Name: Readwise
Rating: 4.80412 (1215 reviews)

User Reviews for Readwise

4.8 out of 5

1.2K Ratings

3 years ago, The Builder....

My Go-To App for Knowledge Retention

I am currently studying for a major exam, and I must say that this app is awesome at bringing up the information based on your feedback/settings for each book and article that you import. Also, with the Mastery feature, that is definitely helping with the recall of information over time. I have found that it is best that you sync your information via their Readwise iBooks app that is installed on the Mac so that the highlights from your Books app, as well as any PDFs that you are reading (which I’m seeing works best with the latter if you simply a) highlight your PDFs while having the Readwise app active in your browser, then b) copy and paste those highlights, one by one, into Readwise’s Freeform Input area to ensure proper translation between the PDF and Readwise, but I digress…). If you are attempting to study for an exam, or even to recall what has been taught in a class from a book that you are reading, I highly recommend this app!

4 years ago, Kerry1234567

This app has changed my life

This app and readwise in general has been an absolute game changer for me. I LOVE to read non-fiction but even though I often highlight, I very rarely go back and look at them. So I would read great books, take a lot of ideas from them, and then promptly forget everything I’ve read once I moved onto the next book. With readwise, I am reminded everyday of all these great ideas. I can star certain ones and adjust how frequently the highlights will appear from certain books and keep the info front of mind has helped a lot. I’ve used the service for a year now and it has become a treasured part of my morning routine. The app has made that even better bc now I don’t have to check my email and become distracted by something else. They even have a “feed” to endless scroll highlights which IMO is a much better way to spend my time than scrolling a FB feed. I highly recommend this service!!

4 years ago, Jerry Brito

My favorite new app in years

Readwise is the best app/web service that I’ve used in years. I’ve been looking for something like it for a long time and they absolutely nailed it. It does two main things for me. First, I read a lot of books and articles, but I have a hard time retaining what I’ve learned. Readwise lets me easily review what I want to remember using spaced repetition, which is proven to help with retention. The second thing it does is a bit unexpected: it serves as my second brain. Because I systematically tag all highlights as I review them, I am creating a database of knowledge that I can later easily search or browse. And because I can download all my highlights and the metadata I’ve added in plain text, I can use other tools on my data. It’s amazing and I can’t wait to see how they make it better.

2 years ago, Tvsnow

Love the app - but I would love to see one change

This is the only app that I “subscribe” to and pay monthly fees for. So that tells you how much I value and love this app. I wish I had had it for my whole adult lifetime of reading as I can only imagine how easy it would be to find limitless numbers of old quotes/nuggets from books I’ve read over the years. My only complaint (which is small) is that if you miss a day, after a few days it is too late to “make up” the day that was missed, and that day becomes “unrecoverable.” I think the developer should update the app to allow users to pay a small amount (say $1) to make up a review day after it would normally become unrecoverable. Not every one would use that feature, but I think a lot of users would. If that’s my only complaint, it’s also a good sign of an incredibly valuable and frankly killer app.

4 years ago, boastoria

Skip the trial and just go all in

This APP has answered for all many of my challenges in keeping track of information for the long term after I find it. I am a huge Evernote fan and have been expecting book notes there once I’ve completed my reading. The problem of course is that the formatting is awful and I only then have access to my highlights and notes once the book in finished. Readwise takes care of all that, and syncs my notes and highlights not only to Evernote, but also to its own system where it allows me to review what I’ve been learning and thinking about. It also lets you design your highlights for “active recall” and choose how often something resurfaces. Truly, one of my favorite apps. It helps me keep books articles and other highlights all in one place, which means when I go to use that information it’s easy to find, or I might have already remembered the information I need because they resurfaced it a few times for me and it’s already become a part of my knowledge. Can’t recommend enough.

3 years ago, carlosivanr

Pdf support needs work

I’m a researcher and read a lot of PDFs for my job. I was hoping that readwise would be a good way to keep track of my notes and highlights from academic journals, but the pdf support need a lot of work. I found that the text in the highlights and notes was often jumbled and incomprehensible. I tried it with Mac using preview and windows using Adobe acrobat pro dc, and had a similar experience. I also noticed that the iOS app would show badge notifications but o couldn’t figure out why. I would tap around the app and still couldn’t get the badge to clear. I also don’t like how the magnifying glass is where you have to tap to get all of your highlights, it’s not intuitive and should be a library icon or something similar with the search within that screen. Using the app felt clunky to me in this respect. Your mileage may vary though if you’re intended purpose is to keep track of Kindle notes. But for me I’ll pass on this app and it’s subscription service.

