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

Re:Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for l... by gnicholas on Monday December 27, 2021 @02:28PM (#29705875)

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 can only have if they pay. At this point in the process, they have no idea what other features are in the app, and whether they want to keep using it at all.

I would never subscribe to an app — or even start a free trial that will automatically rollover into a paid subscription — before exploring the app a bit. Perhaps you could put a comparison checklist at this stage, so people can see what features are included in the free version? I probably still wouldn't subscribe at that point, but at least it would feel like the app has shown me the relevant info before asking me to sign up.

I do realize this is for a free trial, not the paid subscription, but I don't want to put another to-do on my calendar for "cancel app subscription for $appIJustDownloaded".

Looking forward to trying out the app and seeing what's under the hood. Good luck!

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Re:Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for l... by shkliarau on Monday December 27, 2021 @03:01PM (#29706173)

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!

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Re:Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for l... by gnicholas on Monday December 27, 2021 @03:08PM (#29706231)

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.

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Re:Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for l... by shkliarau on Tuesday December 28, 2021 @05:57AM (#29712446)

The theme should match the background automatically , it doesn't work for you?

Will look into the email today, thank you!

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Re:Show HN: We built an app for reading articles saved for l... by gnicholas on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @02:30AM (#29722735)

You're right — the theme does match the system theme automatically! The UI in the Aa setting doesn't indicate this will happen, but it's a nice surprise that the default behavior is to match the system theme. Well done!

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