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Super bummed about this. I know a surprising number of high profile CEOs and founders who live by Pocket, really has just been quietly reliable and simple way

Super bummed about this. I know a surprising number of high profile CEOs and founders who live by Pocket, really has just been quietly reliable and simple way to reserve content for later. Despite there being so many other $apps that can fill the gap here, none of them seem to be as clean and straightforward as Pocket has been for me. Anyone here paying for Matter or Readwise? I know Instapaper may seem to be the obvious migration path, but since my landlord is kicking me out, maybe it’s time I move to a more robust solution.

dlojudice 1y ago
> Anyone here paying for Matter or Readwise? I know Instapaper may seem to be the obvious migration path, but since my landlord is kicking me out, maybe it’s time I move to a more robust solution. I'd love to know where to migrate my Pocket data. The funny thing is that I had "Migrate Pocket" on my calendar for June 30th. And are you serious that the exported data doesn't have the tags? Really? I wonder how a database like this has no value, especially with the customization power brought by AI. Didn't Mozilla think about selling the product?
- dustincoates 1y ago
  I exported my data, and tags were there.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
0_____0 1y ago
I have been using Obsidian Web Clipper to save stuff to read later. If you already use Obsidian it's worth a shot. It's not perfect but it does a reasonable job of translating articles etc. into markdown. I don't actually know if it saves images locally, I suspect not (which is probably a pretty big weakness)
- jrks11o 1y ago
  it saves images locally in your vault edit: sorry, the clipper links them
gxqoz 1y ago
I tried Matter but it lacked Android support at the time so didn't go deep into it. I've been a heavy Readwise user for the last two years or so. It's better than Pocket in almost every way, although as I've moved into the 99.9th percentile of archive size I'm seeing some annoying perf issues they'll hopefully fix. At least they have a Discord and are making actual updates to the app, something that Pocket stopped doing probably five years ago.
deinonychus 1y ago
I used Matter for a few weeks and it was fine. The email newsletter collection is interesting but it's sort of a paywalled feature and I didn't really use it much. Several other paywalled features I wasn't interested in. At the time I really wanted an iOS widget and I don't think Matter had one, so I bounced. I'm using Feedly now and really like it, especially for the suggested news RSS feeds. I get by with a free account and it feels like they don't try to convert you very often... Unfortunately the act of adding a new bookmark is weirdly slow on my phone. Maybe that's just my device.
jweber123 1y ago
I'm using the free version of Matter, and it seems like a good improvement over Pocket. It managed to import most of my Pocket saves too.
synthesis12 1y ago
I can't recommend Raindrop enough if you're looking for alternatives
NewsGotHacked 1y ago
I have been paying for readwise for about a year and a half now. I was a pocket subscriber for years before they got bought out by Firefox. All that said, I wouldn't call myself an advanced user of either (tag a lot less than I would like, want to revisit more than I do, etc.). I am reasonably satisfied with read wise as a replacement/upgrade to pocket and will continue to pay for it for the time being. My least favorite part is it needs 2 apps/extensions for full functionality (readwise and reader). It works but feels clunkier to me than it needs to be.
- tristanho 1y ago
  That is definitely one of the biggest painpoints, and we feel it ourselves for whatever it's worth! However, if you're just looking for a replacement for Pocket, you only need the Reader app/extension and it shouldn't be clunky at all. It's only if you want our highlight-specific reviewing/exporting functionality that you would also need the Readwise app... still not ideal, but merging two complex products like this without making the experience janky/complicated for new users is a really really hard problem!
  - mrehler 1y ago
    Even when I was a new user right as Reader was getting started, I didn't think it was clunky to be honest. I thought it was clear when I was using one vs. the other. The only problem I've ever had is that typing/saying "Readwise Reader" is a bit clunky when discussing the product, but "Readwise" refers to the other one, and "Reader" isn't a sufficient name itself.
  - apparent 1y ago
    The current pricing of Readwise seems like it will not be attractive to the 99% of Pocket users who are just looking for a reader app, and don't want to plunk down $120 every year for that (and various other features they aren't looking for). It looks like you have a "Lite" tier that doesn't include the reader app. Maybe there should be a free tier that offers only the reader app, and you can try to upsell users from there. Otherwise people who just want a reader app will migrate to Instapaper or other free reader apps. I know that's what I plan on doing!
brianjlogan 1y ago
Been using readwise. I quite like it. I'll gladly pay the price if it means preventing encrapification down the road. It does everything that I liked out of Pocket and Omnivore. It also has a neat sync feature where all my notes/highlights get saved to my Obsidian.
ewoodrich 1y ago
I pay for Readwise Reader and it's pretty great, although I have been noticing issues extracting the full text on certain sites. It sometimes just seems to give up and the extract contains an empty block and is 1/10 of the expected length. A bit frustrating since that's my main use case.
msmithstubbs 1y ago
Matter user here. I love the app, currently on the paid plan. It has some nice bells and whistles (reading articles to you, highlights, etc) but it does the core job of saving articles for reading really well. I’m not a pocket user so it may or may not be a good substitute but worth trying. I wish Matter worked on the kobo but there’s no API AFAIK (they do have a few of their own integrations with Obsidian and Readwise).

