📌 The Problem
You know that feeling when you find an amazing article, but you're in the middle of something? You bookmark it, promising to read it later... and then it disappears into the black hole of your browser's bookmark bar, never to be seen again.
Or worse — you're on mobile, trying to save a link, and you have to:
- Copy the URL
- Open your bookmark app
- Create a new bookmark
- Paste the URL
- Hope you remember to add tags later
There had to be a better way.
🚀 Enter: Save It Later
After months of development (and countless "why isn't this working?" moments), I've built Save It Later — a modern bookmark and reading app that actually makes sense.
Think Pocket or Instapaper, but built for 2024 with the features you actually want.
✨ What Makes It Different
🎯 Save From Anywhere
- Browser share sheet? ✅
- Floating action button for instant saves? ✅
- Multi-paste URLs (paste 10 links at once)? ✅
- Android widget for quick access? ✅ (Just added!)
📱 Actually Works Across Devices
- Save on your phone, read on your tablet, organize on your desktop
- Firebase-powered cloud sync (when you're ready to go premium)
- Offline-first architecture — everything works even without internet
🎨 Clean Reading Experience
- Distraction-free reading mode that strips ads and clutter
- Beautiful Material Design 3 UI
- Dark mode that doesn't hurt your eyes
- Customizable fonts and themes
🗂️ Smart Organization
- Folders and tags (because sometimes you need both)
- Powerful search that finds what you're looking for
- Smart collections with automatic categorization
- Archive and favorites — keep your list clean
📊 For the Data Nerds
- Analytics dashboard showing your reading habits
- Track what you save, when you read it, and more
- Premium feature, but worth it if you're curious about your patterns
🛠️ Built With Modern Tech
I built this with Flutter because:
- Cross-platform from day one (iOS, Android, Web, Desktop)
- Beautiful UI is actually achievable
- Performance that doesn't suck
The Stack:
- Flutter for the UI
- SQLite for local storage (fast, reliable, offline-first)
- Firebase for cloud sync and authentication
- RevenueCat for subscription management
- Provider + Riverpod for state management
- Material Design 3 for that modern feel
🎁 What I Learned (The Hard Way)
1. Offline-First is Harder Than You Think
Building a reading app that works offline means caching everything — images, content, metadata. But when you have thousands of saved items, cache management becomes... interesting.
Solution: Implemented a smart cache management system that balances storage and performance.
2. Content Extraction is Tricky
Not every website plays nice. Some have weird HTML structures, some block scraping, some have paywalls. Getting reliable content extraction required a lot of edge case handling.
Solution: Multiple extraction strategies + fallback mechanisms + user feedback loop.
3. Cross-Platform Sync is Complex
Making sure data syncs correctly across devices, handling conflicts, and keeping everything in sync is... a challenge.
Solution: Firebase Firestore with careful conflict resolution + optimistic UI updates.
4. Widget Development is Different
Just added Android widget support. Turns out, widgets have their own lifecycle, limited interactions, and require native code. Not as simple as I thought!
Solution: Native Kotlin code for widget updates + Flutter plugin for communication.
📈 Current Status
- ✅ Core features working smoothly
- ✅ Android widget just launched
- ✅ iOS app in the works
- ✅ Premium features with RevenueCat integration
- 🔄 Browser extension planned (Chrome first, then Firefox)
🎯 Why You Should Try It
- It's actually useful — I use it daily to save articles, Reddit posts, and random links I find
- It's fast — Optimized for performance, even with thousands of saved items
- It's beautiful — Material Design 3 makes it feel modern and polished
- It respects your privacy — Offline-first means your data stays local (cloud sync is opt-in)
💡 What's Next?
I'm planning to add:
- Browser extension (Chrome, then Firefox) for one-click saving
- Desktop apps (Windows, macOS, Linux) using Flutter
- Better search with full-text search within articles
- Export/Import functionality
- Collaborative collections (share folders with friends)
🤝 I Want Your Feedback
I've been building this in a vacuum (mostly), and I'd love to hear from other developers:
- What features would make you switch from Pocket/Instapaper?
- What's your biggest pain point with current bookmark apps?
- Any Flutter-specific tips for performance optimization?
- Widget development best practices? (I'm new to this)
🚀 Try It Out
The app is available on:
- Google Play Store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.saveitlater.app
- App Store https://apps.apple.com/us/app/save-it-later-bookmarks/id6752220740
Or check out the code on GitHub (if you're into that sort of thing).
TL;DR: Built a modern bookmark/reading app with Flutter. It's fast, beautiful, and actually works offline. Just added Android widget support. Looking for feedback from fellow devs!
What do you think? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! 👇
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