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Show HN: Readwise Reader, an all-in-one reading app

326 points| tristanho | 3 years ago |readwise.io

Hey HN, cofounder of Readwise here. We've been working on this cross-platform reader app for about 2 years, excited to finally share it in public beta.

Probably the most notable thing that makes Reader unique is that it supports almost any content type you could want to save/read/highlight:

* web pages

* emails/newsletters

* PDFs

* ePubs

* twitter threads

* youtube videos (with transcripts)

* RSS feeds

With all of your knowledge content in one place, we built powerful reading and highlighting, as well as a bunch of novel triage/organization features, so you can actually consume & stay on top of that content!

There are also a lot of advanced features too, such as text-to-speech, GPT3 questions/summaries, super powerful highlighting (that includes markup and images), complex filtering/search (with our own query language), sleek mobile triage UI, keyboard shortcuts for reading/everything, integrations with note-taking apps, a browser extension for both saving pages and highlighting them, and much more.

If anyone's interested in more product details, as well as our business model, etc, we wrote a detailed launch post: https://blog.readwise.io/the-next-chapter-of-reader-public-b...

Predicting a common question: Reader is part of the Readwise subscription pricing right now in beta -- there's a 30 day free trial and then it's paid at ~$8usd/month. We also promise to not raise this price for existing subscribers.

Reader is also fairly technically interesting -- our iOS, Android and webapp all work fully offline and sync your reading data/progress with eachother. Our search on web is built with wasm sqlite. We have a fairly intense pipeline for cleaning web articles (removing ads/styling). We share lot of modules around syncing/highlighting across all platforms, etc...

Happy to answer any questions :)

156 comments

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[+] lancesells|3 years ago|reply
Looks like a great product but you're using Facebook Remarketing and Google Ads. That makes me not want to use an app with potentially very personal information. Let's say I save 100s of articles about a specific health problem. Having any of that info going to Meta scares me.
[+] tristanho|3 years ago|reply
We definitely do not share reading data with meta or google.

Honestly we installed those a while back when experimenting with ads, but dont use them anymore… will look at ripping out!

[+] autoexec|3 years ago|reply
Yeah, I'd recommend that everyone check their privacy policy very carefully. This seems like yet another service where you are the product being delivered.
[+] baby|3 years ago|reply
This is such a weird comment to read on hackernews. I miss the product/new app oriented community that HN once was.
[+] rupi|3 years ago|reply
Looks amazing! I played with Reader for the last hour or so and it looks so much better than Pocket. The import from Pocket - delightful!

I had originally started using Readwise to sync my Pocket and Memex highlights with Roam and it looks like you guys have removed the need for both by building Reader.

My pocket (pun unintended) thanks you, provided price isn't going up. But I think there is a lesson here. Pocket has done no innovation for years - a classic 'cash cow'. But then you guys show up and make a product that (for me) is 10x better. It is also clever that you haven't taken any VC funding because I don't think this a product that will ever be venture scale. Now, you guys can build cool stuff and make a good living in peace without chasing that elusive venture exit.

[+] tristanho|3 years ago|reply
Thanks! Yeah, part of the motivation for Reader was that our original readwise app was integrated with a bunch of these apps like Pocket and Instapaper... and we saw them completely fall by the wayside.

Our users were constantly asking us to fix things with Pocket/Instapaper that were out of our control, so they kind of pulled this app out of us :)

[+] eigenvalue|3 years ago|reply
Yeah, if I ran Pocket I'd be really concerned now-- particularly because they've made it so easy to onboard as a Pocket user, with it automatically retrieving all your saved articles.
[+] atto|3 years ago|reply
Been using Reader as my primary reading + save for later app for a few months. It's truly a joy — it's fast, simple, and works really well. There's obviously a cold-start problem where you need to use it for a bit to get most of the value, so I'd encourage anyone here that's interested in a similar app to give it a couple weeks.
[+] rahimnathwani|3 years ago|reply
I got it a week ago and was hooked within a day.

The things I like:

- easy to send articles to it (with or without highlights) from any platform I use (Android, iOS, Chrome), or by forwarding emails, or by subscribing to mailing lists using the reader email address

- nice way to read Twitter threads

- nice workflow for creating flashcards from highlights

- keyboard shortcuts on web

- reading feels immersive, and choose a next article is easy

I am usually reluctant to add yet another monthly subscription, but this is so nice that I paid for an annual subscription a couple of hours after I started using it.

[+] vorpalhex|3 years ago|reply
I use the Readwise sync service and pocket and just checked out the app.

My _several hundred_ pocket articles all moved over seamlessly! Very impressed so far!

Hoping this can replace pocket and my ereader.

