Awaken History vs Humy (Hello History for schools)
Awaken History and Humy both let students talk with AI versions of historical figures. Humy is the bigger library, over 1,200 figures with rubric-graded assignments, a free plan and public prices. Awaken History is narrower: a course built on readings, a conversation arc the student has to finish, and a discussion brief for the teacher.
Humy comes from the team behind the Hello History app, and Hello History for schools became Humy in 2023, so if you have used Hello History in class this is the same family. We make Awaken History. We tried to keep this fair, every Humy cell below comes from humy.ai and its pricing page as of October 23, 2026, and anything we couldn't confirm on their site is left out.
| Awaken History | Humy | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Courses where each lesson is a short reading followed by a conversation with the figure | Interviews with AI recreations of historical figures, plus assignments built around them |
| Figures | A small cast per course, tied to its readings; teachers can add their own | 1,200+ figures across history, law, philosophy, literature and science; custom figures from your own documents |
| Conversation format | A set arc: warm open, free recall, interview, challenge, teach-back, landing; some lessons are debates | Assignment formats: interview, debate, simulation, open questions and essay |
| Voice | Voice or typing | Live voice calls, ten minutes each, listed under the Plus plan |
| Sources | Replies draw on the figure's own words and the course readings; a Sources used note under each reply | Says any quote a figure gives is copied from the document and opens the page |
| Grading | No score or points; debate lessons get automated feedback; the teacher decides how work counts | Assignments graded to a rubric, auto-scored with written feedback |
| What the teacher gets | Transcripts, prep cards, reflections, and a discussion brief with themes and three openers | Exportable transcripts on paid plans; usage reporting and conversation oversight on school plans |
| Access | Students join with a class code; teacher accounts set up by us | Web, nothing to install; students, teachers and private readers can use it |
| Price | No public pricing; email for a demo login | Free plan with 20 messages a month; Plus $129 per teacher per year; schools from $600 per school per year |
| Languages | Courses are written in English | 50+ languages |
When Humy is the better pick
- You want range. If a student needs to interview a figure we have no course for, Humy probably has them, and we probably don't.
- You want to start today without talking to anyone. Humy has a free plan and published prices, we set up accounts by hand.
- You want graded assignments out of the box, scored to a rubric.
- Your students work in a language other than English.
When Awaken History is the better pick
- You want the conversation tied to a reading, so the student has done the reading before the figure starts asking questions.
- You want the figure to push. The arc goes through a challenge and a teach-back, and the lesson doesn't finish until the student has covered the ideas.
- You want to walk into class knowing what students think. The discussion brief groups their answers into themes with anonymized quotes and gives you three openers.
- You would rather not put a score on a conversation. We give no points, and you decide how the work counts.
What both have in common
Both are AI portrayals, not the real people, and both can be wrong. Both try totie what a figure says to real documents, Humy by linking quotes to the page and Awaken History with a Sources used note under every reply. Either way the reading is still the student's job.
See Awaken History for yourself
Email jonah@voicesofhistory.co for a demo login and walk through a course as the teacher and as a student.