4 years ago, terceiro

A time machine for my library

I’ve used Readwise on the web and via email for years now, and I love it. The app makes it more convenient. I read a mix of fiction and non-fiction, and my aim isn’t to learn or memorize anything. I just really enjoy rediscovering nuggets from books that sometimes I forgot that I’d read at all. Because it slurps in all my kindle highlights, I will occasionally find a highlight and a note from something I read a decade ago, and I’m transported back to what I was doing then. It’s a time machine! I rarely write reviews, but Readwise deserves it. I’ve recommended the service to a dozen friends or more. Now that it’s an app, it’ll be even easier to do so.

4 years ago, MicheleGG

Fantastic app that syncs across multiple platforms

I beta-tested this app and found it to work very well for multiple purposes. First, it presents me with snippets of my book and article highlights to review daily, reminding me of key passages from books that I found meaningful or significant. Second, it allows me to collect highlights from multiple sources, including Kindle, Instapaper, Pocket, and Medium. Most importantly, I can then export these highlights to Evernote to save them in my “second brain.” That way, knowledge isn’t lost or dependent on my spotty memory. There are others ways to do most of this manually, but Readwise makes it simple and convenient, and to me, that makes it worth the subscription cost.

4 years ago, Longhinid

Changes the Game

I love both this app and this team that built it. The #1 most important thing for me is how quickly can I learn information BUT can I retain it and use it in daily life. Readwise helps me satisfy this and more. I use this app as a way to build my business, build my friendships, and myself as a person. It basically helps you cultivate the most important quotes and ideas in your life, and then feed them back to you in a way you control. Every morning I use it to remind myself of new things and send them out to friends and employees as conversation starters and reminders. It’s a 100x return on investment.

3 years ago, KazutoKirigaya

Pretty awesome for reviews but capture needs work

For daily reviews this is great, but capture on iOS needs work. Sharing to the app in Safari doesn’t preserve the page title or metadata, which means anything you save from iOS will just go to a “Passages from iOS” “book” in Readwise, which makes it hard to organize. iOS 15 added Safari extensions but there isn’t any integration with Readwise there yet, so despite the fact that it’s an obvious way to get highlights into the app, you can’t use that. Also, it’s a reader app that doesn’t have dark mode. And the widget doesn’t actually do anything other than show highlights (it says it should show daily review stuff before that’s completed but it doesn’t).

2 years ago, Braddmills

Game Changer!

I held off for far too long. Everyone I follow has been talking about Readwise. I thought it was a useless gimmick. As a pastor, I write a minimum of 2,000 words per week. Readwise has helped me to incorporate relevant highlights from past reading material into my current thinking. In the process it has revolutionized how I highlight and take notes. Readwise has also become an indispensable source of illustrations. It’s a brilliant app. I purchased the full subscription before the end of my 30 day free trial in order to take full advantage of the integration with Obsidian. Readwise + Obsidian = 🤯

1 year ago, Rayedee8

The best

I am always looking for the best and most efficient ways to read and collect articles as a medical doctor and researcher. I have tried everything. Twice. As a student I tried so hard not to use Readwise because I couldn’t justify the cost. Eventually I just had to justify it because there really is nothing better. My knowledge base has accelerated like I never would have expected in a fraction of the time. Please keep it up! This really is the best product out there for reading academically and for interest (I use for both). 😊

4 years ago, RedbackSpider

A key part of my learning

I read a lot. And as part of my job as an Agile coach, there is a lot to read and absorb. But for too many years I would not retain what I read, or at least not to the level I would like. Enter Readwise. The basic function is that it presents a series of highlights from Kindle or iBooks or Instapaper, or ... every day so that you can be reminded of important ideas. I’ve been using Readwise since it was a web app, not an iOS app. The web app was good; the iOS app is great in that the integrations appear to work more smoothly. If you read to learn, Readwise will help. Recommended.

