The default content for the empty reading list has a graphic to add an item to the reading list, but we don't explain why you would want to use reading list. 1) Reader mode (this is really non-obvious) 2) Offline reading 3) Read/unread state Here (and elsewhere) the value of a feature should be easy to understand from the default or empty state.

I don't think we should jump to "add a default reading list item", which would remove the empty state and put a title in the list. The title alone isn't that helpful and may not be interesting enough to get people to click on it to open it up and read it. Why not add a "Learn more" link in the empty state that opens a SUMO page about Reading List?

Perhaps this would be something we can A/B test? There are likely "cons" that I'm unaware of too. But I can see how this might be valuable. A link that needs to open in a new tab and then load is probably less appealing/engaging than a beautifully "reader-viewed" article. Given that we've spent some time on our UX there, it'd be a nice thing to show off to our users. Compared to simply having something to read, I think having something to do might be more valuable. Maybe there's something to be said about this "engagement". I've also seen this done in other apps before, and we essentially do it ourselves with preset Top sites tiles too. IIRC, users have a tendency to long-press and "remove" these items? In terms of telemetry, this "action/event" is also something that we can measure. Compared to estimating whether or not our users read the "empty states", there might be potential for some helpful data here.

Since we're removing reading list, this bug is no longer relevant. We should focus on the contextual hint in bug 1011712 or an onboarding slide in bug 1259835.