Matter: 1% Smarter Every Day Reviews

by Vghjdsjjgsgsadfss

I like immersive reading and this app was the best “read it later” app with immersive reading capability. For immersive reading to work for me, I need to crank up the speed. this app was great for fast immersive reading for the first several months I used Matter . But now there are pauses between sentences, pauses lasting 1-5 seconds. This happens several times throughout any given article, usually multiple times per paragraph. I’m not sure why Matter has degraded so significantly (they added a bunch of voices, could that be what happened?), but this basically makes this app worthless to me now. Reading articles is an absolute slog. I am much more prone to distraction when I’m always anticipating the next four second pause. Previously, I was LOVING Matter . Now I HATE it. What a let down :( Will give it a few more weeks, hopefully they can fix the problem, or better yet reverse whatever pointless “improvement” they did that actually made Matter way crappier.

by Quark Gluon Plasma

I am not a particular fan of read-it-later apps for general reading. I do have a need for apps that assist with researching or keeping up with topics of varying scope. I want to easily extract information with an eye to acting on it. Matter is not notably better than its competitors, Pocket and Instapaper, which were much earlier to market, and a bit less modern. All of them are frustrating to me. All they do is act as an extra inbox, and they do not make me more productive. They all alter and filter the contents of web pages, and often cut essential information like the authors of articles. Then there are other, more widely applicable issues: First, the price: $60/year, and it’s going up in 2024. I think it’s very expensive for what you get. Then the interface, which I find unpleasant. Each entry takes up a lot of room both horizontally and vertically. It seems thick, somehow. Finally, there’s the curation, which is unimpressive.

by Peterschulz

I’ve been using this app for months and log in today to find my feed completely locked down without purchasing a premium subscription. No warning, no real explanation. I now have to pay to see my own emails that have been there for months….

I’m all for subscriptions, but locking down all your existing features and not adding anything new of value when launching a premium sub is just bad strategy. What was free now costs money, and that is naturally frustrating. Especially when that thing is free in many, many other places on the web.

by Max710387159472771

I liked Matter, then they hamfisted a paywall in. They are charging me to view my newsletters. Content other people created, they are charging for. I am happy to pay for good features which they had, but now I can’t bring myself to pay to read a third parties content that I actually already pay for. This was a huge misstep and I hope you guys figure it out. You lost a customer by doing this so poorly.

by MullinsFam

I successfully forwarded a variety of newsletters to this app in an effort to clean up my inbox and enjoy reading newsletters all at one time rather than muddied with my other emails.

Only a few weeks into using that or I realized that it was limiting the number of newsletters I could have in my inbox and automatically deleting them from this app, they weren’t even in my this app archive. (I can however, find these newsletters in the archive of my email, but how am I supposed to remember which newsletters have and have not come through this app and which ones have been deleted?)

I really love the idea of this platform but wish I could have an unlimited number of newsletters in my this app inbox. I’ve missed so many newsletters that I don’t even know about in the month of December after trying to use this.

by Perpetuagrace

I was really interested in this because it advertises itself as an all-in-one reader, and mentions blogs even in the search bar inside Matter , but you cannot follow blogs with Matter . It works to import your email newsletters but beyond that it has a very limited amount of writers you can follow. There’s no way to add other blogs to it manually. I really don’t understand why there isn’t a way to add the blogs you want to follow. They just say that you can submit a request to staff to add a writer. I tried that but never heard back. Very odd product. I’m a little concerned that it might just be a ploy to get data access to your email contents. I would definitely use this if it was possible to follow blogs with it, but for now it does not meet my needs, and I will likely be revoking the data permissions and deleting Matter .

by Jason Arnold

I don’t often pay for apps, but loved the interface and figured I’d give this app a shot.

There’s been serious parsing issues, especially with long tweets and tweet threads. Readwise has already fixed their Twitter API issues, but this app’s has yet to be fixed… Readwise is cheaper, experiences far less parsing issues, and offers more functionality for importing/syncing.

