Thanks for the heads up!
Does anyone know if Readwiseās Reader will handle (DRM-free) epubs in addition to PDFs? The announcement post suggests that it will, but epub functionality isnāt mentioned on the beta sign up page.
is anyone here running the beta version, I have signed up but yet to hear back
I came here this morning to start a thread about read-it-later services and stumbled right into this one. Good timing.
I like Instapaper but I find I hardly every open it to actually read the articles that are stored within it. I send stuff to it, but I rarely read what I send in. Then when a reading mood strikes me, I look through the articles and go āman, all this news is OLD news, I know how this endsā, and then I delete a bunch of stuff and leave.
So I of course adopted the āmaybe Iāll try another app, thatāll helpā mentality that runs in my blood. I downloaded Matter but I echo what @MortimerJazz says in his thread above. I donāt know about following writers and I have no friends on Matter so the discover section isnāt super helpful. Also, thereās something to be said for these apps just housing what I store within them. I donāt need another app in my arsenal trying to keep me engaged with it by scrolling news posts I didnāt ask for.
The big issue I had though ā Matterās āclipperā or whatever you call the feature in iOS that allows you to save articles ā it didnāt work for me on more than a few occasions. Saving articles from the NY Times app or even just some news sites here in Canada, it would often say it saved the article, but nothing appeared in my queue. There were other occasions where it just didnāt do a great job.
I left Pocket a while back because I didnāt like their reading options. Instapaper seemed more customizable. But in a few tests Iāve run today, Pocket seems to do the best with capturing articles and not sending them into the void as with Matter or creating a link that says ādo you want to download the article now?ā in Instapaper.
Iād try Raindrop.io but Iām done with all but essential subscriptions, so Iām going to stick with free from here on out. Maybe itās back to Pocket.
1 Like
If youāre a Readwise subscriber (thatās an essential subscription for me, but definitely not for everyone) you can get in on the beta of their Reader app, which is excellent.
Itās completely replaced both read-it-later and RSS apps for me. Getting highlights of anything worth noting stored in my Readwise account is a bonus.
By coincidence Iāve just switched over to trying GoodLinks, mostly for the privacyāeverything syncs through iCloud, so no external services required. Itās fairly stripped down, but that can be a feature as well. Might be worth giving it a shot.
I canāt seem to get a beta invite for some reason, Iām a subscriber and have been for a while but no invite. Iād not been actively using it for a while so perhaps they are still just targeting who they invite?
Iām mostly using Pocket via Reeder 5 and I really do like it, the only āissueā really is the fact I have to activley switch from the RSS view in Reeder to the Pocket account view. That little bit of friction leads to a graveyard of articles.
Have you asked for it? Iām a new subscriber but when I asked about the beta they set me up within a day. My impression (which may well be wrong) is that they had A LOT of interest in the beta so are prioritising the super-keen and those likely to hunt down bugs.
Itās actually not very buggy. Iām guessing it was in earlier versions but Iāve only come across one or two issues since I started using it.
Thereās a thread running in parallel to this one also about read it later apps so I wonāt post my thoughts again, but Iām enjoying Reader so far.
I filled in the request form on the beta site, didnāt know I had to ask as well, will give it a go. Thanks 
I was/am a big fan of Matter but trying out the new Readwise serve as I sub there anyway.
Rather frustratingly, though, I canāt get my data out of Matter despite following the walkthrough
If you dm me the email address associated with your Readwise account I should be able to get you in.
2 Likes
This is one (of the many) discoveries I made on the MPU forum that will save me time and money lol. Deleted Matter for email newsletters. All in one app Reeder!! Thank you!
2 Likes