I export stories as PDFs and save them online. Then frequently thin the collection by searching for keywords.
I moved to Goodlinks from Pocket a couple of years ago (at least) and it as interchangeable for me, very few bumps in transition.
A fundamental rule of read-it-later services is that their content entirely comprises articles you have decided not to read and video you have decided not to watch.
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To get the most out of Read-it-later apps, you need to commit to reading those articles. That may mean setting aside time to do so or doing it during downtime between other activities instead of doomscrolling on social media.
I effectively curate my own digital newspaper from many different sources including RSS feeds and then read them on a Sunday or at other opportune times.
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What? Read them?
Case in point: I just spent an inordinate amount of time over the past two weeks creating an Alfred workflow for GoodLinks, and meanwhile, the number of saved articles I read is exactly zero.
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If my read it later builds up too much I just delete the oldest articles. Clearly they weren’t that important to me. It’s not that difficult.
If there’s something I want to save long term, I’m more inclined to save it as a PDF.
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I’m a GoodLinks user, and another terrible non-reader of what I save.
But… despite the “good integration” it has one significant drawback. See the PS in this Mastodon post.
I’m a (very) longtime Tweetbot/Ivory (and, soon, Phoenix) user and it is the source of a lot of stuff I want to save for later.
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Yeah, that’s true. You’re limited to whatever combination of Shortcuts, AppleScript, url-scheme, and/or share sheet, but no REST API. The Shortcuts support though is pretty robust.
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So I approach this a little different. I try to keep my app stack as lean as possible so as I use Things, I simply have a tag called “To Read” (I also have “To Watch” and “To Buy”). So using things quick entry/helper it grabs a URL and I tag it with “To Read”. Anytime I have downtime or want to read, I simply bring up that tag in things and select something to read. It opens in my default browser and I use its reading mode typically. Since DevonThink is part of my app stack I have thought out clipping bookmarks to a read later database but haven’t yet explored that much.
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Is anyone using DevonThink for read-it-later purposes?
I do.
20 characters ….
I’d like to hear about your workflow for that, if you have time. I’ve tried DT for RIL but it has seemed like it requires too many clicks. And the formatting isn’t great on the iPhone.
But if you’ve successfully used DT for RIL I’d like to hear about that
Let me begin by stating the obvious: DEVONthink is not a beautiful app for reading. It’s purely utilitarian. That said, I’ve concluded that I don’t want my reading material scattered across multiple locations. I want everything—except books, which I read in the Kindle app—in one place. Since I already store all my research articles in DEVONthink, I’ve decided to keep all my read-it-later articles there as well.
My process is simple. Whenever I come across an article I want to read but don’t have time for, I send it to DEVONthink. Then, when time allows, I read it using the mobile app—either on my iPhone or iPad. If I’m only reading, the iPhone suffices. If I plan to annotate, I use the iPad with the Apple Pencil. That setup works well for my needs. DEVONthink also allows me to extract annotations, which I find especially helpful.
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I use Matter because I find it more visually appealing than Readwise Reader. The subscription price is lower too, but the service is somewhat buggy. The text-to-speech feature only works in English. Despite all these drawbacks, it meets my needs for the most part. There’s a free plan, but I’m not sure how much it offers.
For a completely free option, maybe using the web clipper of apps like Bear, Obsidian, or Notion would work.
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I was quite surprised to see that Instapaper still existed, and ended up just going back to that after years away as so many of the new “cool” services are just too much and kind of expensive for a read it later service. I use Raindrop over Goodlinks as my Wife uses Android and wish they would have offline reading, then I wouldn’t need anything else. Also I like using ReadKit, so I wanted services it supported.
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