MargenGet MargenGuide · written by the Margen team
If you open TikTok “for a minute” and lose half an hour, some apps keep the swipe but swap the video for something you read in one to five minutes. We, the Margen team, wrote this guide: here is what each app does, so you can pick the one that suits you.
If you want what TikTok gives you —swipe, and every screen is something new— but with short texts, for free, try Margen. If you want summaries of non-fiction books, look at Blinkist or Headway; if you want long user-written novels published chapter by chapter, Wattpad.
A vertical feed, like TikTok, where every screen is a reading: short stories, fun facts, poems, ideas and serialized books that take one to five minutes. A new edition comes out every day. In English, Spanish, Catalan and French. Free to read, on iPhone, iPad and Android.
Who it suits: People who want to swap video scrolling on the train, the metro or in a queue for something short and worth reading.
Cards with short ideas taken from books, articles and talks, mostly about productivity, psychology and philosophy.
Who it suits: People looking for ideas to think about or habits to improve.
Summaries of non-fiction books to read or listen to in about fifteen minutes.
Who it suits: People who want the key ideas of non-fiction books and do not mind a paid subscription.
Self-improvement book summaries with daily challenges and streaks.
Who it suits: People who want to learn something about personal growth every day.
A huge platform of user-written stories, mostly long novels published chapter by chapter.
Who it suits: People who want to get hooked on a long romance, fantasy or mystery novel.
Yes. Margen works like a video feed —you swipe up and something new appears— but every screen is a short reading: a story, a fun fact, a poem or a book chapter, one to five minutes long.
It depends on what you want to read. For short, varied texts, free, Margen. For non-fiction book summaries, Blinkist or Headway. For long novels by other users, Wattpad.
English, Spanish, Catalan and French: the app and its whole catalogue.
Reading on Margen is free. Margen Plus is an optional subscription that removes ads and adds offline reading.
Margen does not lock your phone or lecture you: it swaps ten minutes of videos for ten minutes of reading, which you remember better and which tires your eyes and head less.
Free for iPhone, iPad and Android. Reading is free.