goals.

However, the app does have its downsides, like technical glitches, AI-generated voices, and the inability to save highlights.

If the price and these issues don’t bother you, I’d recommend giving it a try—it has a lot to offer for those serious about reading.