Unread: An RSS Reader5.1.1 - App Store

Rediscover the joy of reading your favorite writers and publications with Unread. Unread is an RSS reader with beautiful typography, comfortable gesture-based navigation, and a variety of color themes. Unread is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Unread won the MacStories Selects 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Capabilities include:

SYNCING: Our free Unread Cloud service keeps your devices in sync. Unread also syncs with Birchfeed, Feedbin, Feedly, Fever, FreshRSS, Gobbler, Inkwell, Inoreader, Miniflux, and NewsBlur.

AUTOMATIC WEBPAGE TEXT: For feeds that contain only article summaries, Unread will display the full article text from the webpage. Easily switch between feed text and webpage text for any article, and change the default for individual feeds.

WEBSITE ACCOUNTS: For news websites that require an account, sign in and get full webpage text.

SUBSCRIBE IN UNREAD: This share sheet extension lets you subscribe to a website’s feeds while visiting that website from Safari or any other web browser.

SAVE TO UNREAD: This share sheet extension creates an article in Unread with the contents of the webpage you are visiting from Safari or any other web browser. (Subscription required.)

COLOR THEMES: Unread provides a variety of color themes. Choose one theme for light mode and another for dark mode.

CACHING: Unread caches webpage text and images for instant loading and offline access. (Subscription required.)

READ-LATER SERVICES: Unread can save articles to Anybox, Flyleaf, GoodLinks, Instapaper, Matter, Pinboard, Plinky, Quick Reads, Raindrop.io, Readwise, Safari Reading List, and wallabag. On a device with a hardware keyboard, assign a custom keyboard shortcut to each. (Subscription required.)

SHORTCUTS: Perform shortcuts on articles and links inside articles. On a device with a hardware keyboard, assign a custom keyboard shortcut to each. (Subscription required.)

---

“Just a gorgeous app.”
- John Gruber, Daring Fireball

“Most importantly, I should stress again how refreshing it feels to have such a great native experience with Unread. The app is really fast, even when it’s loaded up with hundreds of feeds.”
- Niléane Dorffer, MacStories

“It’s an RSS reader made with taste. It has great typography, themes, search, and compatibility with the usual suspects. I love having this app on my Mac.”
- David Sparks, MacSparky

---

Unread has full VoiceOver coverage. Every screen and every feature is available to users with vision impairments:

. From any screen you can perform a magic tap, a two-finger double tap, to open a menu of options available for that screen.
. When on an article list, there are actions available for each article in the list. After selecting an article, invoke the accessibility rotor and then select “Actions”. There is an action to mark the article read or unread, an action to share the article, and many others.
. Use the VoiceOver escape gesture, a two-finger “Z”, to back out of the current screen.

---

UNREAD SUBSCRIPTION

Unread is a free app. Additional functionality is available with a $29.99 (USD)/year auto-renewing subscription:

. Article actions for sending articles directly to supported bookmarking and read later services, and for sharing via email or iMessage.
. Ability to execute shortcuts on articles and links.
. Caching of webpage text and images.
. Widget customization options.
. Save to Unread share sheet extension.
. Custom app icons.
. Premium support.

A subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your account settings on the App Store after purchase.

Unread’s Terms of Use are available at:
https://www.goldenhillsoftware.com/unread/terms-of-use/

Version History This update adds support for iPhone Duo.
Other recent additions include:

• Syncing with Birchfeed, FreshRSS, and Miniflux

• Improvements around hero images, article list thumbnails, and widget thumbnails

• The ability to quickly mark old articles read

• A Quick Reads article action 5.1.1 1d ago Unread 5.1 adds these improvements and more:

• Syncing with Birchfeed, a new web-based RSS reader and syncing service.
• A Quick Reads article Action
SYNCING WITH BIRCHFEED

This update adds the ability to sync with Birchfeed accounts. Birchfeed is a great new web-based RSS reader and syncing service by Matt Birchler.

Unread syncs with Birchfeed using its implementation of the Google Reader API. It was already possible to sync with Birchfeed using its implementation of the Fever API, but using a Birchfeed account adds these capabilities:

• The ability to subscribe to feeds, organize feed subscriptions, and unsubscribe from feeds from within Unread.
• The ability to subscribe to feeds using the Subscribe in Unread share sheet extension.
• The ability to mark read on scroll.
• The ability to mark all articles above or below a specific article in an article list as read.
QUICK READS ARTICLE ACTION

This update adds an article action for Quick Reads. Quick Reads is a read later service, also by Matt Birchler, with great capabilities such as text to speech and highlighting. Unread’s article action makes it easy to save an article or a link inside an article to Quick Reads.

