Something like Instapaper, but for email threads?

February 26, 2014 9:02 AM

Is there an equivalent of Instapaper or Pocket, but more or less optimized for saving and decluttering (long) email threads? (Gmail, specifically?)

One of my frustrations with both Instapaper/Pocket is there's nothing that lets you say, "Y'know, this is a really interesting list-serv thread, but I'd like to save this for later in a more cleaned-up format."

I can always archive and tag it with something in gmail, but a. reading through my email program on my phone/computer psychologically feels like work (as 95% of my email usage is expressly for work), b. it's filled with distractions/filler (e.g. email footers, quotes of past emails in the conversation over and over again, etc.) in the exact way Instapaper/Pocket is designed to filter out, and c. it's just a pain to read.

Is there any kind of app (Mac/Iphone if possible) that will allow you, in one way or another, to make long email threads a relative joy to read? Maybe I just need to get an email app that I just use to read these kind of threads, that's particularly good with list-servs? What do other folks with voluminous list-serv subscriptions do?

Thanks!

posted by (The Rt Hon.) MP to Computers & Internet (1 answer total)

I just tried out Evernote's Web Clipper on a long email thread in Gmail. Looks like it does make it easier to read in that it would let you read it offline and removes all the sidebars and such, but doesn't automatically strip out repetitive content like footers and quotes (Gmail itself hides some of that, but not enough not to be annoying.)

You might be able to read the list via RSS and use an RSS reader instead of an email interface, but I haven't tried this and don't know how helpful it would be.
posted by asperity at 11:48 AM on May 20, 2014