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this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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Has anyone ever used pocket except by accident?
Is there a better free read later app?
I'm just not sure what a read later app is even for. Can't you just leave the tab open?
The internet is not always available for at least some people.
You'd need the internet to sync with Pocket on another device. If you need the page on the same device, you can save it as a PDF.
The main idea is that you can access it regardless of which device you're currently using. Like saving an article you see when you're on your PC for when you're about to leave so you can read it on your phone while on the train
You can do that just with Firefox's syncing feature though. You don't even have to save it intentionally; so long as you're logged in on both devices it'll be listed in your history and/or open tabs.
Not on devices without Firefox. Pocket is great for sending articles to read on my Kindle, for example.
That is useful, but I see it's a third-party feature. I was able to find a "send to Kindle" page on Amazon that would allow the sending of a page as a PDF file.
"Why not just slow down your device?"
Tabs aren't meant as bookmarks. Read later is for saving anything to any amount of time, and it doesn't take up responses of your system, is searchable, has tags, reading view etc. Your comment is grandma with dementia level of tech illiteracy.
That's literally what tabs are on mobile browsers
You'd need the PC equivalent of a grandma with dementia for it to struggle running Firefox. Anecdotally, I game with my tab collection regularly with no issues, but here's a more scientific test: https://www.howtogeek.com/how-many-tabs-does-it-take-to-slow-down-your-browser/
But even in that case, just bookmark, save, and/or archive the pages in question? It doesn't make sense for them to maintain servers and code on a service so easily replicated by the browser itself.
Try readdeck or shiori (both self hostable)
Instapaper has a free plan. Personally, I moved away from Instapaper and use the extension MarkDownload to save pages as Markdown and import that into Obsidian.
Instapaper is nice and probably where I'll end up. Others have suggested Wallabag to me which has a less than 1€/month plan.
My man. 👌
I've switched to Raindrop.io since hearing about Pocket shutting down, it seems cool!
Shiori is a single binary you can run on your desktop or host on a server. I use it all the time.
Yes, many times. For a while I tried to use it as a read later for articles. But I never managed to actually remember to go back and read later the things I saved. I honestly think it's a useful tool. You can save articles offline to read later.
So I had no idea you could use it to read offline. But I remember saving webpages to read later back in the 00s. I remember you could even choose how many links deep you wanted to save. Is this really no longer available?
Actually I like Offpunk for this kind of functionality, but that's not very mainstream.
Well sure you can save web pages. Pocket was a manager for that.
I love Pocket! However, as what most people mentioned, there are too many articles to keep up. I have years worth of backlog.
I never view it as a "to do list of must reads" but as just another feed but curated really good stuff.
not even by accident, lol
yep, I used to save articles on pocket for my study so I could read it later.
After writing, I'd need to cite all the statements in my paper, pocket provided an easy list to reference.