[+] asdfqwertzxcv|3 years ago|reply
Exact same experience for me. They’ve done a great job of combining all the disparate parts of the digital reading experience and it’s only been getting better over the months since the devs are extremely responsive to feedback and they implement changes quickly.
[+] sytelus|3 years ago|reply
With all the hype by authors, it is very poorly designed website, app frontend and documentation. I still cannot figure out how to use this thing. I installed the app and app has look of circa 2007. No help pages, how-to steps, guide or anything of value can be found. I go to Twitter and Safari on my phone and have no clue how do I bookmark/save anything to Readwise. Nothing on iPhone or Twitter shows "save to Readwise" or anything like that. Their webpage is just filled entirely with marketing fluff instead of actual user centric how-to content. At lease tell users how to use all the functionality you are relentlessly bragging about!!

The main thing in bookmark/offline readers is ability to search. I see tons of bragging on highlights and not much on search. Can I search by tags? How can I tag anything any way? Can I import my tags from places like Diigo? My primary question is always "where did I saw that?", not highlighting everything I read.

I use Diigo and they are almost opposite for the better. Solid and clear way of how to migrate from competitors should also be #1 focus but here basic stuff is missing.

[+] rchaud|3 years ago|reply
Used Pocket for ~10 years, and I know Readwise is superior.

Here's the issue I had with Pocket, and one I'm sure you will run into as well. Around 2018 or so, I noticed Pocket stopped going to the offline version of the article, and would load the awful full web page, with ads and popups and everything. I would have to keep my phone in airplane mode to force Pocket to default to the offline article. I imagine they did this due to complaints from site owners.

Pocket at its peak probably had millions of users more than Readwise does. How will you handle similar requests when you reach that kind of scale?

FYI, my system now is to simply "save to PDF" in a labeled folder and keep devices in sync with Syncthing Fork.

[+] MattDemers|3 years ago|reply
It depends on the site; I've actually had good rapport with Pocket's team on bringing up sites that don't work, and getting them fixed.
[+] philips|3 years ago|reply
I have been using Reader for months and it has been great. I love that it can handle adhoc content like PDFs and also subscriptions like RSS and mailing lists.

The killer feature is exporting highlights to Obsidian for me though. I get a lot of utility from being able to find things I read in the past while doing writing or research.

[+] mistercool|3 years ago|reply
whoa, good flag! need to start doing this
[+] thomasqbrady|3 years ago|reply
I'm super intrigued by this, and feel like I'm 99% overlap in a Venn diagram with the target user, BUT… when the browser plugin immediately requested the ability to see everything I did on every site I ever visited (and the first one it asked me about was my employer's wiki with trade secrets galore), I clicked "deny" and moved on.

Might still be worth a shot on personal devices, but with the say Safari syncs history across devices via iCloud, I'm not so sure…

Is it still demonstrably better than other reading apps (Reeder, Instapaper, etc.) without the plugin?

[+] tristanho|3 years ago|reply
Hey! Totally understand this concern with the browser extension. I mentioned this in another comment, but there was no way to build the full functionality without these permissions, though we do hope to make a lighter version of the extension in the future for more privacy-conscious folks.

However, completely understand the request, and we do value privacy/security super highly. All extension data stays local on your device unless you actively press the extension button to save a page/content. You'd have to read our source code and network requests to confirm this right now, of course.

