Unhooked

Unhooked, the AI Feed Curator. Stop scrolling. Start living.

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Inspiration

We've all been there—opening TikTok "just to check" and suddenly 90 minutes have vanished. After yet another 2-hour scrolling session, we asked: "What if an AI agent could literally scroll for us?"

With Gemini Live API's real-time vision capabilities, we realized we could build something radical: an autonomous agent that watches your feed, understands what matters, and delivers a curated digest—so you never have to scroll again.

This isn't a productivity hack. It's a mental health intervention.

What it does

Unhooked is a Chrome extension that scrolls your social media feeds for you using Google's Gemini Live API.

The experience:

  1. Set your curator goal: "AI news, startup funding, cooking recipes"
  2. Click "Start Curating"
  3. The agent takes over—scrolling automatically while streaming your tab as video to Gemini Live
  4. Gemini watches in real-time and narrates observations via audio transcription
  5. The agent adapts: PAUSE on interesting content, SKIP ads instantly, SLOW for potential relevance
  6. After 3-10 minutes, you get a rich digest with Must-Read highlights, noise breakdown, and time saved

Result: Stay informed in 3 minutes instead of scrolling for an hour.

How we built it

Architecture:

Chrome Tab → Tab Capture (1 FPS) → Offscreen Document → WebSocket
    ↓
Gemini Live API (bidiGenerateContent)
    ↓
Audio Transcription → Scroll Commands → Content Script
    ↓
Adaptive Scroll State Machine (PAUSE/SLOW/FAST/UP)

Tech Stack:

  • Gemini Live API (bidiGenerateContent) for real-time video analysis
  • Chrome Manifest V3 (service worker, offscreen document, content script)
  • Tab Capture API → JPEG frames at 1 FPS
  • Google GenAI SDK (@google/genai)
  • generateContent for digest generation

Key Innovation: We parse Gemini's natural language observations ("This looks interesting, let's pause") into scroll commands, creating a true autonomous agent that acts on your behalf.

Challenges we ran into

1. Real-time video streaming latency — Solved by reducing to 1 FPS (640x360, 70% JPEG quality), cutting latency from 3-4s to <1s

2. Parsing natural language into commands — Built keyword-based parser with priority levels and auto-resume timeouts

3. State management across extension components — Background worker as single source of truth with heartbeat pings

4. Platform bot detection — Humanized scroll patterns with randomized speeds, variable intervals, and micro-scrolls

5. Token costs — Optimized to 6-8K tokens per 3-min session (~$0.0009) through frame skipping and prompt compression

Accomplishments that we're proud of

🏆 Genuinely autonomous — Takes physical action (scrolling) based on real-time vision, not just responding to prompts

🎥 <1 second latency — True real-time multimodal interaction using Gemini Live's audio transcription

⚡ No backend required — Pure Chrome extension using Google's public APIs

🎯 Measurable impact — Beta testers save 7-12 minutes per 3-minute session (3-4x compression), filter 75-85% noise

🛡️ Privacy-first — Everything local, no analytics, full transparency

💡 Novel use case — First autonomous browser control using Gemini Live API

What we learned

Technical:

  • 1 FPS is the sweet spot for scroll analysis (balances cost and completeness)
  • Natural language is a valid command interface—better than forcing JSON structure
  • outputAudioTranscription enables real-time agent narration with <1s latency
  • Manifest V3 requires careful message-passing architecture

Design:

  • Transparency builds trust—showing every PAUSE/SKIP decision made users confident
  • "Time saved" metric resonates more than technical stats
  • Casual digest language ("Found some solid AI updates") beats formal summaries

Philosophy:

  • AI agents should augment human intention, not replace agency
  • The future isn't chatbots—it's invisible agents handling tedious digital labor
  • Gemini Live API makes autonomous workflows possible today

What's next for Unhooked

Short-term:

  • Chrome Web Store launch with free/paid tiers
  • Voice digests using Gemini's audio output
  • User feedback loop to improve relevance

Medium-term:

  • Cross-platform digest (Twitter + Instagram + LinkedIn + Reddit in one)
  • Smart notifications for truly urgent content
  • Learning preferences over time

Long-term vision:

  • Universal attention filter for email, meetings, Slack, YouTube
  • Agent personas (Minimalist Monk, News Junkie, Social Butterfly)
  • B2B version for competitive intelligence

The goal: Compress the internet's information overload into the precise 10 minutes that actually matters to you.

Unhooked is just the beginning. The future is agentic—and we're building it.

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