Teradome.

Some time ago, I decided to go all in with Safari Reader, instead of using Instapaper or Pocket.

I had used these services as an inbox queue for things I needed to check during my commute — things that weren’t always “articles” — and since these are all “read later” apps, they never really fit. If what I had bookmarked was, say, a home page for a new app that had launched, chances are nothing except a header or footer would be captured.

The killer feature of Safari Reader is that it actually caches the entire web page, and not just the “reader” view of it. (Technically, it saves a local .webarchive file to open if there is no connection.) That way you could always consume it in both ways if you were offline. And I was always offline because I’d be using this underground in the NYC Subway where there is effectively zero signal of any kind.

Functionally, there have been bumps. Currently there is no API call to add pages to Safari Reader, so apps can’t directly integrate it. Another bump is the awkwardness of app switching, and that the Instapaper/Pocket approach is so established (and Safari Reader is so new) that the architecture of these apps simply don’t make it easy at all.

Lots of apps created in-app browsers because it is cumbersome to always open links in Safari and then have to switch back to the app when done. If it is written to use iOS’s default link handler, it appears that “Add to Reading List” is a default available option. This is why you can add pages to Safari Reader from Mail, and some 3rd party apps seemed to support it without any sort of update when iOS 6 launched.

But since this feature has been missing for so long, many apps have written their own link handlers, to support their own app features and existing read-later apps as options, thereby missing out on this new feature. This has left them playing a waiting game of seeing if Apple adds programmatic hooks for Safari Reader, instead of derailing themselves by rewriting (large?) portions of their in-app browsers.

In practice, always opening in Safari is no longer a problem on the iPad thanks to the multitouch gestures. Find a link, select “Open in Safari”, read it in Safari, add it to Reader, and then four-finger swipe left to get back to the original app. Really nice, actually.

(The iPhone, on the other hand, is not so lucky. App switching via the home button isn’t bad, but without gestures, it can’t be used repeatedly without feeling cumbersome.)

But here’s the thing: The Instapaper/Pocket approach has been around so long, and is so entrenched in behavior, that “Open in Safari” as an option is often buried. You’ll usually see a screen hierarchy of feed → summary → in-app browser → Open in Safari. As you’d expect, the option to “Add to Instapaper” is a link, or even a gesture, at the feed level. This is not easy.

Shockingly, in some apps, it’s not even an option. Some apps went all in with their in-app browser that the best you can do is copy the URL, which forces you to manually find Safari and paste it. These are the worst offenders, because I can’t think of a situation where an in-app browser could ever completely obviate viewing in Safari. (Case #1: bookmarks.)

Oddly enough, using Safari Reader feels great. Like, great in the way using Readability was supposed to be. For most publishers, the social contract for content on the web is, you come to the site, you give us traffic hits and ad impressions, and then you can use our content in a limited, fair-use kind of way — and that’s what you do when using Safari Reader.

Every page I’ve added to Reader has been viewable in full when offline, whether it’s a news story or home page or whatever non-article-like page you can think of. Plus, since many sites are going responsive now, most of the time I don’t need to tap the “Reader” button at all to get a mobile-friendly view, and I’m getting the full personality of the site and all the supplemental content the way the designer of the site wanted.

So I’m sticking with it for now, in the hopes that the current stalemate breaks, and Safari Reader starts appearing in more apps. Honestly, I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to… um… add it. (Sorry.)