Big Update for Instapaper Makes "Reading Later" Better, Even in the Dark

If you’re an Instapaper user on your iPhone or iPad – and, really, you should be – you’ll be pleased with the major update that the app has just received. Among the coolest of the new features is Dark Mode, which based on the time of sunset in your particular location, allows the app to automatically switch from the “daytime” mode of black text on a light screen to the “nighttime” mode of white text on a darker background. If you read with the light on, you can trigger Dark Mode manually.

If that alone – plus the app’s marked improvement in speed – were all that the update contained, I’d be happy.

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But in addition, Instapaper 2.3 has redone the layout of the list screen, including the first few lines of texts from the articles – something that was previously available only on the iPad. The list also indicates approximate article length with a row of dots – the more dots, the longer the article. Darkened dots indicate how far you’ve read.

The app has also added account syncing with Mobile Safari, new sharing options, article preview on the iPhone, and a (slightly) easier bookmarklet installation. (The latter is a problem with iOS, not with Instapaper. “Please, Apple, fix bookmarklet installation in Mobile Safari!” reads Instapaper’s blog post announcing the updated app.)

To add new articles to Instapaper, you can now simply ad an “i” before the “http” to a URL.

Richard MacManus interviewed Instapaper’s Marco Ament earlier this fall. You can read the interview here to see how Instapaper was developed, as well as some of Ament’s thoughts on the future of the app. If this update is any indication, Ament’s now full-time attention to Instapaper bodes well for its future.

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