We’re thrilled to announce the beta launch of Beepboop Stories, a new feature designed to make Spanish learning more engaging, interactive, and personalized. Built with cutting-edge AI, Beepboop Stories combines storytelling, voice technology, and customizable learning tools to improve listening comprehension skills while reinforcing what is learned in the Drill of the Week.

Step Into the World of Atlangatepec

Atlangatepec is a vibrant, fictional village in Mexico where Spanish learning meets adventure. The Beepboop team crafted this rich world as the setting for our stories, with cultural details, intriguing characters, and dynamic narratives. Students follow and influence Maria’s journey as she navigates her first days at TechNova, a powerful tech company building its sprawling Latin American headquarters in Atlangatepec.

The stories are designed to reinforce in-class learning, seamlessly incorporating this week’s Drill of the Week vocabulary into the dialogs. You’ll practice phrases in context while immersing yourself in the drama and culture of this fictional world.

Ready to Try Beepboop Stories?

This feature is exclusively available to Pro Students. Don’t miss the chance to beta test and immerse yourself in this innovative Spanish learning experience.

🎧 Try Beepboop Stories (Pros Only)

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🗣️ Join a free Spansih Drill (all students welcome)

We develop AI to strengthen our community

With the launch of Beepboop Stories: Atlangatepec, we’ve built a vibrant, AI-powered world where students drive storylines, interact with each other's narratives, and uncover mysteries. Atlangatepec fosters collaboration and cultural discovery, blending personalized language practice with a dynamic, shared experience.

This virtual AI world connects students’ creative input with real-world discussions in live classes, using its evolving events as springboards for Spanish lessons and deeper cultural understanding. By combining AI-driven customization with community-focused storytelling, we’re transforming language learning into an immersive and meaningful journey.

What’s New in V0.0.0?

Dec 9, 2024

Dynamic Storytelling with Realistic AI Voices

Dialogs come alive with Google’s Text-to-Speech AI, delivering natural, engaging narrations and conversations that make you feel like you’re part of the story.

Story Generation Powered by GPT-4

We leveraged ChatGPT-4 AI tools to craft compelling, adaptive dialogs tailored to reinforce learning. These stories are woven into the fabric of Atlangatepec, blending cultural richness with practical language practice.

Audio Control for an Enhanced Experience

Pause, play, and seek through audio at your own pace, giving you the freedom to learn on your terms.

Customizable Language Translations

Adjust how much English is included in the dialogs to match your proficiency. Choose from:

• No translations.

• Partial sentence translations for key phrases.

• Full sentence translations to Spanish.

Interactive Comprehension Quizzes

Test your understanding with multiple-choice questions tied directly to the story. To unlock your answers, you’ll provide valuable feedback to help us improve the experience.

What’s New in V0.1.0?

Dec 10, 2024

More Dependable Realistic AI Voices

• Switched to Google Neural2 voices, providing smoother and more natural narrations while avoiding API limits that were preventing audio playback in the earlier version.

Enhanced Audio Controls

• Added fast forward/rewind (3s) buttons and playback speed control, letting you tailor the audio experience to your preferences.

• Removed the stop button to simplify the interface.

Improved Learning Features

• Introduced a version history tracker so you can follow how your feedback is shaping updates.

• Added a Related Drill Topic link for further practice tied to story content.

Mobile Optimization

• Enhanced readability and usability on mobile devices, ensuring a seamless experience across platforms.

What’s New in V0.2.0?

Dec 11, 2024

Streamlined Navigation and Consistency

• Added a standard header logo, back button, and menu for smoother navigation.

• Standardized slider bars for adjusting language mix, ensuring a consistent experience across the app.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an alignment issue with the "Take Quiz" button that caused it to load improperly on the left.

🎧 Try Beepboop Stories Now (Pros Only)

🚀 Become a Pro

🗣️ Join a free Spansih Drill (all students welcome)

Beepboop was founded in 2019 and has attracted investments from notable companies like Google and Techstars. The platform gained recognition for its "online language drills," which are live group classes where students build confidence in speaking new languages through rapid role-plays that mimic real-life situations. Beepboop’s AI-enhanced platform allows instructors to customize lessons for individual students, even within group settings. Teaching in groups promotes accountability among participants while encouraging students to embrace mistakes as part of the learning process. (Try a Spanish Drill for free here)

As Beepboop transitions to a digital learning cooperative structure, Devon Saliga, Beepboop’s CEO, will step into a new role as a board member. In this capacity, he will guide the cooperative’s strategic decisions, particularly in product development, AI integration, and Web3 technology implementation.

Daily operations of the cooperative will be overseen by Monica Armenta, who will take on the role of Chief Steward Officer. Monica brings a wealth of experience to this position, having trained in the Rassias Method at Dartmouth College and served as Beepboop’s Education Director for the past four years.