If this app’s Subscription was cheaper, I’d have more patience here. But with the current price tag, I expected better… Disappointed.

by Jkreviewer74

I loved Matter. It seemlessly added stories from many platforms for later reading. I, however, relied on the audio “read” function to listen to the stories. The audio function had bugs but I was willing to overlook them. Now I found out they have put the audio function behind a premium paywall. Are they asking $6, $12? No - $60!!! This is ridiculous. Unfortunately- time to start looking for a new reader. Sadly so.

by ChadAHall

I love so much about Matter but the rss feature is almost completely useless. I have a standard rss reader app running simultaneously and it’s shows 18 articles available from my feeds for today. this app shows two. Two!

Also it says it can’t find feeds for a few urls (which work fine I every other app.)

I wish I had known this before paying $60/year. (Good luck trying to find the monthly option in Matter ) Matter is excellent in every other way but now I guess I have to have a second app just for rss since I can’t rely on this app to actually do the most basic rss serving. I hate writing a negative review of Matter but for the price the rss should be rock solid (also it’s a pretty basic feature). Will gladly change my review when app can parse rss feeds at least as well as reader could almost twenty years ago.

by Duh Reader

So far I really like this compared to Pocket but there are some bugs that are pretty annoying. Right now I’m trying to sign in on the iOS app and the link sent to my email address just doesn’t work. I click it and get to a screen where it says “Click here to complete your login” with a big blue “Login to this app” button that is completely unresponsive to clicks lol.

I noticed a similar problem when signing into the chrome extension before. Those are my biggest complaints. Overall like Matter but these issues make it less usable; hope the devs can fix these and them I’m fully onboard for 4-5 stars ⭐️

Also one other issue I’ve noticed is there’s often some weird delay between saving an article and it showing up in your queue. There’s been several times I’ve saved something and then it’s not there, I try saving a couple more times, think Matter ’s broken, feel sad, and then 5 minutes later the article appears in my queue. Not a fatal bug but bad UX especially for new users testing it out.

by JulienDepolo

I love the use of Matter, and when it works, it works well!! A few big problems prevent me from renewing my subscription though…..
1- No Apple Vision Po Support? Not even enabling the iPad version of Matter ?! This cuts the amount if time I could be using Matter drastically.
2- No offline support for the readout-loud feature?! Even when I get semi low service, the audio stops and I have to “change the voices” to temporarily refresh the audio and hopefully get it to work fir a few minutes.
3-The price?! There are cheaper alternatives like Instapaper and my personal favorite, Pocket, that don’t have the two previous problems and are cheaper/free in certain scenarios…

These 2 problems unfortunately create a big difference that will make me choose one of the other options for the near future… However, the design and voices of Matter are quite nice, so I may try again a year or two from now to see if any changes have occurred.

by Brman99

Disclaimer: review is based on using the free version, but I suspect the issues below apply to pay versions too. I am not willing to make a $15 or $60 commitment to confirm my suspicions.

In a day of testing here is what prevents me from committing to this product.

1. Does not do a good job of extracting the content from WSJ articles. The audio includes copyright, url, photo captions, and footer garbage.

2. Does not play audio continuously. Maybe a feature of the free version. But after playing audio on one article, I cannot play anything, just get paywall popup.

3. In the browser, audio playback doesn’t occur. Just a spinning wheel.

Feature request: it would be great it text to speech could feed into a private rss feed. I know it would limit some of the other features, but I don’t need or want another audio player when I have a podcast player that works great.

It appears to be a fairly new product, so hopefully things may improve, but I may never know, if the free version never allows audio playback of any other articles.

by MavTravisty

Feels a bit like a bait and switch, Matter isn’t free, it’s $60 a year or $8/month. Not obvious until you are out of the trial period that you don’t even realize your in. Matter itself is great, just wish you could at least gather your newsletters and read them without the cost, there is obviously a lot of value in having them audible, just not looking to add another subscription.

**update** I learned that you can still read your newsletters after the trial period, hit the inbox and you will be prompted to go premium, hit the inbox again to get to your subscribed articles. Not in the inbox format but at least they are accessible

by Jct

I applaud the team for the incarnation of the “read something wonderful” site, and I believe that will be a great addition to my reading habits, however the removal of the curated staff picks on a regular ongoing basis is a serious downgrade for me in functionality and value.

this app has been a great reader app, and been worth switching over from Pocket, and I do appreciate the inbox functionality in Matter , however, I simply haven’t found an app that integrates reader with things to read quite like this app before this most recent update. I love supporting apps that I enjoy and have no qualms continuing to do so, but without the staff picks, it does become a little bit harder to differentiate this app from the other reader apps that exist in the market, and it does make it a little harder to see the value in continuing to invest in Matter.

by Masterpants422

I’d like to use Matter, but I don’t receive a lot of gmail newsletters. Twitter is probably the place I’d like help following “good reads”. But when I used the this app app to connect my Twitter, Matter connected to an alt account, and I can’t figure out how to use my main Twitter account.

