Show HN: I created an app to make my online reading experience easier
1–10 of 35 posts
Re: Show HN: I created an app to make my online reading experience easier
#2Hey HN!
Long term lurker here - hoping to share my side project, Q.
Like most people reading this, I normally start my day off by going through the first few pages of HN, finding articles I'd like to read. If your experience has been anything like mine, you probably also open up a bunch of tabs, read a few, and eventually close the rest (especially if Chrome is eating up all your memory!). It's pretty much the same process with other websites I visit as well.
I built Q(ueue... heh) to make my online reading life easier. I wanted a simple way to add and read articles while on my computer, so I made a browser extension that lets you do things with just keyboard shortcuts (Pressing "Ctrl+Shift+Space" adds my current page, while "Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow" fetches the next article in my queue - I can also right click add, which I find helpful when browsing HN).
In order to pick up where I left off with my phone, I created an app (on iOS only for now) that makes it really easy to add (via the share thingy) and read articles. You can even set it to open up articles in reader mode which I find gets rid of a lot of visual clutter on most pages (and annoying ads).
I've been using it for a few months now and have been quite happy so wanted to share Q with the community as well.
At the end of the day, this is really just an extremely minimal bookmarking app fine-tuned to how I personally wished they worked. I really hope you find Q useful as well!
I collect the bare minimum to create an account (username, email, and password) but I understand people might not want to create an account.
Here is an account you can use if you want to try it out first: email: hackernews-demo-user@gmail.com password: hackernews
Would love any feedback or suggestions on things to improve! You can also reach me at mimicrylabs@gmail.com as well.
Website: https://q.mimicrylabs.com/
Firefox extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/q-by-mimicry-...
Chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/q-by-mimicry-labs/...
iOS app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/q-by-mimicry-labs/id1552578757
Privacy policy at: https://q.mimicrylabs.com/privacy
Re: Show HN: I created an app to make my online reading experience easier
#3How do you see this differing from services like Instapaper/Pocket? I have used both and definitely think there are areas available for improvement, but I'm just wondering what you're targeting. Congratulations on what you've built, and good luck!
BTW, I found the layout of the website to be a bit confusing. Perhaps in the side-by-side portion, there should be some sort of divider? Or better yet, one column with a simple tab/toggle above the mobile/desktop segment so that someone can see how it works on one or the other?
Also, thanks for thinking of user privacy here. It definitely makes me more likely to use the services, and I think it was very clever of you to create a dummy account that HNers can use.
Re: Show HN: I created an app to make my online reading experience easier
#4This looks great. I just downloaded the iOS app. I always end up with multiple windows open in safari and then eventually lose some of them, so this seems to fit my needs perfectly.
Loved the layout design. Looking forward to trying it.
Re: Show HN: I created an app to make my online reading experience easier
#5Hey HN! Long term lurker here - hoping to share my side project, Q. Like most people reading this, I normally start my day off by going through the first few pages of HN, finding articles I'd like to read. If your experience has been anything like mine, you probably also open up a bunch of tabs, read a few, and eventually close the rest (especially if Chrome is eating up all your memory!). It's pretty much the same p…
Looks good! Thanks for sharing.
> I collect the bare minimum to create an account (username, email, and password) but I understand people might not want to create an account.
Note that HN doesn’t require an email. You don’t strictly need one either. I understand why you’ve probably gone with one anyway.
What’s your plan for monetisation? It’s not ads, apparently, so what’s going to pay the hosting bills?
Re: Show HN: I created an app to make my online reading experience easier
#6Hey HN! Long term lurker here - hoping to share my side project, Q. Like most people reading this, I normally start my day off by going through the first few pages of HN, finding articles I'd like to read. If your experience has been anything like mine, you probably also open up a bunch of tabs, read a few, and eventually close the rest (especially if Chrome is eating up all your memory!). It's pretty much the same p…
I love your app logo and the burgundy colour.
I also had a quick look at your privacy policy, and agree with what oarsinsync mentioned. If you could skip asking users for their details, but still allow them access to the tool, you would probably have a lot more users sign up. Before they sign up, you could store their bookmarks locally. Then perhaps later on, you could ask them to sign in to save their bookmarks to the server to be accessed on other devices.
However, this all depends on what way you plan to monetise the app/extensions?
Can I also ask what framework are you using for the mobile app? It isn't React Native by any chance is it? I ask because I'd love to know how you got on with building the app for the App store. I hope to publish iOS & Android apps for DarwinMail[1] in the coming weeks.
Also, it would be absolutely amazing if you built the Chrome extension with React Native and had some tips.
PS: The site is down ATM, probably because of the influx in all the lovely visitors from HN :)
Re: Show HN: I created an app to make my online reading experience easier
#7Hey HN! Long term lurker here - hoping to share my side project, Q. Like most people reading this, I normally start my day off by going through the first few pages of HN, finding articles I'd like to read. If your experience has been anything like mine, you probably also open up a bunch of tabs, read a few, and eventually close the rest (especially if Chrome is eating up all your memory!). It's pretty much the same p…
Is your website down?
Re: Show HN: I created an app to make my online reading experience easier
#8How do you see this differing from services like Instapaper/Pocket? I have used both and definitely think there are areas available for improvement, but I'm just wondering what you're targeting. Congratulations on what you've built, and good luck! BTW, I found the layout of the website to be a bit confusing. Perhaps in the side-by-side portion, there should be some sort of divider? Or better yet, one column with a si…
Pocket is on the death bed. Instapaper is good but last I checked they didn't let you create an RSS feed. I ended building a readbility viewer with an RSS feed for personal usage.
Re: Show HN: I created an app to make my online reading experience easier
#9How do you see this differing from services like Instapaper/Pocket? I have used both and definitely think there are areas available for improvement, but I'm just wondering what you're targeting. Congratulations on what you've built, and good luck! BTW, I found the layout of the website to be a bit confusing. Perhaps in the side-by-side portion, there should be some sort of divider? Or better yet, one column with a si…
Pocket is on the death bed. Instapaper is good but last I checked they didn't let you create an RSS feed. I ended building a readbility viewer with an RSS feed for personal usage.
> Pocket is on the death bed.
What makes you think that? Happy Pocket premium user here. The product staled a bit for quite some time, but it received a large-ish update in January and they've posted this at the bottom of the changelog:
> We’ve also made significant changes to our underlying codebase so we can make more rapid improvements in the future.
That definitely doesn't sound to me like it's anywhere close to being killed.
Re: Show HN: I created an app to make my online reading experience easier
#10How do you see this differing from services like Instapaper/Pocket? I have used both and definitely think there are areas available for improvement, but I'm just wondering what you're targeting. Congratulations on what you've built, and good luck! BTW, I found the layout of the website to be a bit confusing. Perhaps in the side-by-side portion, there should be some sort of divider? Or better yet, one column with a si…
Pocket is on the death bed. Instapaper is good but last I checked they didn't let you create an RSS feed. I ended building a readbility viewer with an RSS feed for personal usage.
> Pocket is on the death bed. Instapaper is good
Instapaper is more dead than pocket is. Their android app hasn't been updated since June 2019 [0].
[0] - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instapaper...
Pocket works great, even on the free plan. The apps have a beautiful UI and it is fast.