Read-later apps are a great way of subscribing to newsletters without having your inbox flooded with emails every day. They combine useful search and discovery tools with a dedicated inbox for receiving feeds, and they also make for an improved, more curated reading experience.
Let me walk you through the best of them, explaining their pros (and cons), and how you can use them to stay up-to-date with the news efficiently.
Content
- 1. Omnivore
- 2. Newsletterss
- 3. Reader
- 4. Stoop
- 5. Meco
- 6. Substack
- 7. Slick
- 8. Kill the Newsletter
- Read Later Apps: Not only for tidying inboxes
1. Omnivore
Omnivore is a free-to-use app that enables you to bookmark web pages and newsletters for future reference. It’s available on Macs and Windows PCs, on iOS and Android smartphones, and as an extension for Chrome and Safari.
Image source: Simon Chandler/Omnivore
Its user interface is simple yet powerful, inviting you to simply save links to URLs within its app. It also provides you with an email address for receiving mail-only newsletters, while your subscriptions can then be organized into folders, helping you to group letters according to category or subject area.
Importantly, Omnivore includes a function for creating email addresses that can then receive regular newsletters in the app itself. There’s also the ability to add RSS and Atom feeds to your subscriptions, making its reach quite extensive.
I highly recommend Omnivore, given how easy it is to add, access and read content. However, one slight negative is that its desktop app is a little less intuitive to use than its mobile and website apps, in that you have only the search bar with which to find save newsletters.
Read more: Want to create and deliver your own newsletter? Try Listmonk.
2. Newsletterss
Launched in 2021, Newsletterss features a very logical and user-friendly layout that makes it easy to navigate your subscriptions and discover new newsletters. Available via a free or paid version, it’s accessible to Mac and Windows users, while it also boasts iPhone and Android apps.
Image source: Simon Chandler/Newsletterss
What’s good about Newsletterss is that, upon signing up, you’re immediately provided with a new email address for receiving newsletters and feeds. This allows you to go out and start subscribing to the letters you want. Plus the app helpfully serves up interesting feeds on its Discover page.
The only downside of Newsletterss is that its free version comes with limited storage space and ads, while it also doesn’t include the option to send newsletters to Amazon Kindles and other reader apps. But if you don’t mind paying the $1.99 per month (or $12.99 per year) subscription fee, it’s a great way of staying on top of everything.
3. Reader
Aimed squarely at those who need to read for professional and research purposes, Reader is a more recent newsletter app that’s currently available as a public beta. It’s primarily accessed through its website, but can also be used through an extension for major browsers as well as a mobile app.
Reader features a gorgeous interface
One of Reader’s strongest features is that it can save content from a wide variety of sources, including web pages, RSS feeds, newsletters, PDFs, Twitter threads and lists, and even YouTube videos. Just as impressively, it lets you highlight specific parts of texts (and videos), and then group saved highlights together according to subject matter.
Reader offers a 30-day free trial, after which you’ll need to pay a subscription of $9.99 per month. For those who need a more powerful reading tool, it’s definitely worth it.
4. Stoop
Stoop is an Android and iOS app that provides a convenient destination for your newsletters on mobile. It is free to use, but a $9.99/month subscription gives you access to an unlimited history and the ability to create custom newsletter folders.
Image source: Simon Chandler/Stoop Inbox
Some may miss the ability to use a desktop or browser version. But if you do most of your reading on mobile, you’ll be happy to see that Stoop’s app is logically laid out and comfortable to navigate. It consists of an inbox through which you can see and sort your newsletter subscriptions. There’s also a ‘Directory’ section that presents you with new feeds to subscribe to, as well as helpful links to each external site’s subscription page.
As with most other entries on this list, Stoop provides a dedicated email address for receiving newsletters, and while there is a premium version, it feels quite complete even without the extra features. Having said that, the ‘Discussions’ feature wasn’t working when we tried, potentially having fallen into disuse.
5. Meco
Founded just a couple of years ago, Meco is a free read-later app that lets users choose whether the newsletters they subscribe to are sent to their actual email inbox or to the Meco app. It’s available through its website or as an iOS app, with no Android version currently available.
Image source: Simon Chandler/Meco
What’s different about Meco is that it connects directly to your email account. This may unsettle more privacy-conscious users, yet it provides the aforementioned flexibility of choosing where your subscribed newsletters end up.
Other nice features include a Discover section that categorizes newsletters according to subject area, as well as the ability to create your own newsletter groups. while it lacks some of the more advanced features of other examples, it’s a great option for more casual readers.
6. Substack
One of the most popular publishing platforms in the world right now, Substack is also a great way of reading newsletters without having them overload your inbox. It’s free to use via your web browser or a desktop app, as well as through a dedicated Android or iOS application.
Image source: Simon Chandler/Substack
Given that Substack has become one of the go-to places for publishing, it offers an extraordinarily comprehensive array of different newsletters on different subjects. Although the app only brings you content from its own network of authors, there’s probably more available through Substack than you could ever read in a lifetime.
The platform’s intuitive layout makes finding content of interest remarkably easy. You can browse and save letters by subject, view and arrange them in your inbox, while the more recent Notes feature lets you write your own mini-content and read the notes of your favorite creators.
Of course, many of the best channels require a paid subscription, but most also provide public posts as a means of giving you a taste.
7. Slick
In contrast to most of the other read-later apps on this list, Slick is a mobile-only tool. It’s available as either an Android or iOS app, and while this may limit its reach, it is entirely free to use.
Source: Simon Chandler/Slick
Like other apps, Slick provides you with two main features: a dedicated email address for subscribing to newsletters (and having them sent to Slick); and also search and discover functions that let you uncover newsletters and feeds you may not have heard of before.
Slick is easy to use and well-designed. However, we noticed that a small handful of the feeds you can find through the discover function are now defunct, although this isn’t a major problem if you already know which newsletters you’ll be subscribing to.
8. Kill the Newsletter
Kill the Newsletter is a unique and interesting website that simply lets you turn a newsletter subscription into an Atom feed. That’s pretty much it, so it will require you to download or have an RSS/Atom feed reader on your device, so that you can read your subscriptions.
Image source: Simon Chandler/Kill the Newsletter
How Kill the Newsletter works is simple. First, it creates a unique email address you can enter into a website (e.g. a news website), and then it creates a feed address, which you can enter into your feed reader to find and subscribe to the resulting newsletter feed.
It’s super easy to use, and while it requires the use of another app (I used Newsify), you can get the hang of it in a few minutes.
Read more: 5 of the best RSS readers for your browser
Read Later Apps: Not only for tidying inboxes
After trying the read-later apps featured above, I’ve discovered lots of interesting and useful content I wouldn’t have otherwise encountered.
Bonus: Prefer reading on your desktop? Here are some great RSS reader apps for Windows
Once you’ve settled on your preferred option, you’ll soon find yourself reading more happily and productively than before – without having to spot them among your important emails each day.
Subscribe to our newsletter!
Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox
Sign up for all newsletters.
By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy. We will not share your data and you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe
Comments (1)