You can treat Headway as a reading companion for non-fiction books around business, psychology, or productivity. Instead of reading the whole book, you can use the Headway library of summaries written by professional writers. Each book digest highlights key frameworks, key studies, or crucial anecdotes from the book into a simple-to-understand format that doesn't exceed 15 minutes.
Every book summary has both audio and text versions, quote cards, and one-sentence insights to make learning faster. Headway also has an innovative recommendation engine where, following your goals, it will suggest relevant content whether you want to work on thinking creatively, building wealth, or leadership. Headway also tracks your progress and syncs it between devices. It even offers short quizzes for each chapter so that you remember the learning for longer. It also shows a checklist of tasks spread over time so that you retain information better.
Headway library refreshes every week, and the app adds around 40 new summaries each month, often in collaboration with the book publishers. You can save content for offline viewing, listen to the summaries on the go, or even watch the synchronized text while listening. You can download Headway on iOS and Android or use it on the web, but the service requires a paid subscription.
Why should I download Headway?
If you're always pressed for time but want to continue developing reading habits, learning new things, and staying informed, then Headway is the app for you. It turns full-length, non-fiction books into clear, concise, and practical 15-minute-long insights. If you're one of those people who has a massive list of books you want to read, but just can't get around to them, then Headway helps you move toward that goal with its short digests.
Each book summary you open includes key takeaways, memorable quotes, and brief quizzes where you can test your understanding of the topic and remember the content better. Even the most complex ideas are turned into short, plain-language sentences in Headway, so that you can quickly absorb and remember them. You can also add personal notes to each entry or mark specific insights as favorites so that you can revisit them later easily.
If you prefer listening, all the summaries on Headway also have an audio version with professional narrators. You can adjust the playback speed and go back and forth on the track, and they don't go over 10-15 minutes, so that you can listen to them while grocery shopping or commuting. You can also add specific tracks to a "listen later" playlist to build up a content queue.
When you launch a book in Headway, the interface is super clear, with short sentences, bolded headings, and visual cards so that you can easily recognize the view you're on. You can switch between different themes, such as Time Management, Mental Health, Negotiation, Habit Formation, and Entrepreneurship, so you can easily find content you're interested in.
With Headway, you can easily track your progress as the app gamifies your achievements and performance. It has streaks, badges, and goal reminders where you can define your daily goal, like reading one summary a day. The app will help you stay on track by sending out reminders and encouraging you to keep going.
Apart from digging into specific books, you can use one of Headway's features called "Learning tracks," where you can find playlists with summaries around particular topics. Let's say you want to launch a track from the "Mastering Productivity" playlist, and it could include insights from a selection of books, like "Atomic Habits," "Deep Work," and "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."
Headway uses a smart notification system that can suggest summaries based on your previous activity inside the app or by combining it with global trends. It also adjusts to your reading and learning speed to offer better suggestions. Headway is regularly updated with new content, making it an excellent platform for discovering new things and learning specific subjects. Because it provides bite-sized and easy-to-understand segments, Headway is highly efficient, and you can use it on your smartphone, tablet, or web browser with a paid subscription.
Is Headway free?
While you can download Headway for free on your iOS or Android device, the app requires a subscription to work. When you open the app for the first time, you need to fill out a survey about your preferences and goals, and then you start a 5-day free trial.
After the trial period ends, you need to get a paid subscription to Headway that's billed monthly, every three months, or every year. You can also browse through one free book summary a day, but the app determines these.
What operating systems are compatible with Headway?
You can use the service on any modern web browser, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, but you can also download Headway on iOS 15.0 or newer and Android 8.0 or up.
Headway doesn't have official desktop clients for any operating system and offers the best and most comprehensive mobile experience.
What are the alternatives to Headway?
StoryShots offers short book summaries in multiple forms, such as text, audio, and video, through its freemium model. You can use it to get digests of non-fiction books that focus on leadership, self-help, or business development. StoryShots works on iOS, Android and through its website. On one free platform, you can access several summaries as well as daily picks, but you need a paid subscription to unlock the whole library.
BookSnap offers visual learning through infographics, which resemble flashcards. You can choose between a short summary or a more extended version of the book digest and use various visual aids and prompts to remember the learnings better. You need to purchase specific books or collections in order to explore them, but you can download the BookSnap app for free on iOS and Android.
Blinkist: Book Summaries Daily is the most popular platform of this sort. It works on Android, iOS, and the web and covers over 5,000 non-fiction titles. You can start your journey on a free trial, but after it runs out, you need to purchase a paid subscription to Blinkist. The app integrates with Kindle and Evernote, and you can listen to books, get personalized recommendations, and create your own playlists.
