AI Extension for Productivity and Focus

A long video is a lot to ask when you need an answer fast. Recall is an AI-powered knowledge base. You save what you find online, from articles and YouTube to podcasts and Reddit threads, and Recall summarizes it, organizes it, and tags it against what you have already saved.

Then you can chat with the whole library, not one document at a time. Answers come from sources you chose to keep, rather than the internet’s best guess.

By the end of this walkthrough you should know what the Recall browser extension is, how to get a summary and listen back instead of reading, how to use chat, and how to get the most out of the extension.

Recall is not a folder system. It is a graph. Each save becomes a card with a summary, a notebook, connections, and (in the app) a quiz and a graph view.

The extension is an add-on that lives in your browser toolbar. Recall supports Chrome, Firefox, Safari on Mac, and Chromium browsers such as Brave and Vivaldi. Edge is supported through Microsoft Edge Add-ons.

It works on three buckets. Things you read, such as articles, websites, and blogs. Things you watch, such as YouTube, Shorts, TikToks, and Reels. Things you listen to, such as Spotify and Apple podcasts. If you want the live list, see all supported content. Rule of thumb: try it on anything.

Install Recall from the Chrome Web Store, Microsoft Edge Add-ons, Firefox Add-ons, or the AI extension for Safari page. Accept the prompt, then pin it to your toolbar. Pinning is the step most people skip, and it is the one that makes the extension easy to find when you need it.

Click the extension on a long video or article. Recall opens a concise summary in the panel. If the summary is dense, play it back with a built-in voice, or a voice you have cloned, while you step away from the desk.

You can switch between a concise summary and a detailed one, depending on how much depth you want before you commit to the original.

On YouTube, Recall pulls timestamps out of the summary. Click a time chip to jump to that moment in the video. You get the insight you needed in about 90 seconds instead of skimming the full runtime.

The notebook is still yours. Type / for headings, tables, callouts, toggles, and to-dos. An AI summary is the starting point. Your own note, such as “this contradicted something I heard last week,” is what makes the card personal.

Open chat in the extension to ask the page a direct question. Recall searches within the source you are watching or reading, then answers with citations you can check.

This is the feature that makes the extension feel like more than a clipper. You do not have to finish the video to get the answer.

The selector at the bottom of chat chooses where answers come from.

• Recall grounds the answer only in what you have saved and written.
• Web searches the open internet, like other chatbots.
• Recall + Web uses both. Useful when the video is older and you want to know what has changed.

On Max you can pick the model. On Plus, Recall sets the model to auto. See choosing an AI model if you want more detail.

You are not limited to the current page. Type @ to mention a specific card, a note, or a whole tag. That lets you ask how this video compares with everything you have already saved on ADHD, sleep, or any other topic.

Recall cites the cards it used. Click a source to jump to the exact passage. When a reply is worth keeping, choose Add to notebook so it lives on the card instead of getting lost in chat history.

A persona is a set of standing instructions for tone, rules, and role, so you do not re-prompt the same guidance every day. An ADHD persona might ask for calm, direct answers with no fluff. A research analyst persona might always cite sources.

For more on writing them, see AI Personas. The Recall Discord is also a good place to see what other people are using.

The Reader tab keeps the original. For a YouTube video that is the transcript. For a PDF, it is the original file.

The Connections tab is the graph. Recall pulls keywords and links them to related saves. Auto-tagging files the card into a nested tag, such as Health and Wellness, then Brain Health. You can still retag by hand if you use a method like PARA.

Everything you do in the extension syncs to the Recall app. The app adds two extra tabs the extension does not have. Quiz, with spaced repetition, and Graph.

In the app, generate questions from the notebook, the original source, or both. Right answers show up less often. Wrong answers show up more. See quiz and spaced repetition and the graph overview.

The app also lets you chat with your entire knowledge base at once, not just the page you were on. Ask for a synthesis across a topic, including your own journals, then add the reply to a notebook if you want to keep it.

As you browse, augmented browsing highlights keywords that already exist in your knowledge base. Hover to see the connection. The widget on the side shows how many connections the page has, plus a shortcut to a concise or detailed summary.

This runs locally in your browser. Nothing leaves your device unless you hit save. You can turn it off on specific sites in settings. See augmented browsing.

In the Recall app, open settings for appearance, default summary depth, auto-tagging, auto-connections, AI language (62+ languages), and the extension itself. Auto-save is easy to miss. Leave it off if you want control over what enters the library.

Keyboard shortcuts keep you in flow. In Chrome or Edge, open chrome://extensions/shortcuts or edge://extensions/shortcuts. In Firefox, use the add-ons shortcut manager.

The compounding habit is small. Next time a page looks interesting, or too long to face, click the extension. Each card makes the next answer more specific to you.