abhorrent app redesign ruins brilliant service
I’ve been a paid member of the service (for about 3-4 years) and find it extremely helpful and I love it, but the lates app redesign is an excellent example how unnecessary redesign can ruin otherwise great app. There was literally no need or sense in redesigning like that. Nothing, nothing has improved user experience in any way. Fonts are smaller, background is distracting, interface is messier, streak stats are tiny icon in the corner and then just a couple of weeks worth of tracking presented as weird calendar. Please stop your UI designers from ruining your service. It has one pure purpose, don’t mess with it.
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Love the redesign
Awesome job!
Everything now locked behind a paywall
The most recent update has been detrimental to the usability of this app locking ~95% of features behind an expensive subscription.
It is now minimum £70 a year just to be able to use the main previously free features such as syncing highlights from Kindle. You even have to pay to manually add notes by typing or photo scan. If you are not willing to cough up the money don’t bother with this app.
While the app is good for organising book notes, I will be deleting and moving to a free alternative as soon as I find one as it is just unaffordable to have yet another subscription.
If they just locked proper premium features behind a paywall as before it would have been understandable. But no, Mr greedy corporation locks the most basic functions of the app behind a paywall and completely ruin the app for previous free version users unless they pay.
Do better Readwise!
It is now minimum £70 a year just to be able to use the main previously free features such as syncing highlights from Kindle. You even have to pay to manually add notes by typing or photo scan. If you are not willing to cough up the money don’t bother with this app.
While the app is good for organising book notes, I will be deleting and moving to a free alternative as soon as I find one as it is just unaffordable to have yet another subscription.
If they just locked proper premium features behind a paywall as before it would have been understandable. But no, Mr greedy corporation locks the most basic functions of the app behind a paywall and completely ruin the app for previous free version users unless they pay.
Do better Readwise!
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Response from developer
To clarify, Readwise has always been a paid service after the 30-day free trial, so the recent update didn’t move previously free features behind a new paywall. We’re a small, bootstrapped team making ad-free reading software. You can read more about why we’ve chosen to keep Readwise paid here: https://blog.readwise.io/why-were-bootstrapping-readwise/. If you have any questions, reach us anytime at hello@readwise.io.
Love the 2.0 update
I’ve been using Readwise together with Readwise Reader for a while now, and it’s a brilliant combo for reading and actually reviewing what you’ve read. The 2.0 update has genuinely changed things for me. It’s the first time the app has felt like somewhere I want to spend time, rather than a chore I do to feel virtuous about my reading habits. Recommended, especially if you actually want to remember what you read.
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Finally, an update.
I have been subscribed to this app for years. It’s the best at what it does, but paying monthly for an app that was without significant updates for that long, and was really showing its age in annoying ways was more & more frustrating. Thankfully they are finally giving it a significant upgrade it is much better. I know the Reader app has more users, but here’s hoping this is a sign of frequent updates for the Readwise app as well. That is what got some of us into this ecosystem in the first place.
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Excellent way to reengage with your books!
Readwise presents my Kindle highlights to me in a daily review. I’ve also hooked it up to Claude who reads from my personal/professional development books and provides me advice! It’s fantastic. Thanks Readwise!
Fantastic app
In the few apps I pay for. Helps me remember all of the highlights of the books. I’ve read in the past 10 years. Super helpful for learning.
Finally an app made for serious readers!
If your memory is half as bad as mine, when you can’t remember what you read 5 minutes ago, this app is totally for you. Try it for free. You’ll purchase it.
Superb
I use this for work all of the time. Superb at bringing my highlights to one place and allows me to chat with my highlights like my own AI. Absolutely wouldn’t live without it.
Genial!
Wärmste Empfehlung für alle Viel-Leser! Hätte ich gerne viel früher gefunden.
My new fav
Finally, an app that helped me remember what I actually read. Been using it for a while now, and it's amazing to have all highlights in one place. Love that they added audio reviews recently.
I don't get it
Should be called "highlights". That's all it does, collect highlights then show them to u later. Article collection apps (Instapaper etc) already do highlights well, so it's mainly for ebooks. But not manual highlights directly in the pdf or epub file. So it's only for corporate book apps like kindle with a shareable highlights function. For physical book readers, digital article readers, & even ebook raw file readers it's redundant.
But what's the hype on highlights anyway? Usually they are lacking without the wider context, a self-written summary works better for learning. Anyone who reads too many books too fast to remember needs to rethink their process anyway, not save short out-of-context blurbs to cycle thru them later on.
I make highlights in physical books, why would I want them removed from the book & collected/shuffled with highlights from other books? Makes no sense. Plus the effort of photographing dozens of pages from each book, yeah right.
Better off just reviewing the books on storygraph or w.e, read thru ur reviews later to remember, & flip thru the full book checking ur highlights for a more in-depth reminder. There could be useful info u stumble across that u didn't highlight before, why dump all non-highlighted parts of the book?
But what's the hype on highlights anyway? Usually they are lacking without the wider context, a self-written summary works better for learning. Anyone who reads too many books too fast to remember needs to rethink their process anyway, not save short out-of-context blurbs to cycle thru them later on.
I make highlights in physical books, why would I want them removed from the book & collected/shuffled with highlights from other books? Makes no sense. Plus the effort of photographing dozens of pages from each book, yeah right.
Better off just reviewing the books on storygraph or w.e, read thru ur reviews later to remember, & flip thru the full book checking ur highlights for a more in-depth reminder. There could be useful info u stumble across that u didn't highlight before, why dump all non-highlighted parts of the book?
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not work
can't proceed initial setup. damn app.
The Real Deal
I use this app every single day as a way to tap into the insights from all the books and articles I have read. This is one subscription on my must have list (which I am trying to pare down).
Finally an app made for serious readers!
If your memory is half as bad as mine when you can’t remember what you read 5 minutes ago, this app is totally for you. Try it for free. You’ll purchase it.
Too much ai
I wish there was less emphasis on ai and more emphasis on improving the basics. Offline support. Dynamic type support. Making the UI feel native, especially for picking up previous days.
A gem to be kept
I finally bought the subscription, and I couldn't be happier. For all of you who read to feel alive, for all those who used to use the Pocket app, I assure you that using Readwise and its accompanying app, Reader, will level up your experience tenfold.
Keep up the great work, team Readwise.
Keep up the great work, team Readwise.
Love it but expensive
I love Readwise. But at $11 / month, the price is a bit steep. I wish there was more flexibility in the pricing. For example, a lifetime option or a better annual price.
Themed Reviews
I rarely write reviews, but I had to come give this app five stars for the constant support and updates that the constantly do especially the new Themed Reviews their pose from my highlight and create a collection of highlights that fall on a certain theme and provide it at the end of the week.
That provides a nice clean view of certain themes that I have highlighted across different places.
That provides a nice clean view of certain themes that I have highlighted across different places.
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Stop making me pay for features I don’t want
$70 just for Readwise feels like it exists solely to make people feel better about the $120 to get the tier that includes Reader. Even if you look at the most expensive competitors in the read-it-later space, $70 would be at the top tier. So why is Reader priced like a top tier read-it-later service when you’re just syncing and resurfacing Kindle highlights? Genuine question, because I am all for supporting development teams, but this seems outrageously expensive.
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