Mission
Backstory surfaces the historical context behind the story — automatically, at the moment you're reading it. Most articles assume prior knowledge most readers don't have, and nobody has time to look everything up. Backstory closes that gap.
When you read news, you often lack the background to evaluate what you're seeing: who the key players are, what legislation is in play, what happened last time this dispute flared up. Backstory answers those questions without interrupting your flow.
Each card illuminates a dimension of the story — legal, historical, economic, geopolitical — from trusted outlets.
Reuters, the BBC, Wikipedia, government sites, academic institutions — every card links to a real source.
Your article stays open; context sits in a sidebar so you never copy URLs or start a separate search.
You get the scaffolding you need to understand why the piece matters, while you're still reading it.
Trigger Backstory with one action while you read — extension icon on desktop, or share the article to Backstory on Safari for iOS. Within seconds, a sidebar opens with a small set of context cards.
Keep reading in your browser or Safari — nothing to paste or reformat.
Click the extension or share to the app on mobile.
Each card has a title, a short summary, a relevance label (e.g. Legal Background, Historical Precedent), and a link to the original source.
Pocket, Instapaper, and Readwise focus on saving articles for later and retaining what you've read — they work after the reading moment. Backstory works during it. Its output isn't a summary of the article; it's context about the world the article lives in.
Integrated AI often shortens the article itself — same information, fewer words. Backstory looks outward: it finds entities, events, and legislation, then pulls verified external sources for the background. You don't get "that article in fewer words" — you get what you need to understand why it matters.
Context cards only cite URLs from real search results, filtered against a curated allowlist of trusted domains. The model doesn't invent or guess sources — so you can verify every claim the same way you would any link on the open web.
Start free. Upgrade when you read enough news to feel the limit. Same features on both tiers — paid removes the monthly cap.
No new tabs. No generic AI blurbs. Just grounded context from sources you can trust.