July 31, 2024
A much better way to read email newsletters
Matter, Meco, and other dedicated newsletter reader apps are optimized for immersive reading in ways your inbox will never be.
I love almost everything about email newsletters. From finance to gadgets to pop music, there are just so many stellar ones these days. Their very format—intimate, regularly scheduled, free of any temptation to please the Google algorithm rather than human readers—liberates many writers to do their best work. Then there’s the fact that paid newsletters allow some of the most exceptional journalists around to make a living through direct support from happy subscribers—a rare bit of bright news as more traditional media business models grow dicier than ever.
Oddly enough, the one thing I don’t like about email newsletters is the “email” part. Yes, it ensures that all this excellent stuff comes to you rather than you having to seek it out. But I don’t like dealing with email, period. And even if I did, my inbox is a perfect storm of work communications, personal correspondence, e-commerce updates, and plain old spam. Newsletters tend to scroll away before I’ve had a chance to read them.
Even when I do remember to open newsletters, it’s painfully obvious that most email apps were never optimized for consumption of material that can run to hundreds if not thousands of thoughtful words. Instead, they’re preoccupied with facilitating activities such as composing messages and sorting mail into folders—tasks that amount to unnecessary clutter in the context of newsletter reading.
But enough ranting. The good news is that I’m doing more newsletter reading than ever, thanks to an iPhone, iPad, and web app called Matter. It extricates my subscriptions from Gmail and puts them all in one place, optimized for reading above all else. Instead of newsletters competing with everything else in my inbox, they’re there when I’m ready for them, which is usually in the evening as I’m winding down the day.
Gluing myself to Twitter/X in the hours before bedtime has always felt like an unfulfilling bad habit, as if I’m gorging on junk food I don’t even like. Diving into the day’s newsletters, on the other hand, is the furthest possible thing from doomscrolling. Instead, dipping into Matter is like reading a magazine customized to my particular interests—one that’s manageable enough in size that I might actually get through most of it. (That sets it apart from something like Flipboard or a good old-fashioned RSS reader, both of which skew more to the embarrassment-of-riches end of the spectrum.)
Along with its newsletter-related features, Matter offers other capabilities in the same ZIP code as the better-known Pocket. You can squirrel away stuff you find on the web for later perusal, and there are curated links to staff picks and recommendations based on what you’ve read. The app uses AI to summarize text, turns newsletters into faux podcasts by reciting them in a fairly tolerable synthesized voice, and transcribes podcasts so you can read as well as listen. Like a Strava for the mind, it also lets you set goals for daily reading time, celebrates your success at meeting them, and tracks your streaks. Some of this is available in the app’s free version, but the $60 per year I pay for Matter Premium seems entirely reasonable.
Matter has enriched my life enough that I can forgive its rough edges, such as some nonfatal issues it has importing and formatting newsletters. (Including, ahem, this one: Matter misidentifies it as Compass, a different Fast Company newsletter, and fails to display its images.) The app has gotten plenty of new features since I started using it, but its creators are prone to blowing things up and starting anew every so often in a way that can be disorienting. For example, when I started using it, it had a large social element that seemed to be core to the whole concept. One day, that disappeared altogether, leaving an experience that’s still satisfying but solitary.
Ultimately, I’m glad that Matter has competition in the form of another iPhone/iPad app called Meco, which I’ve also recommended in the past. It’s more focused on newsletters than Matter and is a tad more laborious to set up, but seems less susceptible to glitches. Then there’s Newsletterss (or maybe it’s called Newsletter Reader; its App Store listing is inconclusive). That one doesn’t offer Gmail integration, but might be worth a look if you’re willing to subscribe to newsletters using a special dedicated email address, an option Matter offers as well. Unlike Matter and Meco, it’s also available for Android.
Oh, and Substack—the biggest brand name in newsletter platforms, and also the most controversial—has its own app. It’s not bad, and incorporates a Twitter-esque social feed that lets you mingle with newsletter authors and other subscribers. But it works only with Substack newsletters, which is a pretty overwhelming limitation—especially since many newsletter authors are inclined to bounce from platform to platform.
In all these forms, dedicated newsletter readers are a great idea with more room to grow. As someone who writes a newsletter and has access to my stats, I’m exceedingly aware that not all subscribers get around to opening every issue, let alone reading all of them. That basic truth provides me with an ongoing incentive to write better newsletters (thank you, by the way, for getting all the way to the last paragraph of this one). It’s nice to think, though, that unread email newsletters might at least partially reflect the limitations of email itself—ones that can be sidestepped by immersing yourself in an app where they’re the main attraction.
You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company‘s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Wednesday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters.
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