Like Unread’s other premium article actions, the Quick Reads article action requires a subscription to Unread Premium.
ADDITIONAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Unread’s Instapaper article action now uses version 2 of the Instapaper API.
• This update fixes a bug that prevented article list images from loading for some articles in FreshRSS accounts and Inoreader accounts.
• This update removes the “us.inoreader.com” and “jp.inoreader.com” options for the Inoreader Host (under Advanced Settings). Inoreader deprecated those hosts, and is going to redirect them to “www.inoreader.com”.
• Unread’s privacy policy has been updated with a link to the privacy policies of Birchfeed and Quick Reads. 5.1 5d ago Unread recently added:

• Huge improvements around hero images, article list thumbnails, and widget thumbnails
• Syncing with FreshRSS and Miniflux
• The ability to quickly mark old articles read
This update adds these improvements:

• This update fixes a layout bug that would occur on some newer devices.
• This update adds modest improvements to article list thumbnails. Specifically, with this update Unread will avoid zooming in on a face or another subject so far that the resulting thumbnail ends up being grainy. When zooming in on a face or another subject, Unread will include a little more of the area around that subject in the thumbnail.
• When Unread is unable to import feeds from an OPML file because of a problem with that file, Unread now shows a more descriptive error message.
• This update fixes a bug that prevented images from appearing properly in widgets on macOS when the “Dim widgets on desktop” setting was enabled.
• This update prevents Unread from offering to add a FreshRSS account from a Fever account under some specific circumstances where Unread can detect that the Fever account is not syncing with a FreshRSS server.

If you enjoy using Unread, please consider subscribing to Unread Premium. 5.0.1 Sep 20 Unread 5.0 adds the following and more:

• Improvements around hero images, article list thumbnails, and thumbnails in widgets
• Syncing with FreshRSS and Miniflux
• The ability to quickly mark old articles read
Image Improvements:

• In prior versions, when Unread needed to resize an image to generate an article list thumbnail, it would focus on the center and crop as little as possible. Unread now looks for faces, animals, text, and other salient portions of the image. Unread then crops the image in a way that preserves them. For example, when Unread needs to generate a thumbnail of a tall and narrow image where a person’s face is near the top, Unread will generate a thumbnail with only the top of the image instead of the vertical center.
• Sometimes there is no way to crop an image to the desired aspect ratio without losing very significant parts of that image. When this is the case, Unread detects that and instead embeds it into the center of a larger image with the correct aspect ratio.
• When showing an article list thumbnail in a small amount of space and when there appears to be a small area of focus inside that image, the article list thumbnail will zoom in on that area of focus. This applies in compact article lists on iPhone, and in widgets.
• In Feedbin accounts, when Feedbin recommends an article list thumbnail for an article and Unread accepts that recommendation, Unread will now also prepend that image to the article content.
• Some feed syncing systems indicate when there are images associated with articles beyond those embedded in article content. The image URLs can come from the feed or from the underlying webpage. Under some circumstances, Unread prepends those images to the article content. With this update, Unread now ignores such an image when it appears to apply to the entire website.
Syncing With FreshRSS and Miniflux:

This update adds the ability to sync with FreshRSS accounts and with Miniflux accounts. Both FreshRSS and Miniflux are open source self-hosted web-based RSS readers.

Unread syncs with FreshRSS using its implementation of the Google Reader API, and with Miniflux using its REST API. It was already possible to sync with both FreshRSS and Miniflux using their implementations of the Fever API, but using a FreshRSS account or a Miniflux account adds:

• The ability to subscribe to feeds from within Unread and from the Subscribe in Unread share sheet extension.
• The ability to mark read on scroll.

Unread requires version 2.3.2 or later of Miniflux.
Migration From a Fever Account:

For customers who had been syncing with FreshRSS or Miniflux via their Fever API implementations, Unread makes it easy to add a FreshRSS or Miniflux account to Unread based on the existing Fever account. For FreshRSS this just requires one tap. For Miniflux you will need to enter an API key, but that is all.

You can add a FreshRSS account or Miniflux account from an applicable Fever account by long pressing it on Unread’s home screen, and choosing Add as FreshRSS/Miniflux Account from the resulting menu.
Mark Old Articles Read:

This update adds the ability to mark old articles read. Choose a threshold of 24 hours, 3 days, 7 days, 14 days, or 30 days. When invoked, all articles within the appropriate context that are older than that amount of time will be immediately marked read so that you can focus on newer articles.

You can invoke this from the swipe left menu of any article list or from the top level subscription list of an account.

This capability is not available for Fever accounts.
Additional Improvements:

• On iOS/iPadOS 27, this update adds extra large portrait Recent Articles widgets.
• When an iPhone is in landscape mode, the article list will now show a large image thumbnail on the right (like it does on the iPad), regardless of whether the Article List Format setting is set to Compact or Expansive.