dlojudice 1y ago

> Anyone here paying for Matter or Readwise? I know Instapaper may seem to be the obvious migration path, but since my landlord is kicking me out, maybe it’s time I move to a more robust solution. I'd love to know where to migrate my Pocket data. The funny thing is that I had "Migrate Pocket" on my calendar for June 30th. And are you serious that the exported data doesn't have the tags? Really? I wonder how a database like this has no value, especially with the customization power brought by AI. Didn't Mozilla think about selling the product?

dustincoates 1y ago
I exported my data, and tags were there.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

0_____0 1y ago

I have been using Obsidian Web Clipper to save stuff to read later. If you already use Obsidian it's worth a shot. It's not perfect but it does a reasonable job of translating articles etc. into markdown. I don't actually know if it saves images locally, I suspect not (which is probably a pretty big weakness)

jrks11o 1y ago
it saves images locally in your vault edit: sorry, the clipper links them

gxqoz 1y ago

I tried Matter but it lacked Android support at the time so didn't go deep into it. I've been a heavy Readwise user for the last two years or so. It's better than Pocket in almost every way, although as I've moved into the 99.9th percentile of archive size I'm seeing some annoying perf issues they'll hopefully fix. At least they have a Discord and are making actual updates to the app, something that Pocket stopped doing probably five years ago.

deinonychus 1y ago

I used Matter for a few weeks and it was fine. The email newsletter collection is interesting but it's sort of a paywalled feature and I didn't really use it much. Several other paywalled features I wasn't interested in. At the time I really wanted an iOS widget and I don't think Matter had one, so I bounced. I'm using Feedly now and really like it, especially for the suggested news RSS feeds. I get by with a free account and it feels like they don't try to convert you very often... Unfortunately the act of adding a new bookmark is weirdly slow on my phone. Maybe that's just my device.

jweber123 1y ago

I'm using the free version of Matter, and it seems like a good improvement over Pocket. It managed to import most of my Pocket saves too.

synthesis12 1y ago

I can't recommend Raindrop enough if you're looking for alternatives

NewsGotHacked 1y ago

I have been paying for readwise for about a year and a half now. I was a pocket subscriber for years before they got bought out by Firefox. All that said, I wouldn't call myself an advanced user of either (tag a lot less than I would like, want to revisit more than I do, etc.). I am reasonably satisfied with read wise as a replacement/upgrade to pocket and will continue to pay for it for the time being. My least favorite part is it needs 2 apps/extensions for full functionality (readwise and reader). It works but feels clunkier to me than it needs to be.

tristanho 1y ago
That is definitely one of the biggest painpoints, and we feel it ourselves for whatever it's worth! However, if you're just looking for a replacement for Pocket, you only need the Reader app/extension and it shouldn't be clunky at all. It's only if you want our highlight-specific reviewing/exporting functionality that you would also need the Readwise app... still not ideal, but merging two complex products like this without making the experience janky/complicated for new users is a really really hard problem!
- mrehler 1y ago
  Even when I was a new user right as Reader was getting started, I didn't think it was clunky to be honest. I thought it was clear when I was using one vs. the other. The only problem I've ever had is that typing/saying "Readwise Reader" is a bit clunky when discussing the product, but "Readwise" refers to the other one, and "Reader" isn't a sufficient name itself.
- apparent 1y ago
  The current pricing of Readwise seems like it will not be attractive to the 99% of Pocket users who are just looking for a reader app, and don't want to plunk down $120 every year for that (and various other features they aren't looking for). It looks like you have a "Lite" tier that doesn't include the reader app. Maybe there should be a free tier that offers only the reader app, and you can try to upsell users from there. Otherwise people who just want a reader app will migrate to Instapaper or other free reader apps. I know that's what I plan on doing!

brianjlogan 1y ago

Been using readwise. I quite like it. I'll gladly pay the price if it means preventing encrapification down the road. It does everything that I liked out of Pocket and Omnivore. It also has a neat sync feature where all my notes/highlights get saved to my Obsidian.

ewoodrich 1y ago

I pay for Readwise Reader and it's pretty great, although I have been noticing issues extracting the full text on certain sites. It sometimes just seems to give up and the extract contains an empty block and is 1/10 of the expected length. A bit frustrating since that's my main use case.

msmithstubbs 1y ago

Matter user here. I love the app, currently on the paid plan. It has some nice bells and whistles (reading articles to you, highlights, etc) but it does the core job of saving articles for reading really well. I’m not a pocket user so it may or may not be a good substitute but worth trying. I wish Matter worked on the kobo but there’s no API AFAIK (they do have a few of their own integrations with Obsidian and Readwise).