3 years ago, ptw76

Been looking for this tool for years

I've been extracting highlights and notes from books for years. It is a slow and excruciating process, but one I will spend the remainder of my life doing. Readwise has helped me save a tremendous amount of my free time by extracting notes in my books as I read. It is wonderful. As with all new apps, there's some improvements that can be made (camera capture stuff), but all in all, I use it daily. The only thing I'm upset about is that I didn't think of this wonderful idea myself.

3 years ago, Time to Train

Must have…

Readwise is an absolute must have if you are a student or teacher. Not only do the daily emails keep your highlighted content from fading out of your memory—It’s fascinating to see what ideas and thoughts struck you as important at your time of reading. On several occasions now those highlights have helped to sharpen my understanding of how my perspective on topics have evolved. Furthermore, I really appreciate how all of my highlights are in one place where I can actually review them quickly and organize and connect them for my research needs. Finally,I would be remiss not to mention the incredible experience I have had with their customer service folks. This truly is a company that cares about its users. Plus, it’s a bootstrapped company… And how can you not cheer for a company who cares about growing at a pace that doesn’t outrun their ability to serve their users? I’m a Fan! Jason

1 year ago, mikefarmer-turbo

Wonderful Application!

This application has completely changed how I read just about anything. The ability to go back and review and remember what I've read is a gamechanger for me. Each day I have the opportunity to review all the tidbits of wisdom that I have aquired and contemplate how they relate to what I'm doing that day. I love this concept so much! This application can be a bit buggy and doesn't have the best software experience, but the concept and the ideas driving it are so incredible that it doesn't matter.

4 years ago, kali0

Readwise has quickly become my favorite app

If you dedicate time to a lot of non-fiction reading, Readwise is a necessary companion! I love that Readwise resurfaces my highlights from all of my favorite books, and more than anything I love being able to organize my kindle highlights, iBook highlights, and even highlights from Medium. The ability to further manage my reading by creating tags and adjusting which books I want to resurface in daily reviews has been nothing short of amazing. Readwise is the product I never knew I always needed. Highly recommend!!

3 years ago, Corndog8

If you are an avid reader, buy this app

I’ve been highlighting Kindle passages for years, but as time went by I’ve been doing it less and less, because I never go back and look at them, since it’s kind of a pain, and completely out of context. Readwise now gives me random highlights every day, which I can keep or discard, and best of all they all sync with Notion, so I can further organize and bold, highlight, etc. This is one of the very few apps I open every single day.

3 years ago, y i n a ✨

Readwise is now a part of my morning routine.

I use Readwise almost every day. It has become engrained in my morning habits as a way to review previously learned information. There are so many reasons to explain why Readwise has been beneficial, both for knowledge and general well being, I’ll have to write a more in depth review later. The unique value proposition of resurfacing old material, and allowing for shareability in a visually pleasing way is wonderful. It allows for review in an age of information overload.

2 months ago, Andre Robitaille

Nothing like it

I have books and articles strewn across multiple apps, and the daily highlights review has reminded me of some really important things about life and career. And then their Reader app for web articles and PDFs rounds out things I’d like to be looking at instead of doomscrolling on a weekend. I hesitated a bit at the price, but the value of being able to highlight paper books with my phone camera is just too valuable.

4 years ago, SteveB MA

Surprisingly useful

I started the trial skeptical but hoping that Readwise would help me organize notes and highlights. It’s good for that, but the daily review exercise is a an amazing way to rediscover things I’ve read a while ago and also internalize relevant, important notes, not to mention discover new books. And the daily review also makes for a nice incremental way to organize things. There are a few minor features I wish the app and website had, and the developers have been very responsive. I recommend this time beyond I know who reads interesting things.

3 years ago, mfitzhugh

Remember all you knew

Highlighting resonant passages across ebooks, articles, paper books and more puts their most memorable bits in the spotlight. Keeping those gems in mind, however, is tough. Readwise collects all those memorable moments of reading in one place, making them easily searchable and, better yet, serendipitously brings them back to mind via daily reviews. It’s super-easy to use and rewarding to revisit daily. I was skeptical at first, but the more I use Readwise, the more I love it.

