Looking for an Instapaper Alternative?
Instapaper helped define the read-it-later category. But if you want AI-powered search, book highlight imports, and active development, Screvi picks up where Instapaper left off.
14-day free trial. No credit card required.
What Is Instapaper?
Instapaper launched in 2008, years before Pocket or Readwise existed. Marco Arment built it as a clean, fast way to save articles and read them offline, and it worked. The app attracted a loyal following thanks to its distraction-free reader and simple highlighting.
Pinterest acquired Instapaper in 2016, and for a while things went quiet. The app was spun back out in 2018, but development never really picked up again. Updates are infrequent. There's no AI functionality, no support for importing Kindle or Kobo highlights, and organization is limited to basic folders.
If you just want to save the occasional article, Instapaper still does that fine. But if you're someone who highlights across books, articles, podcasts, and YouTube, and wants to actually find and revisit those highlights, you'll hit its limits quickly.
An Honest Look at Instapaper
What it does well
- Clean, minimal reading experience that still holds up
- Reliable offline reading on iOS and Android
- Browser extension works across all major browsers
- Public API for building custom integrations
- One of the few apps with a true distraction-free reader
Where it falls short
- No Kindle, Kobo, or Apple Books highlight import
- No AI features (search is basic keyword matching only)
- Organization limited to folders, no tags or color coding
- No spaced repetition or daily review system
- Development has slowed significantly since 2018
- No support for YouTube transcripts, newsletters, or podcasts
- No way to scan and capture highlights from physical books
How Screvi Approaches Things Differently
Screvi started from a different premise: most people don't just read articles. They highlight Kindle books on the bus, watch YouTube tutorials at lunch, snap photos of passages in paperbacks, and subscribe to newsletters they never get around to reading. All of those highlights end up scattered across different apps and devices.
Screvi pulls them into one place. Your Kindle highlights sync automatically. Same with Kobo and Apple Books. If you underline something in a physical book, you can scan the page with Screvi's camera, which uses Gemini AI to recognize the text and clean it up. YouTube video? Screvi saves the full transcript so you can highlight the parts that matter.
Once your highlights are in Screvi, finding them is where things get interesting. Instead of searching by exact keywords, Screvi's AI semantic search lets you describe what you're looking for in plain language. Search for "arguments against remote work" and you'll find highlights about distributed teams, office culture, and productivity, even if none of them contain those exact words.
There's also a highlights feed that surfaces things you saved weeks or months ago, and a spaced repetition system that helps you actually remember what you read. Tags with custom colors let you organize highlights however makes sense to you, and you can share any highlight as a styled image for social media.
Feature Comparison
How Screvi and Instapaper compare across the features that matter most.
Screvi: 22/22 features · Instapaper: 7/22 features
| Feature | Screvi | Instapaper |
|---|---|---|
| Save articles | ||
| Distraction-free reader | ||
| Highlight text | ||
| Offline reading | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| iOS & Android apps | ||
| Public API | ||
| Kindle highlight import | ||
| Kobo highlight import | ||
| Apple Books import | ||
| AI semantic search | ||
| Spaced repetition | ||
| Highlights feed | ||
| AI topic discovery | ||
| Physical book scanner | ||
| YouTube transcript saving | ||
| Newsletter inbox | ||
| iOS widget | ||
| Tags with colors | Folders only | |
| Share highlights as images | ||
| AI article summaries | ||
| Twitter/X bookmark import |
Why People Switch from Instapaper to Screvi
All Your Highlights, One Place
Import highlights from Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Twitter/X, and more. No more jumping between apps to find something you saved.
Search by Meaning, Not Keywords
Screvi's AI semantic search understands what you're looking for. Search "tips for writing better" and find highlights about prose, editing, and storytelling.
Remember What You Read
Spaced repetition resurfaces your highlights at the right intervals. Your highlights feed shows you past saves so good ideas don't disappear.
Scan Physical Books
Point your camera at a highlighted page. Screvi's AI-powered scanner recognizes the text and adds it to your library. No manual typing.
YouTube and Podcast Highlights
Save transcripts from YouTube videos. Highlight the parts that matter to you, just like you would in an article.
Lifetime Plan Available
Pay once, use forever. Screvi offers a $199 lifetime plan alongside monthly ($4.99/mo) and annual ($49.99/yr) options.
Switching from Instapaper
Instapaper lets you export your saved articles and highlights as a CSV file. You can import that data into Screvi to keep everything you've already saved. Head to Instapaper's settings, download your export, and upload it during Screvi onboarding.
Frequently Asked Questions
Try it with your highlights
Create your account, add your highlights and see how Screvi can change the way you read.