Another commenter also mentioned, we do indeed have a super light bookmarklet that can serve this purpose in the mean time as well

``` javascript:(function()%7Bopen('https://readwise.io/save?title='+encodeURIComponent(document...)() ```

Hope that helps!

[+] philips|3 years ago|reply
I use the bookmarklet they offer for saving for this reason. I wish addons had a finer grain permission system.
[+] baby|3 years ago|reply
Oh damn :/ that indeed sounds like a blocker for me. I was looking forward to try that app.

EDIT: looks like there’s a bookmarklet. I think that’ll do the trick.

[+] wpietri|3 years ago|reply
Paradoxically, the fact that this is a do-everything app makes me much less likely to try it out. If it were just, say, an RSS reader, then I might try exporting OPML from my current feed reader and seeing what happens. But reading is important enough to me that I would be very reluctant to put all my eggs in one basket. Especially a startup, where the best case is that a lot of my most important stuff requires me to pay $100/year forever.
[+] karlb|3 years ago|reply
I migrated to Reader from Instapaper, which was crashing all the time, so I had little to lose. Before that, my company used Diigo, which felt clunky and unloved. Reader is incredibly polished. I absolutely love it, and I’m delighted when they add new features. I’ve been on the beta for 11 months, and am genuinely excited to read the updates. They launched YouTube support a few days ago, and already it’s great (on desktop). I also love being able to add tweet threads (effectively turning them into articles I can highlight). Reader has a feature that automatically subscribes to RSS feeds you like (based on your reading and highlighting history) and, for me, it was at least as surprisingly effective as the recommendation engines in Spotify and Amazon.

Even though I imagine it’s hard to create software like this, I don’t believe it’s beyond one company to make a do-everything app. Already, it’s do-enough-for-my-needs, and their velocity is impressive. (I want them to add podcasts next, with highlightable transcripts. That sounds easy to me, but every podcast-workflow app I’ve tried has been buggy/crashy/awful.)

[+] alwayslikethis|3 years ago|reply
I agree. Subscription-based proprietary software is the worst kind out there in terms of user autonomy, because there exists a strong incentive against your ability to leave the service in order to keep you paying. The larger the scope, the greater my potential loss I face.
[+] bberenberg|3 years ago|reply
Still waiting for a solution like what you have done with YouTube videos but for podcasts on the literal run. Easy way to tag a moment in a podcast from an Apple Watch for later review as a transcript I can cite. Best of luck building Readwise Reader, and I loved your post at https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01gewk3j3kt56v6w87qd1qqez1... and have been sharing it with lots of people I know.
[+] codq|3 years ago|reply
I've been experimenting with a new podcast app Snipd, which purports to do this: https://www.snipd.com/

It doesn't yet have an Apple Watch app though, and since (I assume like you) I listen to podcasts while out on a run w/o my phone, that would be the killer feature I'd drop everything for.

[+] CrypticShift|3 years ago|reply
I think the original "read it later" app was "Pocket" 15 years ago. At the core it is still bookmarking with a "reader" mode. I use it on my e-reader (because of the kobo native integration)

I'm looking back to the origins because Readwise is aggressively pushing this concept to the "limits". I mean, offering epubs and RSSs (and much more) is pretty inclusive. This may blur the original "simplicity" goal. However, The UX design is flawless. Nothing to say. So, this will surely help order all that disparate input.

HN readers, don't be discouraged by the price tag. Give it a go, and make sure you "invoke the ghost" [1]

[1] https://twitter.com/deadly_onion/status/1592990487257829376

[+] jyriand|3 years ago|reply
I remember "Instapaper" being the original "read it later" web app. Found out about Pocket when it was included with firefox and I accidentally clicked on the icon.
[+] gbourne|3 years ago|reply
Just tried Readwise out - very nice! Pocket seems to have stagnated, so very refreshing to see innovation in the Instapaper/Pocket space. I know you all are working on a ton of things, but one suggestion is to add in other SSO options like Google (gmail). Right now I just see Amazon and Email.

Also when syncing with Pocket, perhaps mention it might take a bit to sync and you'll find the article in your Inbox - I thought the sync didn't work, but eventually appeared under Inbox, as opposed to where I expected in recently added.

[+] tr3ntg|3 years ago|reply
Readwise has always been an impressive product - this makes it go so much farther.

Tangent: for me, the Readwise brand as a whole has been damaged by its Twitter bot. There are so many people using it that it spams the replies to just about any Twitter thread. I hate seeing it, but I know these people are getting lots of value - just at the expense of everyone else’s reading experience.

[+] DevX101|3 years ago|reply
Most of my readwise content is from twitter and I agree this isn't a great UX. I recommend connecting Readwise to your twitter account. Once done, you can bookmark single tweets or save threads by DMing a tweet to the Readwise account w/ the message 'T'.
[+] awwx|3 years ago|reply
I opened the link, and my laptop fan started running full blast.

Chrome 108.0.5359.98, MacOS 11.7.1

I opened the Chrome Task Manager and the "GPU Process" was pegging the CPU.

I closed the Readwise tab and CPU usage dropped to normal.

I opened https://readwise.io/read again. After a minute the "GPU Process" CPU usage went back up to 73%.

[+] dragonstyle|3 years ago|reply
This looks really great (I'm using the iOS app on an iPad).

I like reviewing long HN threads and would love to save them to read later. However, when I go to a saved thread in Readwise, it only renders the root comment (and none of the replies). I can't find a way to escape the styled view to get to the original. Am I perhaps just missing something or if not, consider it a suggestion!

[+] tristanho|3 years ago|reply
Heyo! Yeah, our parser doesn't work great with HN threads (yet! i'd love to get it working...)

But in the mean time the Reader browser extension also acts as a web highlighter. So after activating it, you can highlight any text directly on the web page, and then add tags/notes to those as well. Those highlights will sync back into Reader.

[+] saltymimir|3 years ago|reply
Was a bit skeptical about how good this was gonna be, but I'm definitely impressed.

The improvements are a lot more apparent on desktop. I love the fact that I can do pretty much anything using the command palette and keyboard shortcuts. Feels like this is the kind of browsing experience that I'm most contend with. The GPT-3 "ghostreader" feature was also great; most of the summary / text generations fulfilled my expectations.

If I have to pick on something: the mobile app browsing experience isn't that much better from Pocket or Instapaper. The scrolling and animation feels a bit laggy in my iPhone. The "ghostreader" feature in the app feels very limited and awkward to enable here as well.

[+] mrehler|3 years ago|reply
Been using it for a few days now, and my biggest hope is that it gets a dedicated Mac app. I've been a bit disappointed with it so far in Unite. Maybe if I picked up Coherence it would work better?
[+] causi|3 years ago|reply
If I'm going to use an "all in one" reader app it needs to support comics and graphic novels.

$7.99/month

This seems rather steep when there are already reader apps that do cloud bookmarks for free.

[+] comfypotato|3 years ago|reply
Awesome app! Going to dive in and explore a bit more later when I have some time. Can you comment on any portals or forums in which requests for features can be made?

TLDR: do you have plans for an interface to implement your own interactions like in VSCode/Emacs/Vimscript?

I’ve got a to-do item to implement a software artifact that’s hyper-specific to the keyboard configuration I like when it comes to reading, but this app has so many nice features that I can’t help but wonder if I can fit it to my functionality. I’m a big tweaker when it comes to personal software interaction configuration, and I’m curious if your app has any functionality through which to tweak interactions.

An example of something I’ve always wanted: find the first currently visible paragraph break and move the top line of the immediately following paragraph to the top of the view window (similarly, find the last visible paragraph break, and move the last line of the previous paragraph to the bottom of the viewing window). I have lots of little micro-configurations that I hope to implement, and I’m wondering if there’s a route to bring this functionality to your app. Little things like this help to micro-optimize intensive research sessions. Happy to contribute if it’s that sort of project.

The previously-mentioned interactions could be extended to only apply to a single monitor if the window is sized over multiple monitors. I have lots of ideas, and would love to discuss the prospects of accepting community requests and feedback concerning these sorts of personal settings.

[+] bx376|3 years ago|reply
Congrats! This is truly a game-changer.

Personally, I have two suggestions for a future release:

1). Invert-color PDF dark mode harms readability.

Simply invert the color will make serif fonts less readable. I use PDF.js with the following canvas renderer snippet to create a more pleasant reading experience.