2 years ago, Gmdizzle

This app has changed my life

Not kidding . . . This is the most powerful app for people who need to remember what they’ve learned. Which is all of us! I now gift subscriptions for new grads along with Tiago Forte’s book, Building a Second Brain. (Psst. . . All of Tiago’s work is amazing). This app and learnings from Tiago’s BASB course have been like rocket fuel for my life and my career. Could not recommend this app more highly. It would be among the last I would delete if I was forced to purge my phone!

4 years ago, Warrior4_JC

Incredibly helpful app

I found ReadWise a month or so ago and it immediately skyrocketed to one of my favorite and most-used apps. I read a LOT and remember a little. ReadWise had changed that and made reading not only enjoyable, but now that ReadWise bubbles what I read and highlighted back up frequently, I actually remember and use what I've read previously. If you are even a light reader, you should check this app out. I can't recommend it enough.

4 years ago, Fatheroftheyear

Great concept lost in the Tinderesque feel...

I LOVE the recap of highlights I’ve made over the years... it feels like long lost gems have been found/ brilliant idea! Makes me want to highlight more! BUT, imagine sitting down after a long day, winding down and excited to see what meaningful words will come back to mind, and the biggest buttons pop up asking you to swipe right or sipe left, like a nagging stranger asking you to judge your memories. It completely ruins the experience. I give it 3 stars because it’s near perfect, but I’m a day or 2 away from dumping the app and finding a different way to review my notes...

4 years ago, G from AZ

Learning from reading has been fundamentally changed

If you’ve ever wanted to remember anything from what you’ve read, and I imagine that includes just about everyone that has ever read anything, then this is a must have app. This is simply the best learning tool ever designed and built. No student in any disciple should be without this app. And aren’t we all students for life? And isn’t life for learning? GET THIS APP!! Not only will you learn, you will actually enjoy what you’ve read even more!

3 years ago, For the--luv of all thangs

Where’s this been all my life?

I am a HUGE fan of this app. For years I have highlighted in my Kindle and in print books while maintaining the discipline to transfer all the notes manually into an Evernote file. An Evernote file that I rarely looked at. From the very first day since downloading this app (which by the way has a gracious 60 day trial period), I was hooked. When I see highlights from books I read over a decade ago it absolutely tickles me pink. It’s great for retention and it is easy to use. It’s inspired my own personal writing too because it jogs my memory. I had a couple questions in the beginning and the customer service responded immediately, walking me through things. It is one of my favorite apps and I’m so glad to have it.

4 months ago, Readwise_app

Love it but..

I really like this app and I try to use it everyday. Good way to revisit important parts of books and helps retain knowledge. The interface is minimal and that makes this a no fuss app, easy to use. My ONLY problem is no notification when you are about to lose the streak. The streak is a great motivator to not ignore the daily review but it’s frustrating when you forget one day and lose all your progress. I think there are email notifications but that’s not very useful.

4 years ago, Frank Simme

Give Me a Moment of Your Time

Take a moment and think of all the knowledge books hold. Now take another moment and imagine never reading, or at least avoiding it as much as possible, because of the lack of ability, or maybe just know how, to retain that information. Now imagine having a magical tool that pulls all the important things you read together and allows you to learn it and make it part of your life over time. Life Changing.

4 years ago, cotter45

Not yet sufficient for synching paper books with Kindle

I switched from reading via kindle to paper books and am trying this app to try and synchronize notes from my paper book collection. This app has around 80% of my paper library, but these books are not included in ‘my books’ on the app even after I uploaded them into the supplementary books page on their web address. If they can improve the synchronization of the quotes/notes from paper books better into the reader’s ‘my books’ this product will be quite useful.

4 years ago, valrog

Great concept — pretty good app

I love the Readwise concept and have been reading my highlights daily for half a year using the beta app. Really like the ability to sync with Pocket and Kindle — and to add highlights from others by adding book titles (some of which I’ve read and some of which I have not). Only hit on the app is that the homepage appearance can sometimes be a little funky if larger fonts are turned on in iOS.

5 months ago, The Builder....

My Study App

I am using this to actively study for the Landscape Architecture Registration Exam (LARE) via its "Mastery" area, where you can make question and answer cards digitally! As a result, it, along with its other features, are helping me to retain a LOT of the books that I have read (and am reading) over time. I highly recommend this app toward anyone who needs to simply remember what you have read!

