Instapaper, after being an iOS exclusive app for about two years, has finally entered the Android store with its official application. For those who are unaware, Instapaper is a web service that elegantly saves your web-pages for offline reading – in a very clean layout, minus any distractions.
The basic idea of Instapaper is very simple; if you are reading an article in your desktop/mobile browser, but don’t have enough time to complete it – send it to Instapaper by either using a browser bookmarklet or share button (in mobile) and Instapaper will be instantly download it to your phone for offline reading, in a clean layout with all the obtrusive elements, like ads etc., stripped out.
Although this basic idea sounds very plain, it is a good example of how even a simple idea can turn into a handy service that millions of people use every day.
Download from Play Store: Instapaper ($2.99)
Key Features
The user interface of Instapaper is quite well-built, very minimal, but still packs some powerful features that sets it apart from other similar applications.
Saving multi-page articles is probably where Instapaper’s strongest feature lies. This distinct feature really comes in handy when a long article is divided into more than one page, like gadget reviews etc.
Instapaper also lets you configure text with different fonts, text sizes, alignment etc., along with an option for switching to ‘Dark Mode’ that makes reading easier in low light conditions, specially at night. What’s impressive about this feature is that Instapaper can automatically enable Dark Mode at night after detecting sunset time in your network location.
The app also offers folders for organizing articles for when you’ve a lot of articles to deal with. A small yet worthy feature is the presence of dots under every article which represent the percentage of article that you’ve completed reading.
The only gripe with Instapaper is its inability to include videos in articles, which might be a bummer for a few people. Other than this drawback, Instapaper is a solid application.
Wrap Up
The Good
- It can save multi-page articles
- Automatic switching to dark mode
- Folder organization
- Simple User Interface
The Bad
- Doesn’t support videos in articles
Product Reviewed: Instapaper
Instapaper, after being an iOS exclusive app for about two years, has finally released its official application for Android. For those who’re unaware, Instapaper is a web service that elegantly saves your web-pages for offline reading – in a very clean layout.
