I absolutely love bear, the nested tags, the simplicity yet the vast amount you can do, the markdown, the pricing, the ui and ux. Absolutely everything, yet the one feature that makes me so annoyed is the lack of readwise intergration. The workaround is to send it to obsidian, copy it and paste it into bear. And doing this often is a waste of time where it makes me reconsider options. I really really hope bear decides to go with something like this in the future.
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would also like to see a native integration but i 1 way sync can be done with shortcuts
sadly every shortcut i find has issues, either just overall doesnt work or formatting is messed up etc
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Really like Bear, but not being able to import from Readwise might end up being a deal breaker for me. I’m surprised to see this is the only thread here asking for this feature request as a quick Google search seems to show that a lot of people would like it. There are a few workarounds out there, but none of them are very elegant unfortunately.
In my experience, the Readwise team has been really responsive and easy to work with. Is there any possibility of partnering with them to get a better solution in place? They seem to be willing!
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I’m joining those who would like to see a sync with Readwise, that would be really great.
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would also like to see a native integration, yes there’s shortcut workarounds but i swear shortcuts break every update or just straight up do not work consistently sometimes.
I don’t use Readwise and I have to say, because of our and friends’ past experiences (R.I.P. Apollo), we are very not inclined to adopt a third-party API we don’t have full control of or we are sure will be supported for a long time without changing business model.
However, I can see that Readwise has integration with Evernote, Notion, and Roam. Is this happening on the Readwise side, meaning you have to insert your Notion account into Readwise to have it sync? In other words, can you please tell me how the integration works with other note-taking apps?
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I would maybe talk to the team over at Craft. I use it for project managing and documents and they have just recently adopted readwise integration.
You put in your readwise key into crafts site and it automatically imports it into craft. Im not 100% sure on the information behind it and I do fully support bear staying simple and private so I understand the worries
I don’t use any of the other services, but I do still have an Evernote account. It does appear that when you set up the Evernote integration, it asks you to log in and authorize Readwise to have access.
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@trix180 Let me find out. I’m on the Readwise Discord with the product team and can find out how they handle integrations. They sometimes make an official plugin on their end (like Obsidian). Curious how Craft did it, as I think they still don’t have a formal API.
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They’ve just enabled Readwise to sync with Apple Notes by installing a small app on a Mac. I assume the app will connect to our Readwise account and inject the content into the Notes app via an Apple API. Readwise to Apple Notes
However, I understand the idea of keeping it simple and not integrating too many functions that happen outside of Bear.
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Just curious why this is an ask for Bear? Bear already has APIs and it seems there is nothing stopping readwise from developing a small app to integrate like they do for apple notes or obsidian. Seems like Bear doing the integration work would be more for them to support rather than focusing on generally useful features of the core app.
I’m getting warmed up to this integration, and It seems to work pretty well. I’m just returning to Bear and looking at what the best approach is to handle Readwise. Here’s what I’m doing:
- I’m running the Readwise to Notes sync on my Mac mini, which is always connected to the internet. This brings Readwise content to Notes.
- In order to keep a more ‘clean’ Bear folder, I then summarize inputs from Notes into Bear. This creates a better, higher fidelity, note inside Bear
- Bear is where I will write my end note, or blog post
I used some of the shortcuts that people have built to bring Readwise into Bear, and my learning was that it cluttered bear unnecessarily.
Thank you for your reply and your tips for managing Readwise entries in Bear.
I have a lot of quotes from book passages, and after a while without syncing, you get a bit lost. But I also use sync with Apple Notes and copy and paste most of the time.
I agree. By doing this everyone is going to want their preferred app to be supported by the Bear team which, of course, is unsustainable.
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i disagree, readwise is by far one of the most popular tools in all types of workflows whether it’s research for a blog topic, or a student highlighting class books. I think that’s why notes apps large and small adopt a readwise integration, personally i have advocated for it so i hope it is explored by devs to enhance the bear experience overall.
Your objection noted, but I’m curious why this is an ask for the Bear team? Readwise built the Obsidian integration as well as the Apple Notes integration. Why shouldn’t Readwise build the bear integration? Bear has established APIs they could use.
Oh I don’t disagree with the idea of bear being the one to do all the work, I hope readwise is working on it from their end as well. Personally I have requested a bear integration both in their forums and via email, i just think requesting it on both ends brings more attention and more attention will hopefully lead to the integration.