If you read scientific papers, you know how hard it is to keep up with the hundreds of new ones published every day on arXiv and other preprint servers. So Aftergleam is a private app that learns your interests locally on your phone. Your data never leaves your device, and the app shows you the relevant new papers in your field: computer science, engineering, biology, medicine, chemistry, law and more. You can read offline papers in PDF or Reader mode.

Here’s the website and the code. Feedback is welcome, and I hope you enjoy the app as much as I do!

https://aftergleam.app/

https://github.com/jakobkreft/Aftergleam

  • noodles@slrpnk.net
    5·
    2 days ago

    Interesting idea but I’m confused as to why it’s a phone app? Of the many ways I have read papers my phone is by far the worst choice.

    • jak0b@lemmy.mlOP
      3·
      2 days ago

      Thanks! I agree, it’s not optimal for reading papers, but its great for keeping up in a specific field and finding new papers, which takes a few minutes a day, on the toilet. You can then, save it, share it, read it properly somewhere else. And for reading on the phone, there’s a reader mode for arxiv papers, so the text fits the screen and you’re not pinching around a PDF. Also, native android development is what I know best. I’ve made several smaller apps, and this idea had been brewing for a while.

      • rescue_toaster@lemmy.zip
        2·
        1 day ago

        I installed it yesterday and am enjoying it more than I thought I would!

        Instead of doom scrolling Lemmy, I’m doom scrolling physics papers relevant to me. I can save any individual paper to my phone and transfer to my pc to read it in more depth on a bigger screen. Likely doing direct searching on arxiv might be more efficient, but making somewhat more productive use of wasting time on my phone when in bed or on the toilet is a good thing.

        I would like an option for a slightly larger font. And the app going back to the top of search results after viewing an individual paper from search results is annoying.

        • jak0b@lemmy.mlOP
          2·
          1 day ago

          Thank you so much for taking the time to give me your feedback! I have already made the it remember your scroll distance, but only on the For you page:) . I forgot to do the same for search results, so that will be an easy fix. Thanks for letting me know. As for the font size, it differs quite a lot between devices, so I think an option to adjust it in the settings will work.