How to Save Reading on Chrome

What is Reading List on Chrome?

It’s a similar concept to bookmarking we’ve covered in prior posts but with some advantages.

Instead of saving an article or story to a folder in your bookmarks, if you put it in the Reading List and you’re logged into Chrome browser, it will sync to your Google account, so it’s available on your desktop and phone. This makes it more convenient to access than bookmarking.

The other benefit over bookmarks is the offline feature. While you do still need an internet connection to add to your reading list, once pages are saved there, they can be read when offline ie without an internet connection.

Currently Reading List is available on Chrome on the desktop, iPad and iPhone but not yet Android.

How to Save a Page to Read Later

You will need to be online to save a page.

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. Go to a page that you want to save.
3. At the top right on the elipsis (3 vertical dots), click More Tools > Save page as (see image below).
4. Choose where you want to save the page. The default will normally be “Downloads”, but you can choose to save in Documents or a specific folder for example.
5. Click Save.

Find an Existing Reading List

To access the Reading List, you’ll need to have the Bookmarks Bar visible. You can do that by typing Ctrl+Shift+B or from the ellipsis, go to Settings > Appearance > Show Bookmarks Bar.

Once visible, at the top right of your browser, click Side panel . 

Click Reading list.

From here you can either select something you want to read or delete (“x”). By hovering over it, you can change it between Read and Unread. Unread items will appear at the top of the list.

Using Reading List on iPad or iPhone

1. Open Chrome on your iPhone or iPad and find a page to save for later.

2.Next tap the share icon in the address bar.

3.Then, select “Read Later” from the menu. And the page will now be in your Reading List. See images below:

Now to access the reading list on your iPhone or iPad, open Chrome and tap the ellipsis (three-dot menu) icon at the bottom.

Select “Reading List” from the menu. Just as when using Reading List on your computer, the unread items will be listed first on iPad or iPhone. The figure to the right of the title of the item shows the number of unread pages.

So now all that remains is to find the time to actually read all the items you’ll be saving to your Reading List. I find being stuck waiting in a queue or on a long ride on public transport (especially when there’s no internet connectivity) is a good time to catch up on reading via my smartphone.

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