I have tried disconnecting Twitter from Matt, going to Twitter iOS app, enabling my main Twitter account, reconnecting Twitter in iOS. But it still selected the alt account.

by Matt Farrand

Love the read later functionality and the new highlights to Obsidian! Both deserve 5 stars. But I searched for 50 authors and only two were available. That’s 1-star territory. I’m intrigued by the whole “follow authors, not feeds” thing, but that only works when authors are followable. I requested a bunch of authors, but not sure anything is happening. Please just let me add feeds and authors. That would make this app this app to my daily workflow.

by Ratseekerps

This is so far my favorite read later app. However, it still has many space for improvement. First, sometimes Matter does not download the content correctly, especially images, or the format is off. Also, the highlight feature is really not working, it was never able to select the paragraph I try to highlight, so please fix this problem. Lastly, keep the good work!

by IMyata

this app is a truly beautiful and very functional app for read-it-later purposes. It did replace pocket for me as I just find it more slick and minimal. The audio feature is incredible as well.

However, as much as I love it, the reason I got it initially is because it promises to aggregate your email newsletter and become "one inbox for everything". Well, I tried to set up email forwarding to my this app address. I tried re-signing-up for newsletter with the this app email. No luck with any options they phone. I contacted their support twice - silence. And unfortunately, lots of key writers I follow are not yet "on the platform". I requested them with no response either. For those that are directly on this app, their posts often lag many hours behind the email newsletter which I get earlier and it can't get imported into this app.

Another big drawback right not is that there's no way to read and highlight content on desktop.

All in all, it has a lot of promise, but it doesn't yet deliver. And for a startup, I'm surprised at the lack of engagement with the early users.

by Lee622

Matter has a lot of promise in terms of being able to do text-to-speech recognition — something I think is super useful. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of authors who this is available for at the moment, and their support has been non-existent in terms of answering questions about importing new authors. I’ve reached out several times and never heard anything back.

That being said, if more people I’m interested in reading can be added using that feature, Matter could become everyday use for me.

by Rich Tree

I’ve tried all of the popular read later apps and genuinely appreciate the features in this app. I particularly like the ability to follow authors. Overall, Matter is elegant and the text to voice narration is top shelf.

Personally, I’d like to see the following improvements: (1) User ability to edit metadata (2) sort the queue by title and author, and (3) ability to highlight without adding a manual note.

by Ericsizemore

The work I do combines interests across my personal and professional life. The struggle I had was amalgamating all of my disparate news sources from across the web. I recognize other apps do this, but I was sold when I tested the podcast transcription feature, this combined with tags and their announcement of adding additional discovery features in 2024 has me excited to continue using this app. It’s Matter I never knew I needed and has focused my reading which has also made it more enjoyable.

by Tagmut

I’ve been using this app for months now and I really like Matter but two things keep bugging me to no end: 1. I have had articles I have saved and newsletters I have received where this app is giving me an incorrect title so it would be nice to be able to change it (I have a newsletter from Louisiana that keeps getting labeled Indiana??) and it would be nice if you made Matter compatible with Apple CarPlay so I could listen in my vehicle as well as on my phone. Otherwise, great work!

by Artbuydesign

I did the trial of Matter and liked how it asked your interests and then provided you with articles that you would have never known about to read ontop of whatever you have forwarded into Matter .
I also like that it challenges you to read daily or at least listen...yes, listen!
My only issue is the cost. For those of us who aren't in the workforce any longer and living on a budgef, but still want to keep up our mental sharpness by reading, it would be nice if there was another price option.

by TheGreenGoose

this app has been a great reading app, and I have enjoyed using it since it was launched. The team behind it is great and it’s fun to follow the updates. The user experience has kept improving since they launched what I miss know it is having some AI features built in. I hope the team has something up their sleeves.

by Mila Mavens

this app has become such a useful tool for me! I enjoy using it most on my iPhone and iPad, as the Mac extension is a bit touchy. On Mac, I have issues with selecting text to create highlights. I would love to have a dedicated Mac app with the same ease of use as the iPhone and iPad apps!

