Alternatives
Products that do what TooLong does
Too much to read or watch?
- 1
- 2TY
Hi HN! Being locked down with plenty of time in my hands, I clearly noticed a problem that I faced and also felt passionate about tackling. - Excessive screen time in our day-to-day - Diminishing attention spans It was consistently tough to properly read quality longform content online. From screen related tiredness to having ads and notifications pop up and demand a share of my attention, my focus was compromised. Long story short, I wanted to read longform content that lives online (and there is a ton of high quality out there), in an inherent offline medium, paper :p Fast forward 5…
2020
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10PT
2021 · papertime.app
- 11
- 12TH
Hi HN, Like many of you, I found myself discovering dozens of great posts on HN and never actually finding the time read them. I used to save every cool link to Pocket, but… well… same story — I rarely found the time to read them. So I thought it'd be great to listen to the top articles, the same way I listen to podcasts. Initially, I tried out narrating articles with latest text-to-speech synthesis from Amazon and Google, but it was still pretty bad. Especially with long form content. So I thought I'll do this with real humans, real voice actors. So I made ReadByHumans. [1] We are starting…
2017
- 13AB
Hey HN, maker here. It was a serious 4-6 months of effort to build this. I have never poured as much love, attention and detail into a project before. So I really appreciate you having a looksie! The homepage has a fresh list of articles every hour and is open to all. Still, I recommend signing up so you can add stuff to your reading list and follow blogs. My initial plan was to monetize this with subtle ads, but that didn't work out as the traffic to the site isn't nearly enough for that. That said, I have a fair bit invested in this and I need your help figuring out a way to make this…
2023 · boredreading.com
- 14
- 15
- 16LT
I struggle with wanting to read heaps of stuff I come across on the internet daily, as well as being subscribed to a bunch of tech-related newsletters that I never get around to reading. I made this to get through that content much faster while working or otherwise multitasking. Check it out and please lmk your thoughts! Also, curious if others also feel this pain of too much interesting content to get through daily. FWIW I probably listen to this for >1 hour daily atm.
2024 · lavalamp.ai
- 17TL
I was tired of having to constantly scramble to find a podcast I want to listen to when going for a walk or just running on the treadmill. I, however, usually have an abundance of blog posts or articles around the web that I'd like to read. The problem is walking is not very conducive to reading. So I made this quick and dirty site that pretty much works anywhere, no app install, no copy paste, no nothing. Just add the domain playthis.link before any URL in your browser and hit enter. It will redirect to an audio file that automatically starts playing. You don't need to click a 2nd button to…
2020
- 18
- 19LO
Hi HN, Over past few months, some of us had been collecting links to learning resources (courses, interactive explorables, books, podcasts, apps, forums, livestreams etc) in a GitHub repository of markdown files. Since we also wanted to have features like advanced search ("Show me podcasts on machine learning which are entertaining and less than 40 minutes long"), we felt the need for an app. Give it a try: https://learnawesome.org You can think of LearnAwesome.org as a GoodReads-equivalent tool generalized to links to ALL media (not just books). Some features you might like: -…
2019
- 20BA
Hey guys, I drive to work a lot, spending on average of 2 hours each day. So I have plenty of time to listen to Podcast and audiobook on my ride. And I think it would be nice to be able to do the same with my reading list, but I couldn't find any decent app on the market that doing this. So I set out to do it myself. Sooo this is the product: http://sendtopod.com/ You may ask why? The reasons are simple: - It's more convenient to listen to articles while you driving, running, or even before going to bed. - Listen take less effort than reading. - Your eyes need to rest after…
2022 · sendtopod.com
- 21IM
Hey HN, the full story is on the page, but here's the TL;DR: I'm 35 and somewhere along the way I lost the ability to finish reading articles. I'd open them, read 2-3 paragraphs, get distracted, and close the tab feeling like a failure. My "Read Later" list became a graveyard of 2,000+ unread articles. I tried everything – focus apps, reader modes, blocking extensions. Nothing worked. Then I realized. 'maybe the problem isn't me'. Modern web articles are designed for engagement metrics, not comprehension. Sidebars, popups, related articles, comment sections – everything is optimized to pull…
Jan 2026 · parsely.obasic.app
- 22IB
I built Read Fast after realising I was saving hundreds of things to read and reading almost none of them. It automatically turns saved content into a scheduled briefing and sends it to my inbox at whatever time I choose. New version since last post actually allows you to bulk upload URLs. So you can just dump links here and Read Fast will scrape and brief for you. Great for actually reading the things I want to. Curious if that resonates with people?
Dec 2025 · read-fast.replit.app
- 23IB
I built Watchlist to solve a problem that's been nagging at me (and I suspect many others): YouTube's addictive nature and its impact on productivity. The Problem: YouTube is an incredible source of knowledge, but its homepage is an unending scroll of rabbit holes. The algorithm is designed to maximize watch time, often at the expense of our intentions and productivity. I found myself wasting hours, jumping from video to video, and then blaming myself for the lack of self-control. The Solution: Watchlist! Watchlist is essentially YouTube playlists on steroids. Here's how it works: 1. Create…
2024 · watchlist.so
- 24
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Refine with a description →