I am sure this wasn’t the intended use - but I discovered a useful trick on Android.

Just recently, Google released a Reading Mode app that takes text and removes the clutter, images, etc - and allows you to read in a high contrast easy to view format. There are options on how to toggle it on, but I chose to use the hold volume up/down at the same time.

I was viewing a local paywalled newspaper, and had surpassed my 3 free articles/month. For the heck of it, while the popup blocked me from reading it, I tried the reading mode shortcut. It pulled in all the text and I was able to read the entire story. I then tried another news site and it worked the same way. I even tried some of the big new sites like the Washington Post - and it worked.

I am sure its a bit dependent on how the website is built, but its worth a try if you find yourself running into those paywalls. You lose the photos, but its worth it.

  • Unforeseen
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    111 year ago

    I have yet to find a paywall I couldn’t bypass. They all work the same way because they need the content to be exposed to be found by crawlers

    • @[email protected]
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      21 year ago

      There are some sites that I can’t figure out how to bypass, for example thelogic.co. The full article doesn’t seem to load unless you pay/log in and no matter what I’ve tried it doesn’t work.