You Can Now Read Articles From Instapaper on Your Kobo
Pocket is shutting down, leaving Kobo devices without their most important feature: the ability to sync your online reading list to your device. Now you can: a new Instapaper integration brings back the ability to read saved articles.
I am incredibly pleased with this new feature. I have been using the Pocket integration constantly. I enjoy reading long articles from the web on the Kobo, away from bright screens and notifications.
The Instapaper integration works exactly the same as Pocket, just with a different backend. First, you’ll need to sign up for Instapaper if you haven’t already. You might also want to bring over your reading list . Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to update your Kobo, go to the “More” section on your device, and tap “My Articles” (you’ll notice that the Pocket icon has changed to an Instapaper icon). You’ll be guided through signing in to Instapaper, and your reading list will load.
The reading list is simply a list of articles. You can filter by the current list, your favorites, or the entire archive. Click on any article to start reading.
You can archive or delete articles, and they will also be removed from Instapaper.
As I said, the Instapaper integration works exactly the same as Pocket. If you’ve been reading most of your Pocket on Kobo, I’m not sure you’ll even notice the difference once you set it up.
There’s room for improvement, though. It would be great if I could highlight notes on Kobo and view them in Instapaper — I wished for that feature back in the Pocket days, too. But the core functionality — the ability to read articles and perform basic organizational tasks — works just fine.
According to Kobo , the Kobo update that includes Instapaper integration is available for “all supported e-readers.” That means if you’re still getting software updates for your device, you might want to check out the feature. My personal e-reader is a Kobo Touch, released in 2011, and the update is already available. I wish more companies would add new features to 14-year-old devices.