If you’re anything like me, you have a long list of articles you want to read, but somehow, we never have the time to get through them all.
These apps and tools can help you power through your reading list with helpful features like making text easier to read and even reading your articles aloud.
On the iPhone, Safar has a built-in reader mode. When you’re in an article, first, tap the letters icon near the web address, then look for an icon that says “Reader” and tap it. This strips away ads, photos, and other clutter so you can focus on the main text.
If you don’t have time to read something now, Pocket lets you save articles for whenever you’re ready. It works across all your devices and downloads the content of articles so you can read offline too.
Pocket even has an audio feature that will read you your list of articles. Just tap the Listen icon at the top of your article list. It’s pretty basic and seems to just read through the articles in the order they’re saved.
Pro tip – you can even listen to articles in the car if you’re connected to Bluetooth.
On Android, a free app called Reading Mode takes any article and simplifies it with just the main text and images. You can also adjust colors and fonts for better readability. Reading Mode can also read articles aloud, even if your screen is off.
Again, this app is pretty basic, and it’s officially intended as an accessibility app, but anyone can find value in its simplicity. You can even set a shortcut to transform nearly any article you’re looking at into a simple version instantly.
Natural Reader is a text-to-speech app that can turn articles into audio. One unique feature is how the app can take a picture of a physical document, and it’ll extract the text to read aloud. Voices are unlimited in the free version, but you might have to pay if you want to get the most out of this app.
Similar to Natural Reader, Speechify can convert text to speech but I like how the app has a more modern interface. Basic voices are free, but you can pay to unlock celebrity voices like Snoop Dogg or Gweneth Paltrow, which makes listening to your articles a bit more fun.
These are just a few of the apps and tools that can help you save articles to read later and actually read them. Got one you like? Drop me a line and let me know!
