Just want to check and get your experience in using Matter. I used it for 2 weeks and like it so far. However, I am trying to install the IOS app on my M1 Mac with no success. AFAIK, there is no native Mac app yet.
I think Matter has potential but it is too early to tell. I am also paying for Instapaper but I do not see a lot of development invested into it
Well, it looked promising, but I canāt get the mac Safari extension to work. Without that, itās pretty much useless for my purposes. My workflow is mac-centric, so unless they find some way of making most of its feature set available on a mac in some way, shape, or form Iām reluctant to invest much time in it. (I have zero interest in its social aspects.)
I am also interested to understand what attracts people to Matter ? I have tried it without finding anything very different from the bazillion of similar apps around but it seems to come back often in the community this end of the year . Is it the better article capturing coupled with obsidian or is there more to it ?
Interesting. I successfully installed the IOS version on my M1 Macs, and it works a charm (installs as Matter 2). The safari extension works great on both the M1 and Intel Macs.
The Safari extension is my main way of getting reading matter into Matter, I find it easier to read in Matter (and fret to listen to). I use it for anything that I donāt want to read right now, and would like to annotate.
which browser did you get to install the extension? I have it working well on Chrome.
Another way to get articles on to Matter is to set up Gmail (or in my case Fmail) to forward to your Matter email address. See the Oct 21 update here
Any problems with highlighting on the Mac? It seems to work about 25% of the time for me. Iāve tried with touch gestures on and off but no difference in success rate.
not sure what I have done wrong. I downloaded the app from App Store and installed but once started up, it keep saying āquit and open Safari Extension Preferenceā. I have done this about 10 tens and the app wonāt go pass this screen . On the other hand, the Safari Extension is working fine
That sounds like the āappā you have to download to get the Safari extension. The actual reader app doesnāt show up by searching āmatterā in App Store on Mac so itās confusing. The only thing* that shows up in search is Save to Matter which is the Safari Extension āappā. You want an app called Matter Reader.
On your Mac, try this direct link from their website to the iOS/iPadOS app. When you start the app, you should be prompted to sign in by Apple ID or email - use whatever you used when you setup your account on iPhone/iPad.
*This is technically not true. If you search āmatterā and then switch over to iPhone & iPad Apps tab, youāll see the Reader app but I always overlook/forget those tabs even exist at the top of App Store results.
Honestly, I donāt want to email articles to myself. I should be able to do what I do in any other reader app: either hit the share sheet or use a web clipper.
I only use Chrome under duress. The extension has to work in Safari or itās useless to me.
thank you so much @khit . I have finally sorted that out. Both the Matter App and Save to Matter extension are now working. I am very happy about this
@krocnyc , you may want to do the same to get the Safari extension work, ie. Go to Mac App Store, download and install save to Matter app
The consolidation of all content by authors you follow plus newsletters is one big reason for using Matter.
Plus, the curated writing in the app has appealed to me a lot more than other similar recommendation apps/services. I enjoy the reading experience as well.
But Iām also eagerly awaiting the reading app coming soon from Readwise 
For me Instapaper has one big advantage: integration in Reeder.
A simple swipe in Reeder is all it takes to add an article to Instapaper.
(RSS is my main source of read-it-later entries)
Experiment over. I like the idea of having one app that helps me gather everything I need to read in one place; collects my notes and highlights; and ports them to my notes repository. Matter is almost that, but without a mac app with a robust feature set, itās just not suited to my workflow.
I also donāt need Matterās other big selling points: its social aspects; its Nuzzel-like feed; its valiant attempt to surface all the work by writers I follow; and curation. I know there are people who genuinely appreciate those features, but I find that they distract me from my work rather than helping me focus on it. (Iād like the option to make that āDiscoverā tab go away; its mental clutter I donāt need.) If I donāt need that box checked, Matter doesnāt offer enough for me to accept its two big (for me) downsides:
Matter wants to collect my data and link it to my identity. (See Dig Wellsā Privacy Policy for the details.) Iād rather pay for their service with money than with my data. And I would pony up a handsome chunk of change for a native macOS and iOS app that gave me a decent subset of what Matter offers without harvesting my data plus a reader for my epub library. My Holy Grail is an app that lets me read, highlight, and take notes on PDFs, epubs, plain text, newsletters, and web content and ports those notes and highlights into a well-organized repository.
My stuff is in their cloud, although it looks like theyāve made it easy to get it out of their cloud (good for them!). I think this is fine for things like columns, blog posts, newletters, and the likeācontent I read casually for interest and may want to return to from time to timeābut anything I need for serious work eventually ends up in DEVONthink. Iād have to figure out how to port stuff from Matter to DEVONthink simply and straightforwardly.
Lots of promise there, but itās not (yet) quite right for my workflow and privacy requirements.
PS: my read-it-later app of choice is Goodlinks. Itās reliable, private, and plays well with DEVONthink.
I share the sentiment. The dealbreaker for me was that there was no way to read my Matter articles on MacOS or web? Only iphone/ipad for reading? Thatās a no go.
How do you use Goodlink with DEVONthink?
GoodLinks is my inbox for online content I intend to process for further use. (I know myself well enough to know that I need to be very intentional about what I put there.) When I process my GoodLinks inbox, I make a series of choices about each thing Iāve saved there:
The very first step is to create a properly-formatted, plain text bibliographic citation for the article in a markdown or plain-text editor. (You know whatās great for this: my Obsidian daily note! Itās a handy place to both type the citation and keep a record of what Iāve read.) Yes, I do this for everything in my Goodlinks queue before I read it.
If the article is ephemera, once Iāve read it I decide whether I need to share it, and then I toss it. (Note: āephemeraā doesnāt mean unimportant! It could be information thatās important to know right now, but wonāt be a week from now.)
If itās worth saving in its entirety for future reference or careful note-taking, I use the share sheet to save it to DEVONthink as a markdown file. I use āAdd to DEVONthinkā dialogue box to 1) preview what the markdown document will look like to make sure the āClutter-Freeā option gives me everything I need; 2) add the relevant tags; 3) paste the citation Iāve already created into the comment box; and 4) add some brief comments for context if neededāfor example, I might note that the article is an attempt to refute another author on some point. I almost always turn something Iāve decided to save in its entirety to a continuous PDF using Marked 2 or an epub document using Pages or Calibre. But first, I get it into DEVONthink and make sure Iāve captured all the important bibliographic information.
If I donāt need to keep the whole article, but want to capture some highlights, I do the following. Iāll highlight the text I want to capture and use the share sheet to save the highlight to DEVONthink. Iāll use the dialogue box to give the saved highlight a title, add any relevant tags, and add the citation.
Hope that answers your question!
Thanks so much for the details! It inspires me to improve my workflow.
Deleted Matter after realising there was no web reader (like Instapaper) or MacOS app. Deal breaker for me.