Also, it would be cool if we could change the colors of tags.

by Egone

I think this app has become the Gold Standard of reading saved articles found around the web. The typography is crisp, beautiful, wonderful balance of white space vs text as well as highlighting text and archiving content. My only wish is that it would focus on highlights a bit more. I’m a big fan of Readwise’s feature of emailing previous highlighted comments from books and articles. That’s a great way to keep content circulating in your brain after reading. Not that they have to copy that feature, but something to keep previous read content in your mind to ponder instead of simply moving on.

Matter is a must have.

by Jtrem1480

I gave up on Read Later apps years ago because they became a basement of clutter and unrealized reading later dreams. With this app, I read everything that I save because it’s a delightful reading experience & easy to store, organize and navigate my content. What’s more is that the highlight features & integrations make it really easy to markup and send to Obsidian & Readwise. Love Matter.

by Jpotope

I have been using a screen reader app for years. I have sensory issues and auditory processing disorder. I have extreme sensitivity with my ears and the robotic sound of the reader always hurt my ears. It made it tough to focus and even would overwhelm me.
A lot of the work I do I have to do research as well I love to read articles.
this app is the first time where I felt my ears feel relaxed and where I could listen to a entire article. I felt normal. I heard every part of the article. The highlighting of the word being said a loud was perfect and I called my mother when I first used it.

I really wish however it could be applied to PDFS. It would be a game changer for people like me. I know this is much more difficult than it sounds( no pun intended). But I hope it’s being planned on.

Thank you for what you guys have done. It’s made me fall in love again with learning. I don’t feel anxious or overwhelmed from some robot sounding reader. I feel like I’m listening to a podcast and I can follow along.
All the best!

by NoMoSquint

this app is the evolutionary successor to many readers that have come before. It functions exceptionally well at capturing selections and supports exactly what I want: Save it so I can read it later at my leisure. It’s easy within this app to archive some selections and cast off others.

A Request: Please add the ability to archive selections directly to Bear-Markdown Notes as can already be done with Evernote. Thank you.

by Stinebaj

I've went from very little reading of articles online (adverse to ads) to reading a ton on this app! For the record: I've had no issues with the browser extension (Chrome), or the share function (iOS). I'm also not adverse to the paid/premium model, as I believe in supporting a product I use frequently, especially if it is/makes what I do ad-free. That includes paying for this app & news sites like NYT and WaPo, and transferring their articles here, just so I can read thiem w/o ads & in night mode! Thanks for making it seamless and stress free!

by Armiahmad

i’ve been using this app since it was in beta, having come across it by happenstance.

this is my most used app. it sits next to imessage and phone on my home screen. the joy of taking badly formatted or archived articles and importing them into this app is immeasurable. the beauty of listening to a favorite piece with — yes, the most human-like text to speech i’ve encountered — is sublime. the ability to highlight, make notes, share excerpts is delightful.

what is really remarkable about this app, though, is the fundamental ethos of how it exists. everything about the design of Matter is meant to emphasize — not this app, but what you opened it for — the text. every feature, every feed, every tool — it does not leave a distinctive watermark all over it. it instead says: here — this is what you wanted to read. here is what matters.

by Kcinb

Matter is remarkable. It does an amazing job synthesizing both newsletters and read-it-laters. It also has additional functionality of allowing you to see new posts from writers that you can follow within Matter . The text parsing is usually very good and clean. You're even able to get access to some paywalled stuff on occasion through the text parse. There are just some really thoughtful features happening within Matter . The one that I like the very most is the shuffle feature for the read it later list. So fun! Highlighting is really simple, and coming back to your notes as simple as well. So much more to say, but I'm enjoying using Matter thoroughly.

by MLD10499

Unlimited highlights. An excellent tagging system. Beautiful, clean UI. Importing email subscriptions. No ads. Great save-for-later feature for Safari and Chrome. A great web app. Text to Speech with a natural voice. It doesn't get better than this, and certainly not for free.

