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Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for later

alfreadapp.com

41–50 of 97 posts

Re: Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for later

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One day :) We’re a 2-person team with 1 dev, so resources are quite limited, but hope to get there. Great suggestion! We have auto-tags for that right now, but of course it’s not perfect yet. But could be nice to suggest similar ones at the end of the one I just read, like you suggested

As a android user I see a lot of IOS only apps on Show HN but can't recall an Android only one. Is there a business reason for this given that android has over 70% of the market.

for paid apps, it's because iOS users are more willing to pay real money when compared to Android users. As for free apps, I suppose it's more complicated. For a small team of 1 dev, if that dev has iOS, then that's what they'll build first.

I don't build mobile apps, but I hear generally people prefer building for iOS. Plus, they can use the latest APIs and not worry about supporting a 6 year old OS.

Imagine testing your iOS app. You get a small number of iPhones and you're done. Now compare to Android.

I'm an Android user who constantly wonders whether he shouldn't give up and switch to iOS.

Re: Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for later

#42
Neat! Congratulations. My one question was whether you sync to Readwise and it looks like you have that covered. Does that include highlights or annotations made in Alfread?

I also have to be that guy and ask if the similarity to alfredapp.com ever came up. :) For a sec I thought they were adding a reading workflow feature, which would be awesome.

Re: Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for later

#43

Neat! Congratulations. My one question was whether you sync to Readwise and it looks like you have that covered. Does that include highlights or annotations made in Alfread? I also have to be that guy and ask if the similarity to alfredapp.com ever came up. :) For a sec I thought they were adding a reading workflow feature, which would be awesome.

Thank you! Yep, highlights made in Alfread are synced to Readwise. We don’t have annotations yet but stay tuned. Lol, yeah it has been mentioned: someone said that it’s a poor choice of the name since it’s so similar to Alfred. Naming is one hell of a challenge

Re: Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for later

#44

I'm excited to try out a new reader app, especially one that integrates with Pocket and Instapaper. Those apps haven't added many new features in years, so there's room for innovators in the space, and using their APIs gives people an easy offramp. Smart! One bit of feedback on the onboarding process: you hit people with the subscription prompt before they've started using the app, and you show them the features they…

Thanks for such an insightful comment! Saving is a big part of read later apps, so we didn’t want users to do too much to start. I agree with you on the onboarding flow as a user, but data shows that it’s the best place to put it actually. You miss 100% of shots you don’t take kind of situation. But we’re trying to not be too pushy about it. Let us know how it goes!

Re: Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for later

#45

Cool app. But that website really buggy for me (chrome macos). Looks like they are - kind of cool idea - placing 'overlay' screenshots on top of a phone, then css transforming them on scroll to 'swipe away.' But it doesn't really work for me. Maybe the apple idea of using a video and controlling the timeline on scroll might work better

Hm, that’s weird. Should be fine on chrome macos, will check. Cool idea with the video!

Re: Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for later

#46

I'm excited to try out a new reader app, especially one that integrates with Pocket and Instapaper. Those apps haven't added many new features in years, so there's room for innovators in the space, and using their APIs gives people an easy offramp. Smart! One bit of feedback on the onboarding process: you hit people with the subscription prompt before they've started using the app, and you show them the features they…

Thanks for such an insightful comment! Saving is a big part of read later apps, so we didn’t want users to do too much to start. I agree with you on the onboarding flow as a user, but data shows that it’s the best place to put it actually. You miss 100% of shots you don’t take kind of situation. But we’re trying to not be too pushy about it. Let us know how it goes!

Liking it so far. You do a good job of explaining how to activate the share extension, which is not an easy task!

One low-hanging fruit is to have an option for the page background color to match the system theme dynamically, instead of having to set it into day/night mode manually each time.

I also sent you guys a separate email regarding a collaboration possibility with my company's reading enhancement tech. I hope my emails is buried under a pile of front-page-of-HN-inbound-messages! Congrats on your launch.

Re: Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for later

#47
post #38

I've been thinking recently about making something that would allow me to print my daily saved articles. Kind of like my own newspaper. I hardly use my inkjet printer as it is and I much prefer reading from paper than a screen.

Love the idea! Haven’t tried but there’s this https://www.myscreenbreak.com/?ref=producthunt

Re: Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for later

#50

Sorry if this is a bit off-topic but for me the website is overwhelming. Everything is very large and animated which makes me dizzy. I don't know what is happening when I scroll.

Same feeling here, I'm on a 1920x1200 display. There are things animating at the bottom of the viewport that have disappeared by the time they're centred. The entire page is about 5 bullet points worth of text, but is in a massive font and requires three pages of distracting animated boxes. I can't just scan the text and see what the app does. Gimme all the info with no scrolling, and if you really want to go wild, do it below the fold.
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