
Ten Years of Instapaper - riqbal
http://blog.instapaper.com/post/170231611161
======
pixelmonkey
I sometimes describe Instapaper as "/dev/null for web content". I reflexively
share to Instapaper not to read it later, but to absolve guilt for not reading
it at all. It is one of my weirdest web habits, on reflection.

OTOH, back when del.icio.us was good, I used it for roughly the same purpose.

~~~
girzel
To me, this effect is only prevented by the fact that I get the articles
emailed to my Kindle. If I was just marking something to "read later", and
expecting to read it later on my computer's web browser, it would never
happen.

But instead it shows up on my Kindle. I'm in a completely different mode when
reading my Kindle than I'm in when on the computer. I'm calmer, slower, and
I'll actually sit down and read the articles.

~~~
ghaff
Yeah, the win for me is it goes to my iPad and I catch up with longer articles
when I travel in particular.

That said I also use Pinboard.in. I don’t go back to read everything but I
find it a useful research tool for when I remember saving something but not
exactly what it was.

~~~
Kagerjay
I have the same use case as well, pinboard is to save mostly obscure websites
and blog posts and comments i found interesting but not necessarily useful

------
crb
It feels odd that the current owners say "we did this, we launched that" in
reference to the years Marco ran Instapaper as a sole proprietor, especially
given that Marco explicitly uses "I" as the prounoun for Overcast:
[https://overcast.fm/skeptics_faq](https://overcast.fm/skeptics_faq)

~~~
gumby
I'm OK with it as it emphasizes that collectively, they all did it, yet the
current owners aren't trying to take credit for what they didn't do.

------
gnicholas
Interesting typo on the name of the dyslexic-friendly font they use. They
mashed up OpenDyslexic (which they offer) with Dyslexie (which they do not
offer).

Fun fact: The latter sued the former unsuccessfully several years back.

~~~
fencepost
Perhaps they were using a font in which the lower case e and lower case c were
pretty similar.

------
scarface74
Just an FYI, Marco Arment, the original author of Instapaper was also the
first employee and architect at Tumblr- where this article is hosted.

------
nathan_f77
Phew, that's a lot of work! I have to wonder, will Instapaper ever be
"finished"? If all the engineers went home, would it just run by itself? It's
hard to see how a competitor could execute better and steal any customers. It
seems just fine the way it is.

Maybe many of the engineers have moved on to different projects at Pinterest,
but even then, what's left to do at Pinterest? I just looked up "new features
in Pinterest", and they're working on AI to identify different things in
photos [1]. "Lens can recommend outfits for you if you snap a photo of clothes
that are already in your closet" \- That's actually a really cool idea. But it
kind of feels like a different startup tacked on to the Pinterest brand. I
guess there are a lot of directions they can branch out into. Maybe they'll
eventually become like Google, working on a lot of unrelated projects. If
Google can do it, it's hard to see why other companies can't build up a large
portfolio of disparate apps and services.

Anyway, I hope they keep Instapaper running instead of shutting it down. I
don't use it myself, but I just like the idea of "finished software" that runs
for the next hundred years. Everyone's always trying to change things and
increase growth, but they usually end up shooting themselves in the foot.

[1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-lens-updates-new-
fe...](http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-lens-updates-new-
features-2017-6)

------
drej
Instapaper with my first iPad was the best thing ever the year it came out. It
was just so convenient (and still is, we just got used to it). When people
asked me why I got an iPad, an odd device for its time, I said: e-mail and
Instapaper.

Back then, people were not accustomed to build tablet-friendly websites and
even though Safari was very good, Instapaper was in league of its own when it
came to plain old reading, especially when offline.

------
chasote
I actually enjoyed reading the different attempts at finding the right
pricing. I was a happy premium subscriber and an even happier free user.

I found it the best service to be able to just click a button and have long
articles delivered to my kindle. I do a weekly batching and it just works.

------
dhruvkar
For those who've used Instapaper and Pocket, do you have a clear preference
for one?

~~~
bomeor
I think Pocket is better, by the style, fluency, and because it transforms
websites to text better than Ip. But, one of the best features of Instapaper
(which doesn't have Pocket) is that you can change the title names. I really
like that feature.

~~~
dhruvkar
That's a feature I've definitely wanted!

------
cstuder
I still love the app after years of use.

But anybody else experiencing lots of bug with the paging view and automatic
night mode on iOS? (Page in night mode, but menu buttons and status bars still
in day mode, offset of the page incorrect...)

Reporting bugs always met with silence.

------
yeutterg
Anyone wish Instapaper/Pocket had better Text-to-Speech functionality on
mobile?

~~~
ybv
[https://www.narro.co/](https://www.narro.co/)

~~~
ikurei
Thanks for the suggestion, i'll check it out right away.

It's a service that converts text or websites to audio. It's voices seem
pretty good (I've just tested a couple, both with text in english and in
spanish).

I love that it haves the ability to integrate the articles I send to Narro
into a podcast feed, that I can suscribe to see in Overcast next to my "real"
podcast.

------
corobo
Can we as a community agree to be really careful and in no way vague or
clickbaity when it comes to posting things about Instapaper?

Ever since Pinterest bought them I've been waiting for the sunset message

------
sschueller
They are lucky to still be in the App Store. Instagram's lawyers have been
sending cease and desist letters to anyone using their trademark "Insta". Even
apps with words that start with "Insta", like Instant.

~~~
bvrlt
Instapaper exists since 2007 and has a trademark on the name filed in August
2010:
[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4808:v4h...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4808:v4hzyi.2.1)

Instagram has their trademark since September 2011
([http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4808:v4h...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4808:v4hzyi.4.19)).

So no, Instapaper is not "lucky" to still be in the App Store.

Don't assume that because Instagram is well-known that they have more
seniority and the rights and abilities to do whatever they want.

~~~
fredsir
> Don't assume that because Instagram is well-known that they have more
> seniority and the rights and abilities to do whatever they want.

Though it's easy to assume in this day and age.

------
dingo_bat
I had never heard about this app before. Reading comments here it seemed like
a good reading list app. Unfortunately the android app[0] seems abandoned,
last update was in August 2017. Anybody know of a good alternative on android?

[0]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instapaper...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instapaper.android)

~~~
bvrlt
It's a bit strange to call an app "Abandoned" because the last update was 6
months ago. When an app is mature and stable, it doesn't require a steady flow
of updates to be good and useful (except as a way for developers to show that
they are still active and "please" their users).

I'd call it abandoned if it didn't fit the platform standards, if it was
buggy, if it didn't run on some new devices…

~~~
dingo_bat
If you go to the istore version history for the same app, there have been
regular feature updates and bug fixes in the same time frame. Are you implying
that the android version simply doesn't have any bugs to fix?

This update in September is enlightening:

Added support for iOS 11 password autofill.

You know which other OS introduced system-wide autofill suppport? Android
Oreo.

I think it's safe to say that Instapaper is abandoned on Android.

~~~
bvrlt
There is a difference between being abandoned and having the latest shiny new
features. Not that I don't understand your feeling.

