Android Apps and News

Instapaper for Android seemed like it had a snowballs chance in hell, on a summer day to make matters worse, of coming to Android. It’s creator, Marco Arment, is an unabashed iOS supporter and deemed Android users of being too cheap to spend money on premium apps. But after contracting out the development of the app to the same folks who brought you tumblr for Android, Arment gave his blessing for the official release of an Instapaper Android app.

Available now for $2.99, Instapaper for Android joins the slate of “read it later” apps that creates a reading queue of links saved by users. The app bookmarks those links and then saves it in a stripped-down format to make it easy to read. A desktop bookmarklet lets users save articles from their browser and access them on the phone, but uses can also add to the list directly from their Android device. Articles are distraction-free and available for offline viewing, so it’s a useful way to save long articles to read later.

Androinica.com compared the best reading list apps for Android last month, and Instapaper was noticeably absent. That was because the beautiful third party app Papermill had to act as a surrogate. With the release of an official Instapaper client, it may be time to revisit the comparison to see which app and service works best for you. For now, check out this Verge video review that sums up the pros and cons of the app fairly well.

[Download Instapaper for Android from Google Play]

video courtesy of The Verge