Upnext is a read-later app. No, it’s a bookmarking app. No, it’s a content-curation-social-network factor. Even Jeroen Seghers, one of many service’s co-founders, struggles to clarify it. “Longer term,” he says, “I like to think about what we’re building as a knowledge browser.” But even he admits that doesn’t imply a lot to anybody proper now. Eventually, Upnext settled on “A reader with superpowers,” which is shut sufficient.

Whatever you name it, right here’s what Upnext is: it’s a spot to save lots of and work together with content material from all around the web. It handles articles and weblog posts like Pocket or Instapaper but in addition serves as a dumping floor for all these YouTube movies you wish to watch later, the podcast episodes you’ll finally take heed to, the tweet threads you don’t have time to scroll via but, all these PDFs cluttering your desktop, and extra.

My favourite factor in regards to the app is that slightly than simply storing all that stuff in a reverse-chronological checklist, it acts as a kind of Google TV interface for internet content material, a software that takes all of your hyperlinks and tries to present you again the fitting factor on the proper time. Upnext’s residence display reveals you just a few classes, a set of curated Daily Picks from the stuff you’ve saved, after which just a few of the belongings you’ve added most not too long ago. There’s additionally a Review web page that asks you to Tinder-swipe your approach via your checklist to maintain it clear — swipe proper to maintain it, swipe left to archive.

The app has been in beta for greater than a 12 months, and I’ve been testing it on and off for many of that point. Now it’s launching publicly on iPhone, iPad, and the net — Android’s coming finally, Seghers says, however not anytime quickly. The app prices $10 a month or $69 a 12 months, which is significantly steep for this sort of app (Pocket and Instapaper each have excellent free tiers), however Seghers thinks Upnext can construct one thing well worth the worth for the web’s content material superconsumers. He didn’t rule out finally providing a less expensive or free model, both, however mentioned that beginning costly “will give us a clear signal on what the most demanding users want.”

Image: Upnext / David Pierce

I’ve largely used it as an easy alternative for Pocket (or Matter, one other new read-later app I’ve been having fun with) as a easy studying software. It does job ingesting most textual content articles, with photographs and different media as properly, and makes it fairly simple to spotlight textual content and take notes. If you’re taking notes on a video or podcast, it robotically timestamps them, so that they’re simple to search out later. (Upnext doesn’t but have a simple solution to sync all of your notes to your favourite note-taking app except you additionally pay for Readwise, however I’m instructed that’s coming quickly.) The app doesn’t have as many customization choices as another apps — I’d love a solution to make the margins a bit of wider on the iPad, specifically, with Seghers says is coming — however continues to be a fairly good studying expertise.

Ultimately, although, Upnext’s plan is to do much more along with your content material than give it a nicer font. When you save one thing within the app via the Upnext browser extension or the iOS share sheet, Upnext tries to determine what it’s and robotically categorizes it for you. It works, ish? Upnext is excellent at understanding the distinction between an extended learn and a brief article and at all times places YouTube hyperlinks in the fitting place. But in case you save an article with an embedded video on the high, it’s going to assume you wished the article. If you discover a podcast episode on its webpage slightly than in a podcast participant, it’s going to put it aside as a Short Read and never a Long Listen.

You can’t manually categorize your content material, both, which is annoying. (I’ve a whole lot of podcasts nonetheless in my Short Reads folder.) Instead, Upnext needs you to make playlists of content material. I like this characteristic, personally: I now preserve a operating checklist of podcast episodes, articles, and movies on topics I’m making an attempt to study extra about and might dive into them at any time when I’ve time. (In this sense, Upnext is nearly like a supercharged bookmarking service.) You may also share playlists with others, together with your individual notes on varied content material, and Seghers says Upnext has long-term desires of bringing plenty of social options to the app.

Image: Upnext

Higher on the precedence checklist: getting higher at understanding the content material individuals put into Upnext. The app already saves your progress on all types of content material, so you’ll be able to decide something up the place you left off. But Seghers says the staff is spending a whole lot of time on bettering the automated categorization system, which might additionally assist Upnext suggest content material to customers. “You can tell us, like, ‘I want to read, I want to listen, or want to watch,’” he says. “Then, if you can also tell us, ‘This is the topic I actually want to make some progress on,’ or ‘Here’s what I’m just kind of in the mood for,’ because our morning vs. evening and weekday vs. weekend, it’s all very different.” He’s additionally excited to show Upnext into a robust search engine for all of the stuff you save however acknowledges that’s laborious work, too.

The dream for an app like this, actually, is that you just simply spend your days dumping stuff you’re fascinated with, and the app neatly spits it again to you at precisely the fitting second. It’s not a chore or an inbox, extra like your curated model of the web. Upnext isn’t that, however that’s fairly near what Seghers says he’s making an attempt to construct. “You can just throw any link at it,” he says, “and it’s a continuously learning thing.”

Apps like Upnext — and Pocket, Instapaper, Matter, and the remaining — have at all times been for a selected type of heavy content material client. I’m very a lot that type of client and have actually loved utilizing Upnext thus far. It’s not an ideal system, and it’s in all probability not but price $10 a month for most individuals, however I’ve spent years in search of “I’ll get to this later” app, and Upnext is surprisingly near getting it proper.