FAQ

What does Instapaper do?

Instapaper facilitates easy reading of long text content.

We discover web content throughout the day, and sometimes, we don’t have time to read long articles right when we find them.

Instapaper allows you to easily save them for later, when you do have time, so you don’t just forget about them or skim through them.

Why?

From a personal perspective, I appreciate great writing, but I’ve become frustrated with the quick-consumption nature of many devoted blog readers. Authors are encouraged to cater to drive-by visitors hurrying through their feed readers by producing lightweight content for quick skimming.

There’s no time to sit and read anything when you’re going through 500 feed items while responding to email, chatting, and watching bad YouTube videos.

As a result, popular blogs are now full of useless “list posts” with no substance or value.

Well-written content is out there, and we do have opportunities every day to read it — just not when we’re in information-skimming, speed-overload mode. But we can all read while waiting in long lines, commuting (although please not while driving), or relaxing at the end of the day.

The times we find information aren’t always ideal for consuming it. Instapaper helps you bridge that gap.

I need help or technical support.

Please read this.

Will it work on my (other phone)?

Possibly. The site’s layout is very mobile-friendly.

Instapaper is optimized for the iPhone, since that’s what I (and most Instapaper users) have, but I’ll do my best to broaden compatibility whenever possible.

Something doesn’t work.

• Make sure cookies are enabled.
• Make sure Javascript is enabled.
• If you’re using an iPhone, make sure you’re using the same Instapaper username between your computer, the iPhone app, and Mobile Safari.
• Switch to Safari, Chrome, or Firefox. There are plenty of other reasons to do this, too. If you’re not sure how or why you should do this, ask your nearest computer geek.

Will you add (useful feature)?

Maybe. I’m only one person, so development time is limited. But great features are always possible, especially if enough people request them.

Will you add (obscure feature)?

Probably not, sorry.

There are plenty of other sites that offer similar functionality but with thousands of additional features to satisfy every obscure desire. Instapaper is great because it’s so simple, and keeping it simple is the first priority.

Storage limits?

Instapaper is designed to store links you’d like to read once and then discard.

There’s no limit to how many articles you can store, and your archive of read items is kept indefinitely (unless you delete from it).

But Instapaper isn’t optimized for keeping track of thousands of pages. This isn’t the right tool to collect, categorize, tag, filter, and search the contents of every web page you’ve ever found — for that sort of use, try Pinboard or Evernote.

Money?

Instapaper has no outside funding or corporate backing. It’s a regular business run by a regular person, so it earns income to cover its costs. This income comes from:

• Sales of the iPhone/iPad app
• Advertisements on the Instapaper site
• Subscription accounts

If you’d like to support Instapaper, the best way to do it is to buy the iPhone app or a Subscription.

It’s also a great help if you spread the word and tell your friends about Instapaper.

Thank you for your support.

Something else?

For further inquiries, email instapaper.support@marco.org.

Please note that I get a lot of email. I will definitely read what you write to me, but I cannot reply to the majority of messages I get. There’s just not enough time in the day. I’ll do my best to reply if I have time.

Thank you for reading!