[gnicholas]

How 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.

[k-i-r-t-h-i]

I used to be a pretty big user of Pocket myself! I think it works really nicely as a bookmarking tool meant for archiving and aggregating links / resources. I realized what I wanted was something to help me get through my reading queue / content.

I mostly made Q(ueue) to be focused around my reading experience, instead of my collecting experience. I wanted it to be really easy to find that next article (which is why it's based around a queue). The browser extensions were meant to make it super easy to add things or retrieve the next entry and just start reading.

> 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?

Yea, I think the main page needs a bit of rework for simplification. I think the tab/toggle approach would be nice - let me see if I can add that in to make it nicer!

> 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.

Thanks! I really dislike having to create accounts for apps too, so figured it'd make it easier for other people as well. There was another commenter that mentioned it would be easier to just allow local offline access. I think I'll try giving that a shot soon - the dummy account isn't too scalable / will get swamped with content too quickly in the long term anyway.

(I haven't tried Instapaper yet, so will have to check that out in more depth before I can comment on that.)

[Terretta]

Does feel optimized for low friction ambiently available reading queue, a touch less like Instapaper or Pocket, more like “Reading List”?

https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/keep-a-reading-list-s...

[k-i-r-t-h-i]

Yup, it's pretty similar to the reading list option on iOS! I think we can take that implementation further and focus more on making the user reading experience smoother on different platforms.

I don't know if you've had a chance to try out the browser extensions yet, but would love to hear your thoughts on them (it's how I primarily use it right now). It has keyboard shortcuts to let you interact with your reading queue. I think it helps make the process of reading smoother.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/q-by-mimicry-labs/...

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/q-by-mimicry-...

[ashishb]

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.

[input_sh]

> 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.

[bantunes]

I've been trying to cancel my account for days and their account subscription management page just redirects to login for me. Does it work for you?

[input_sh]

Just tried it, and yeah it does. But when I re-login, it seems to take me back to the proper place.

[ffpip]

> 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.

[scpedicini]

Huh, what's your reasoning for this? I've been using Pocket for practically a decade with zero discernible issues. The Pocket app on iOS also works great.

[jamil7]

Anything in particular you miss? One of my side projects is something similar to Instapaper/Pocket, it doesn't see as much love as it probably should but brings in a little money.

[gnicholas]

I think Pocket used to remember my place when I was reading an article, and I find that it no longer does. This is a big problem for long articles. Also, the margins in their web app are enormous, and look ridiculous on iPhone. I've talked with their support about this, but here we are years later and it hasn't been fixed.

Instapaper is definitely coasting right now, and as far as I can tell they haven't made any substantive improvements in half a decade. The reader aspect doesn't necessarily need to change in that timeframe, but the web has changed, and they should be integrating with new/different things to stay current.

[dominotw]

I use pocket on my ereader. I see a lot of ghosting and slowness sometimes. Not sure if there can be an low power eink version.

[k-i-r-t-h-i]

What's your side project (if you don't mind sharing)? Would love to see other projects in this space!