4 years ago, Jake.N.Bake

Dark Mode - Dark Mode Support

The app would benefit from having dark mode functionality. The system the have setup alone is great, but I can’t see myself using the app or any system these days that don’t feature a dark mode. Anyone with a career or lifestyle that heavily involves tech, benefits from dark mode. It’s easier to view/more eye friendly, It’s (typically) more battery friendly, it’s aesthetically pleasing, and more private/less eye catchy to those looking to catch a glimpse at your phone.

4 years ago, danieldkang

One of the best products I’ve discovered

Readwise has been an integral part of my morning routine for the past year. They make it so easy to capture anything you want to remember and has truly increased my desire to learn since I now know I won’t forget the important highlights. The compounding impact of Readwise is priceless and the product has turned into something I look forward to gifting all my friends and family.

4 years ago, jpintobks

Great concept but need options

I think this is probably the only app which can collect such a diverse type of information from different sources, including Apple Books. The app should give users to have their information, books, underline, etc. in Dropbox, iCloud or any other cloud service of the user’s choose, or in the developer servers as is now the default and only option. I sent a note to the developers with these questions and I idea. It was not answered. The concept is so good that I decided to give two and not one star mostly for the lack of customer support.

5 months ago, myburger

Necessary for bookworms

Readwise has been an amazing additional to my reading routine. The ability to have all my notes in one spot, both physical and digital books, has been a godsend. I love getting the daily emails that remind me of quotes that I otherwise would have forgotten from books that I loved reading, just forgot to the passage of time. Really a necessity

6 months ago, 39 year old guy from Connecticut

The best app I’ve bought in years

This app makes it so easy to recall all the great stuff I’ve read or listened to on podcasts with the integration with airr. I get a daily email with 10 highlights from things I’ve highlighted in books from my kindle, quotes from podcasts I’ve clipped and Twitter threads I want to refer back to. Easily one of the best apps I’ve ever purchased.

1 month ago, ChrisWRXSTI

Simply Incredible

I’ve been a daily Readwise user for at least five years now. It’s become an integral part of my digital brain. I would not want to go without it. the Readwise reading app has made it an even more incredible service if you’re thinking about checking it out, stop thinking and do it! You won’t regret it.

2 years ago, cathinmt

Some install issues, but works otherwise

I had issues after installing this app. It kept logging me out after the syncing, and then returning the to the sync page after I would log back in - forcing an endless loop. At some point though, this issue seemed to resolve itself. I am now able to use the app. Excited to continue, but worried that it seems so glitchy.

4 years ago, PackyM

Best way to remember Kindle highlights

I have been using Readwise to capture and retain what I highlight in Kindle for almost a year, and it’s changed the way I remember everything I read. I have a bad memory, so I’m shocked at how much I remember after re-reading a highlight a couple of times. I want to start using it with physical books, but for now, I use Readwise every time I read on my Kindle or Kindle app.

4 years ago, johnco42

Makes me better at life

Every good book has a handful of gem like passages that shape my mind and inform my outlook on the world. Readwise reminds me of these things. I routinely re-experience profound passages that I thought I could never forget, but did. I thought I had a good memory until Readwise. It also functions as a nice replacement for mindlessly scrolling social media when you have a few minutes. Digging it.

3 years ago, dangerkittydc

Great Habit

I used the free trial for a while and then stopped, trying to take notes on my own. Signed back up after a couple of months. It not only helps me remember what I’ve read but the habit of reviewing past works motivates me to read more today. It seems a bit pricey for what it is, but I feel like it’s worth it if I use it every day.

4 years ago, Kyleschen

Fantastic for anyone who even lightly uses their kindle

This has become the only thing I make sure to read every morning. Readwise surfaces highlights you’ve made previously and gives you control to shape those (you can like, favorite, or discard quotes—and you can choose to not get quotes from certain books). It’s one of the few apps that helps support a healthy habit.

2 years ago, Nick Driscoll

Spectacular

I’m really not much for leaving reviews. But this service has done wonders for my retention and enjoyment reading non-fiction. I recommend this to anybody who will listen to my monologues about whatever I’m currently hyper-focused on, and I unflinchingly recommend it to anyone who’s considering this service and platform enough to be sorting through the reviews

4 years ago, Eplachta

If you value your time, invest into Readwise

Having a tool that can sync my highlights and notes from everything I read into 1 central location is a massive quality of life improvement. Even better, Readwise then forwards this information into my Notes app!! It is no less than life-changing. Take the time to learn the tricks like .h1 for headers, and .c1 for connecting highlights

4 years ago, slmamp

The best to make use of all you read!