I would happily pay for these features, as I think this app does them better than comparable Pro versions of reader apps, but I also hope that as Matter grows, the folks at this app to keep a good many of them free.

Also, the two times I've put in a suggestion or bug in the web app, I've gotten a speedy response : )
.

A few small notes and quirks:

Some articles don't transfer completely, or transfer with the text of pop up windows, or only transfer the pop up content. That might be user error on my part, and it doesn't happen often enough to be annoying.

You can't click links in a highlight, so you have to remember to open or save the link before you highlight.

The ability to start TTS from a specific part in the article is a great feature in the mobile app that I hope comes to the web app.

The ability to use shortcut keys to delete, archive, favorite, tag, etc. is a great feature in the web app that I hope comes to the mobile app.

More consistent treatment of photos (sometimes imported, sometimes not, sometimes caption transferred as body text, sometimes not) would be nice, especially for TTS purposes, but not a dealbreaker.

by TimberWolf96

I absolutely love this app for its Text-to-Speach capabilities. I put the voices on shuffle while commuting and it is like having a well narrated audio book. I used to use Instapaper. Then I moved to Pocket which fell apart last spring when they “upgraded” and lost a bunch of functionality. I’m glad I kept looking as this app is FAR better.

Usually I’m loath to subscribe to ANYTHING. I’m cheap and perfectly happy with the free version of many apps. But for me and the things I want this app to do, it is well worth it!

by Shockablooey

For anyone who cares about reading, this is an excellent excellent app that stands apart. It far exceeds all that came before it (pocket..instapaper..) and it’s clear its vision and product roadmap is much bigger. Goodbye insufferable reading newsletters in your email client. (And terrible save for later systems). I deeply hope this company stays focused and continues to execute on its vision at the pace it has been at the last three years or so. ps I highly recommend connecting it to obsidian.

by Street3r

Matter is great, as good and often better than other “read later” apps I’ve used. But the real differentiator is the support and customer focus. When I submit a bug? I get an response, and the bug gets resolved. When I suggest a feature or improvement, it gets addressed. And the support team follows up. I honestly have not used an app with this level of service – maybe ever. Great work!!

by Ufsbkf

It’s clear that the team has great passion on essay-reading and expertise on tech/culture writers. The font, layout, and background color choices all contribute to a pleasant reading experience on mobile devices.

Additionally, sending article bundles to Kindle is a brilliant idea. As someone who uses Kindle frequently, I find this feature encourages me to read more articles more comfortably by streamlining the process. It’s an App developed by readers themselves who clearly knows what a reader wants. Besides, the team is lively and responsive. Good job!

by Kev123432123

I’ve used them all, from Pocket to Instapaper. This one is the best out the gate from its UI, lack of annoying advertisements and great support team. A really young app in this space that already has so many key integrations and features that are actually helpful for the purpose of reading and retaining information. Love Matter!

by Wes788d8

Before this app, I subscribed to multiple news outlets I rarely took the time to read.

But with this app, I read (listen to mainly) more often since everything is in one place.

by Oswaldb

I am surprised that longtime users were not offered a cheaper upgrade path as a reward for their loyalty.

I have contacted the developer & was very pleased by the response. I encourage others to do likewise. I would have been sad to give up on this app.

by Tilghman_s

I always find something I want to read within seconds of opening Matter , and it’s usually an article I wouldn’t have come across on my own. My article consumption has become more varied and interesting because of this app. It’s now my favorite app.

by Buibcgfdsdhuggnbbvvvvb

I can’t believe how much I adore Matter. It is absolutely beautiful, wonderfully simple, and it just works…..so, so well.

The unified inbox works so well, bringing newsletters out of my email and into this app. I also love the “Send to Kindle” feature, which I use to send long-form articles to my Kindle.

Can’t recommend highly enough.

by Gwcali

Latest update with swipe down to refresh is one of the best quality of life updates for Matter.

Aside from that, I use Matter exclusively to read all my newsletters and it's so much better than email.

by Secular_surfer

Phenomenal read later app – I've fully switched over to this app.

One qualm I have is that Pocket is much better about saving articles that are behind a paywall. Maybe this is intentional on the part of this app (to make sure journalists and writers get paid for their work), but it's just something I've noticed.