```css

#viewerContainer > #viewer > .page > .canvasWrapper > canvas { filter: sepia(23%); filter: saturate(45%); filter: hue-rotate(181deg); filter: brightness(90%); filter: contrast(93%); filter: invert(81%); }

#viewerContainer > #viewer > .spread > .page > .canvasWrapper > canvas { filter: sepia(23%); filter: saturate(45%); filter: hue-rotate(181deg); filter: brightness(90%); filter: contrast(93%); filter: invert(81%); }

```

Try this with this PDF.js extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pdf-reader/ieepebp... by pasting it to the option page.

2). Custom Font support.

As a power user, I'd like to render the article with my personally preferable font (locally installed in most cases.) Why not simply give users the option to set css:font-family? It's really easy to implement.

Anyway, the current product is pleasing enough! I'm already spiritually a paid-user.

[+] tristanho|3 years ago|reply
Thank you!

1) Haha yeah, the inverted colors was kind of a quick hack to make some folks happy. That css looks great -- will definitely explore something like that with our designer :)

2) Not a bad idea at all...

[+] rajekas|3 years ago|reply
I am a fan.

Been using it for several months now and it’s my default reading location and I read a lot. Reading is essential to my life and work and I have been looking for a solution that solves all my information consumption problems. Readwise has a good chance to be that solution as long as they don’t go the way of Google or Evernote.

One continuing irritation: PDF reading on iPadOS isn’t as good as dedicated apps (I use PDF Expert). Highlighting works fine, but writing by hand using the Pencil is nowhere near as responsive or accurate as PDF Expert. I hope you invest resources into making PDF consumption the best in class - it’s the only thing preventing me from fiully embracing Reader as a complete solution.

A suggestion - not arising from irritation, but a matter of positioning - much of the communication of Readwise/Reader’s utility is around productivity, of reading to optimize information uptake or insight maximization. I would prefer if it also highlighted creativity and imagination. I read to make new connnections and (hopefully) think new thoughts that I haven’t thought before. It’s an idyllic vision of the vocation of reading but one that has a long history in the annals of bibliophilia. Perhaps you should target not just the Tech Bro, but also the Romantic Reader.

PS: an unexpected delight - I liked how I was onboarded by an existing user and had to turn around a couple of weeks later and help onboard the next generation. If done well, Readwise/Reader can become an essential social reading app for nerds, with the tool being the hub for a community of serious readers. Books are already read in circles - perhaps you should try to replace Google+ as well as Google Reader

[+] thewiseswirl|3 years ago|reply
Absolutely this. I love the app and work in research. Had I not already used Readwise to gather all my highlights the landing page would have turned me off.