This is, hands down, one of my most treasured apps. It is the link between sounding wisdom down into my heart vs. reading and losing most of it. The ability to add podcast clips and highlights from paperback books and PDF’s just magnifies the usefulness. Get this app!!! No problems, no glitches, works like a dream.

4 years ago, Orion's Beard

Love it

I read a lot and always wished I had a better way of retaining something that isn’t my 4th reread of Harry Potter. Readwise has become an amazing way to start my mornings as I read the daily highlights. It also allows me to basically “reread” whole books very quickly as I go back through my highlights. Incredibly valuable app!

8 months ago, GloverGL

Note taking and organizing

This app has been an awesome resource for taking notes and organizing highlights from my reading. I love that I have access to both ebook and print book notes together. The review function was something I didn’t even know I needed!!! The help in recalling what I’ve read is invaluable.

1 year ago, Art Van Devoyager

Brings it All Together

Readwise is a fantastic tool that can turn your reading in learning. It pulls all your highlights from various sources like Kindle books, Apple books, read-later apps, etc. with lots of features (tages, notes, etc.) that will help you get a handle on whatever you read.

4 years ago, rollo999

Ok but...

OK, once again, a great app not adapted well to the iPad. Let me explain, most iPad cases allow the iPad oriented in one direction, landscape. I will delete every single app that works on my iPad but doesn’t orient in landscape. It’s not a question of being difficult, it is common sense. How ridiculous, even stupid to force people to stretch the next 90° to the left, because as we all know, that makes people angry. Developers, please stop it, stop making people angry because it’s arbitrary, it’s ridiculous

Description

Readwise helps you get the most out of what you read by making it fun & easy to revisit your highlights from all your favorite reading platforms in one place. Quickly synchronize your highlights from Kindle, Apple Books, Instapaper, Pocket, Medium, Goodreads, and even paper books. Then start building a daily review habit using the app and daily email. By reviewing your highlights every day, you'll retain dramatically more and you'll finally stop forgetting all the details from books you just finished! --- “Readwise is my favorite new service this year. Save highlights from Kindle, Instapaper, and now tweets... one of the best long-term personal learning tools I’ve come across.” — Caleb Hicks “Besides my Kindle, Readwise has been the most influential tech for improving my reading process.” — Blake Reichmann “If you use Kindle or Instapaper or just enjoy keeping and reading highlights, please sign up to Readwise. It will become one of your cherished services.” — Christopher Galtenberg --- ACTUALLY USE YOUR HIGHLIGHTS Highlighting is great, but why bother if you're never going to see any of your highlights again? Readwise makes it easy to quickly liberate all your highlights into one place, ensuring that you'll actually see and use them, including highlights from: • Amazon Kindle • Apple iBooks • Instapaper • Pocket • Medium • Goodreads • Twitter • Physical Books (using OCR) • Manual Input • CSV Upload STOP FORGETTING WHAT YOU READ How often do you finish a book, only to forget the key ideas two weeks later? We don't remember things by just reading them once. Readwise solves this problem using scientifically proven learning techniques called Spaced Repetition and Active Recall. Readwise resurfaces the right highlights at the right times using a daily email and an app. Readwise even makes it possible to convert your best highlights into flashcards for added retention. TAG, NOTE, SEARCH, AND ORGANIZE With your highlights all in one place, Readwise enables you to organize and connect these ideas in new ways. Use search to find a highlight instantly; use tag to organize highlights within your library; use notes to add your own annotations. HIGHLIGHT PAPER BOOKS Readwise also makes it possible to take highlights from your physical books and papers using your phone’s camera. Just snap a pic, highlight with your finger, and have your favorite highlights saved forever. --- If you are not already a Readwise subscriber, you can get started immediately with a 30-day free trial with no credit card upfront. At the end of the trial, you will not be charged unless you choose to subscribe to Readwise Full or Readwise Lite. Price may vary by location. Manage your subscription from your dashboard. --- Support: Check out readwise.io/faq or email us at [email protected] Privacy Policy: https://readwise.io/tos Terms of Service: https://readwise.io/privacy