Overall though, this app has a much better interface, fewer bugs, and just feels way more polished than Pocket or Instapaper.

Grateful to the developers that it exists.

by Andronicals

I've had this app for many years but it's the latest podcast feature that really justified for the subscription. No other app allows me to have as seamless a experience for taking notes on podcasts and having all of those notes in one place. 5 stars!

by Anqi Yan

Very well designed, intuitive UI.
Reading experience is the best. You can pickup where you left anytime.
Small request: please add more themes. Current dark them is too black to me.

by LLWhoah

Matter should be on your home screen. Fight the shallow triviality of social media apps - use it dive into a deeper exploration of life and society. The Staff Picks are perfect and prescient, often offering a glimpse into themes before they become mainstream.

by Miwiro

Since the beta launch, this app has proven to be the most beneficial reader tool I have access to. As someone with a hefty reading appetite, this app’s robust functionality and developments have made my learning frictionless - offline downloads included. Whether for thoughtful discussion or an airplane read I will be a this app user for life.

by Dave From PR

I have been trying to decide between Instapaper and Pocket. Both great solid apps. Then someone suggested to try this app. And wow! They built on what made Instapaper and pocket great and took it to the next level.

I like that they are adding features and refining it often.

I love the social aspect. I am able to read an article and compare notes and analysis with friends. Great for when I am doing research for my documentaries and stories.

And that integrate with Readwise, the ability to add notes, etc.

Give it a try and you will love it.

by Eliot Peper

I’m an author, and reading the internet is a crucial part of my work, but having a zillion tabs open in Chrome crushes my MacBook’s performance. So I started experimenting with Pocket and many of the other reading apps out there. this app is by far the best, and has changed the way I read online. Download it already.

by 11630

Have been using this app for a while during the beta. Great paradigm for discovering, queueing and then consuming the content I actually want to read

Pace or feature releases and improvements is phenomenal. Pocket and other systems I have used stalled out. If the innovation at this app continues, it will emerge as my primary hub

by Dominik Rabiej

this app is the best tool for finding thought-provoking articles, essays, and posts.

I’d describe it as an “intellectual network” (as opposed to a social network) because Matter is structured to encourage folks to engage with and explore ideas and thinking by discovering, sharing, highlighting, and commenting on articles, essays, and posts.

Matter itself is delightful to use, with a simple, intuitive UI.

by Khushmeeet

This is such a great app for reading. First and foremost is that it is iOS native, instead of a web app. Then there are features that promotes reading. Correct parsing if articles, no endless feeds, sending articles to kindle. It’s 10/10 from me.

One thing they sure can improve upon is inclusion of more writers. There are many writers, that are still not on the platform.

by Westcoastfunk

This is a fabulous contribution to my daily reading life. New updates are shipped so frequently and the UI/Ux design continues to make it easier and more pleasant to read anything. Matter anticipates your needs! The integration with paid newsletters is seamless. This is the future of reading, a personalized newspaper that many people talk about, but few have actually built. If you are a lover of the Internet and all it’s gifts, this app is the super-tool for you.

by JBretz

I’ve used Pocket or Instapaper for years. Both apps are pretty stagnant and haven’t changed much in a while. I really like where Matter is already at, and excited to see where else it goes.

One thing I would like to see is improved pulling of images from articles. Most (not all) articles are missing many embedded images. This has been an issue with every read-it-later app I’ve used, so I’m hopeful that they can pull it off better here.

by KiltedKicker

Medium has quickly become my favorite app and one of the only apps I use every day. It’s a good UI and enjoyable reading experience, and being able to easily highlight and share are useful, and the ability to discover content within Matter is also well done.

But what makes it really useful is how well it aggregates written content. I save good articles I find to Matter to read later. I’ve followed all of my favorite authors and pinned them to the top of my feed, so I see all their new content and can look in one place to find it. Most importantly, I set up an email for newsletter subscriptions and have them automatically delivered to this app. When I want to read anything other than books, that all lives in this app now, and I’m reading way more than I had been before. Thanks for making an awesome app!

by OneNoteLuvr

What the title says. This is Matter that we didn’t know we were all waiting for. Download it now!