Pocket, an app to store articles for later reading, is launching a sorting option for Android users over the next few weeks that can solve my paralysis when I choose something to read. The new feature sorts by time to read, seen by The edge ‘s Dan Seifert, means items can be organized where it suits you best, whether it takes the five minutes to take lunch in the microwave, or a 20-minute wait for the late bus.
The feature appears in both the search section of the app and as a sort feature in your main list. A reader can sort their saved article search by length and choose between Fast (less than five minutes), Medium (six to ten minutes), Long (eleven to twelve minutes) and Very long (more than twenty-one minutes). According to Pocket’s VP and general manager Matt Koidin, your list of saved articles can also be organized by the newest saved, oldest saved, longest to read and shortest read. If the feature turns out to be popular, Poid says, after Pocket “modernized” its iOS code base, the company will also bring these sorting options to iOS and the Internet.
In my pre-pandemic life, when I rode the bus to work almost every day, I would constantly misjudge what I ended up about when I decided to read. Pocket’s existing time-reading stamps for articles help, but if you have a dragon disk that you wanted to read at some point, things get complicated. Finding an article that can fit into a regular commute can help people finish reading what they are interested in.
I assumed reading time was personalized, but Koidin says that Pocket actually bases his estimates on a reading speed of 220 words per minute. Now the hair on the back of my neck goes up when I first think of good writing as a reading length, rather than a holistic work of creative effort, but I think it’s easy to see how useful it can be (if I was not) currently handcuffed on an iPhone).
Commuting may not be in the equation for everyone yet, but for those who still go to work regularly, the feature might help. At least I missed my reading time on the bus.