In a recent interview, Devon shared his excitement about the transition to a cooperative: “This move is a significant milestone for Beepboop. It underscores our commitment to creating a community-driven, transparent, and inclusive educational model. I am proud of what we have accomplished since our founding. We've developed a technology platform that has significantly lowered the barriers to becoming an effective instructor. Our instructors have taught over 100,000 students Spanish and English using innovative methods that were previously out of reach for most people.”

“With the improvement of Web3 technologies and recent cooperative-friendly legislation, we have a clear path to create a new standard in edtech. I’m excited to see how our talented team and community will shape Beepboop's future in this new chapter.”

Beepboop instructors will take ownership and control of the cooperative in Q2 2025, with students gaining the option to become cooperative owners in the fourth quarter of 2024. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting journey.

Take a Spanish Drill

At Beepboop, we’re constantly evolving to make the learning environment more efficient and user-friendly. In our latest update to the Teach App, we’ve expanded the functionality of our join sound feature, helping our Drill Instructors stay on top of who is joining their Drills.

Why the Update? Originally, the join sound was designed to alert Drill Instructors when the first student entered a class, allowing them to multitask—handling other tasks in a different browser tab—without missing the arrival of their first student. This feature was a hit, helping instructors make the most of their time while waiting for classes to fill. Instructors gave us the feedback that they would also like to hear the join sound each time a student joined so they wouldn’t miss late joining Pros or new students. .

How It Works: Now, the join sound will play whenever any student—free or paid—joins a class. Importantly, we’ve also added the option for instructors to mute the join sound. This provides flexibility in larger classes where multiple students might join, preventing distractions and helping instructors stay focused.

Navigating the Technical Challenges: Updating the join sound logic was more than just a simple code tweak. Testing this feature in our local and staging environments was complex because it required simulating multiple students joining at different times. In a live environment, you could have several students arriving simultaneously, or the system could face unusual spikes that are difficult to predict in controlled testing. To address this, we created four test accounts, logging them in at different times and sequences, and thoroughly tested the feature to ensure it performed as expected.

Better Experience for Students and Instructors: With this update, we’re ensuring that Drill Instructors can manage their time more effectively and that classes start promptly when new or pro students are ready. Students benefit from quick responses, reduced wait times, and a smoother, more supportive classroom experience from the moment they join.

Beepboop continues to refine its tools to adapt to the needs of instructors and students alike, fostering an environment that is efficient, intuitive, and enjoyable for all users.

At Beepboop, we're committed to improving the learning experience. That’s why we’ve introduced a beep notification that alerts Drill Instructors whenever the first student joins a class.

Why We Implemented It:
Since our Drills run nearly continuously throughout the day, with Drill Instructors often multitasking—doing other non-teaching Beepboop work in another browser tab while waiting for students—it’s crucial that they know the moment a student arrives. This feature ensures that no student goes unnoticed or feels ignored.

How It Works:
The beep only sounds when the number of students in the class goes from zero to one, alerting the Drill Instructor that someone has joined. If a second student joins, it won’t beep again. However, if all students leave during a class—a common occurrence as some prefer shorter interactions—and then another student joins, the beep will sound again.

Better Experience for Students:
This feature helps teachers promptly acknowledge students, reducing any anxiety about speaking up and ensuring they feel supported from the moment they join the class.

In the video above, watch our Board Chairperson and AI Engineer, Devon Saliga, demo the new “Beep” feature.

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• Beepboop Drill Instructors used to have to do an inconvenient workaround every time they wanted to see which students were going to be in their class. Now the information is conveniently available on the first screen the Drill Instructors see when they login to teach. This project lays the groundwork for displaying more info about students to help Drill Instructors better prepare for class and prepare a more personalized learning experience.

• Beepboop Drill Instructor Admins can now change info about students without making manual adjustments directly to the database. This will lead to faster and more accurate updates for student and completely eliminate the risk of an entire collection of our database being deleted.

  

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Beepboop Hats - Say "hola" to your new favorite accessory! Our Beepboop Hats are available in white, pink, or black, featuring the iconic Beepboop logo. Perfect for sunny days or finishing off a casual look.

Zip-Up Hoodies - Keep warm and stay stylish with our Beepboop Zip-Up Hoodies. They’re soft, snug, and sport the Beepboop logo. Ideal for those cooler evenings or cozy study times.

Beepboop Tanks - Cool down in style while turning up the heat on your Spanish skills. Available in multiple colors to suit your hot-weather vibes.

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• Now when booking Pro Spots, students will see a count of how many Pro Drills they have remaining before fees kick in.

• Before this change, there was an often incorrect popup that said there would be a fee whenever a Pro booked more than 1 Pro Drill a day. This lead to lots of confusion and frustration with new Pros.

Book a Spanish Drill now and try it out! Let us know what you think.

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Not a Pro yet? Upgrade now!

Boost your Spanish confidence with daily practice and accountability from compassionate human partners. Become a Pro today and see the difference!

Become a Pro