Instapaper Vs. Read It Later

I used to have an almost negative reaction to coming across a long article on the internet that I wanted to read. Plagued by the ease of distraction that comes with desktop computing, an uncomfortable reading experience with a desktop computer, and the general lack of focus on content of most websites, I yearned for a way to read these articles like I would in a newspaper. Sure, I could have simply printed out the articles, or used the antiquated “Print View” and hacked together some kind of userstyle to make articles easier to read, but unfortunately, these options were simply too much hassle for the sake of reading an article.

Then along came Instapaper, and it solved many, if not all, of the problems that I had with reading long articles at my computer. It stripped all of the bullshit from the original sites, it collated them all in a single place, and it synced with my iPhone so that I could read comfortably in my favourite place to read – bed.

I’ve been a happy little Instapaperer for a while now, and I’ve gotten tremendous value out of the service in that time. I’ve discovered new articles courtesy of Give Me Something To Read, as well as filling my folders with great content from some of my favourite writers.

The iPhone app is, generally, fantastic, however lately I’ve been noticing that it lacks a certain polish that I would like. This is said with no disrespect intended, but lately, I feel like the interface is a little too text heavy, and maybe just a mite overwhelming at times. There is no real depth to the interface, and although that serves to help keep the application out of the way, and allow you to focus on the whole point of the damn thing – reading – it has, unfortunately, been doing quite the opposite.

And so began my search for an alternative to Instapaper. Unfortunately, there really is only one alternative and that is Read It Later. Read It Later does quite literally exactly the same thing that Instapaper does, but it does it with a little more…style

I haven’t really used Read It Later in anger as yet, but from the website to the iPhone app, the whole feel of Read It Later is different. Although they function, from the end user’s point of view, in exactly the same way; it feels as though Read It Later has spent more time in the hands of a designer, who has considered the things that I have mentioned above.

That’s not to say that I have switched from Instapaper to Read It Later. At least, not yet – I have not made a decision either way at the moment – but with a few minor tweaks – such as a light text on dark background option – to the iPhone app1 it might be hard not to.

Footnotes

  1. I may, of course, simply be missing these options. ↩