Instapaper said Tuesday the premium version of its article bookmarking app is now free, and it strongly hinted its new owner made it possible. Thanks, Pinterest.
Starting today, Instapaper users get access to features previously available only via a paid subscription, the company said in a blog post. That includes an ad-free website, full-text search for all articles, unlimited notes and speed reading, text-to-speech playlists and Kindle Digests of up to 50 articles. Current subscribers to the premium version will get prorated refunds.
Pinterest, the popular digital scrapbooking site, bought Instapaper in August. (The amount wasn't disclosed.) That gave Instapaper the ability to do away with charging its users for a premium version, which was $3 a month or $30 a year.
"Now that we're better resourced, we're able to offer everyone the best version of Instapaper," the company said in the Tuesday post. Hmm. What could it mean by "better resourced"? Follow the link on that phrase and it takes you to the August post about its new owner.