Dang, Instapaper has gone Android

In what seems to be the norm lately, another popular iPhone app has expanded to Android, Marco Arment’s Instapaper. This awesome and elegant tool to save web pages for reading later can now be used on Android devices natively.

While it lacks the polish and elegance of the iOS version, Instapaper for Android comes with one major advantage…

Arment commissioned Tumblr app developer Mobelux to work on the Android version. Overall, Instapaper for Android isn’t as pretty as its iOS counterpart.

That being said, the program does have a major advantage, one stemming from the architecture of Google’s operating system: it installs a system-wide option in the Android sharing menu for easy saving of articles and other content to Instapaper, directly from within any third-party app.

iOS users, on the other hand, have to create a Safari bookmarklet and invoke it to get the job done. If Apple only allowed third-party apps to register their sharing capabilities via the Share button, it would make our lives a lot easier.

In related news, Instapaper for iOS was recently updated with Background Update Locations, a new feature which automatically downloads new articles whenever you enter or leave locations such as your home or workplace.

If you own an Android device, you can get Instapaper for three bucks over at Google Play Store.

I also own a Samsung Galaxy Nexus in addition to my iPhone 4S so I’m obviously pleased that Instapaper experience is now available on both platforms.

Do you mind that Instapaper is now available on Android, the rival platform?