What are “Read It Later” apps? The one called “Pocket” explains it in the best possible way: you see an article, but you do not have time to read it, or you want to do more research on articles with a similar topic and save them for later reading. You put all these unread pieces, videos – or whatever you want to have a better look at later – into your Pocket, or any other of the “Read It Later” apps. They all function on the same principle. But they are not the same. In his article on Forte Labs, Tiago Forte perfectly describes how these apps work, and reveals elements of the apps that users might not have been aware of. How, for example, an app like Pocket filters part of the information on websites that is not essential for our reading, or else makes us turn away from reading a potentially interesting story.

I read a lot on the net. It is part of my job. I use three of the apps that Tiago describes, and could add a lot more about the way I use them. For me, Pocket is a data bank that I create with the reading material that I’ve already read or filtered. It’s a kind of archive with different compartments. I use Feedly, which Tiago mentions only briefly, as my own search machine. It took me quite some time to build my own grid of sources (a couple of years ago, I was still using a Twitter list as my source grid) – a sort of primitive algorithm that helps me search through pre-selected and reliable sources. Unfortunately, Feedly is something that you have to update all the time in order to keep up with constantly evolving technology and new sources that you have to test constantly. The most instantaneous app that I use is Safari’s built-in “Add to Reading List” feature. But if you read Tiago’s very useful article, he will walk you through more cognitive aspects of this software, which has basically replaced our bookmarks, notes and highlighters. But keep the pencils, just in case!