After switching to a new browser, I've been trying to better organize my links and bookmarks. While I settled on a useful start page that also includes my bookmarks, I also wanted to make it easier to save articles that I want to read later. My new browser does have a way to save pages to visit later, but I'm currently not syncing my desktop and mobile apps.

As a result, I decided to try a standalone read-it-later app that I can easily sync across devices. Instapaper stood out as a user-friendly option, and after trying it for the past week, it has proven to be an impressive and convenient tool.

What is Instapaper?

A cross-platform link-saving app

At its core, Instapaper is a read-it-later app that can be used on both the web and mobile devices. However, besides saving links to articles you want to catch up on later, you can also use it for bookmarking, saving videos you want to watch, saving notes and comments about certain articles, and organizing links using various tags. If you want to keep your home dashboard relatively uncluttered, you can also use folders to organize links into specific tabs.

While the platform is free, it does also have a premium subscription. With a paid plan, you can save links as PDFs, access full-text search, create a permanent archive, and add unlimited notes.

There are a variety of ways to add links and bookmarks to Instapaper. My favorite ways are to send links to the Android app using the share button, as well as using the Instapaper browser extension. You can also manually add links on the app and website if you don't mind copying and pasting.

Another way is to forward links to a personal address that Instapaper provides. This is useful for newsletters that have a variety of links you want to look at later. You can also set up various automations on IFTTT with Instapaper.

Getting started with Instapaper

You first need to create an account

To use Instapaper, you will need to create an account. This ensures that you can keep your links synced across devices and is also required for the browser extension to function properly. To get the most out of the platform, I recommend installing its mobile app on your phone and the browser extension on your main browser.

You can then get started with saving and organizing your links. I created a few tags to help me categorize links into different views: Self-hosting, Poetry, and NotebookLM. I also created a few folders to sort my links and keep my home dashboard clean. These folders included Research (for articles related to things I'm writing about), Bookmarks (for links to web pages I use as shortcuts or struggle to remember), and Read Later (for things I just want to catch up on later).

I fiddled around with the notes tool to see how it worked, but it ended up being the tool I used the least. To add a note to an article, you can highlight text and click on the plus icon that pops up. You can then revisit the note later by visiting the Notes tab.

I was also interested to find that when you open an article within Instapaper, you can generate a summary for it. This is convenient if you want to get a quick summary of the article's main points. I generally prefer to read articles for myself, but I know that for longer texts, this feature would really come in handy for finding the meat of the text.

Easily make bookmarks and links available across devices

Instapaper is user-friendly for beginners

Something I like about Instapaper is that it's incredibly easy to get started with. I've tried out other apps to save links, including self-hosted ones like Karakeep and Linkwarden. These are useful for preserving your privacy and maintaining control over your data, but some setup is required, and things become more complicated when you want to access these services outside your home network.

If you want a setup that doesn't require your own server, but is also available for free, Instapaper is a great option. Because of its organizational features, you can use it to do more than simply save articles to read later. I previously set up Raindrop.io to serve as a bookmark and read later hub, but I find I prefer it for bookmarks only. Having a separate space for articles and videos I want to view later actually works better for me.

I noticed that Instapaper requires minimal setup and can accurately generate previews of links without needing to be edited. I also like that it automatically sorts video links into the video folder.

Another benefit of Instapaper is that it stores its own version of the article. This means that it removes many annoying site elements, but also means that you can access your articles while you're offline. This makes it perfect for catching up on interesting articles while you're on public transit or a flight. This doesn't work for videos, however.

You should also note that while it stores an in-app page for posts on platforms like Reddit, you can't see comments without visiting the original link. This is also true for articles that have comment threads.

Another benefit of the app is that you can adjust text size, font, and background color. This is a useful accessibility feature, especially if your mobile browser doesn't support a reader mode. The mobile app also supports text-to-speech, another valuable accessibility feature.

Instapaper balances simplicity and functionality

There are plenty of options when it comes to read-it-later apps, but I've found that Instapaper includes the essential features I need without too much bloat. There are self-hosted alternatives to Pocket, but my NAS's limited RAM has meant that I've had to prioritize exactly which apps I want to self-host.

If you're looking for a convenient cross-platform solution with a minimal learning curve, I'd recommend trying Instapaper.