Unread 5.0 requires iOS/iPadOS 18 or later. 5.0 Sep 12 We recently added:

• Syncing with Gobbler
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained controls for caching of webpage text and images

This update incorporates these improvements:

• This bug addresses a rare crash.
• This update incorporates modest improvements to the in-app webpage text generator. 4.9.11 Aug 29 We recently added:

• Syncing with Gobbler
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained controls for caching of webpage text and images

This update incorporates these improvements:

• This update fixes a bug that prevented image attachments from being included in Inoreader articles under some circumstances.
• This update also adds improvements to the on-device webpage text generator. 4.9.10 Aug 19 We recently added:

• Syncing with Gobbler
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained controls for caching of webpage text and images

This update adds modest improvements to the in-app webpage text generator. 4.9.9 Aug 11 We recently added:

• Syncing with Gobbler
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained controls for caching of webpage text and images

This update adds improvements to the display of feed text for Metafilter articles. Unread also now treats most Metafilter articles as link articles. This lets you show Feed & Webpage Text to see both the Metafilter article and the article to which it links. These improvements apply to new Metafilter articles downloaded after installing this update. 4.9.8 Aug 8 We recently added:

• Syncing with Gobbler
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained controls for caching of webpage text and images

This update adds improvements to the on-device webpage text generator. 4.9.7 Aug 1 We recently added:

• Syncing with Gobbler
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained controls for caching of webpage text and images

This update addresses a bug that prevented YouTube videos from loading under some circumstances. 4.9.6 Jul 22 We recently added:

• Syncing with Gobbler
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained controls for caching of webpage text and images

This update adds forward-looking compatibility improvements. 4.9.5 Jul 18 We recently added:

• Syncing with Gobbler
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained controls for caching of webpage text and images

This update adds improvements to the in-app webpage text generator. 4.9.4 Jul 14 We recently added:

• Syncing with Gobbler
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained controls for caching of webpage text and images

This update adds improvements to the in-app webpage text generator. 4.9.3 Jun 15 We recently added:

• Syncing with Gobbler
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained controls for caching of webpage text and images

This update incorporates these improvements:

• This update adds improvements to the in-app webpage text generator.
• This update fixes a bug that would prevent articles from being deleted after unsubscribing from the associated feed under some circumstances.
• This update fixes a bug that would cause confusing text in the alert offering to change the display mode for feeds after adding a website account.
• This update fixes a bug around connecting a Feedly account to Reddit. 4.9.2 Jun 12 We recently added:

• Syncing with Gobbler
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained controls for caching of webpage text and images

This update fixes a bug that caused formatting issues in code snippets in some articles. This fix will apply to new articles downloaded after installing this update. 4.9.1 Jun 2 Unread 4.9 adds these improvements:

• Syncing with Gobbler, a new RSS syncing service
• Improvements to the Matter article action
• Improved display of Reddit posts
• More fine-grained control over caching
Syncing With Gobbler:

Gobbler is a new web-based RSS reader and syncing service. This update adds the ability to sync with Gobbler. Add a Gobbler account to Unread just like you would any other feed service account.

Particularly nice attributes of Gobbler and Unread’s integration include:

• Gobbler can receive email newsletters. These newsletters are available in Unread.
• The Gobbler API reports which feeds it is unable to access. Unread makes the list of feed errors available for Gobbler accounts, just as it does for Unread Cloud and Local accounts.
• The Subscribe in Unread share sheet extension supports Gobbler accounts.
Matter Article Action:

Matter recently released the Matter API. With this update, the Matter article action can use the Matter API. Using the Matter API avoids the need to briefly bring Shortcuts to the foreground when invoked.

Matter makes the Matter API available to Matter Pro subscribers. For the benefit of customers who do not subscribe to Matter Pro, Unread’s Matter article action can also operate as it did before: by invoking a shortcut that works with the Matter app.

If you subscribe to Matter Pro and use the Matter article action, you can configure the Matter article action to use the Matter API as follows:

1. Open Unread’s Settings screen.
2. Tap Article Actions under the Premium Options section.
3. Tap the Matter row. Or if keyboard shortcuts are shown on that screen, tap the Status row below the Matter header.
4. Choose Use Matter API from the resulting menu.
5. You will be prompted to enter an API token. You can generate an API token from the Matter settings webpage.
Reddit Posts:

This update improves the layout of Reddit posts that contain images. Under some circumstances Unread will display images in Reddit posts that previous versions of Unread could not display.

Reddit posts that are links to articles are now treated as link articles in Unread. You can determine whether Unread views an article as a link article based on whether it has another website domain at the bottom of its entry in the article list.

As with link articles from other feeds, you can show the article to which a Reddit article links by setting the display mode to Feed & Webpage Text. The linked article will appear underneath the article from the feed to which you are subscribed. You can do this by opening the article, swiping the screen to the left, choosing Display from the resulting menu, and then choosing Feed & Webpage Text from the resulting submenu. At the prompt, choose All Link Articles from that feed to apply that change to all link articles from that subreddit.

For all new subscriptions to subreddit feeds, Feed & Webpage Text will be the default display mode for link articles. This update does not change your existing feed subscription settings.

The improvements around Reddit posts will apply to new articles downloaded after installing this update.
Caching:

For Unread Premium subscribers, the webpage text caching setting can now be set to one of the following:

• Never
• Wi-Fi or better
• Cellular or better
• Even in low data mode

The image caching setting can be set to one of the following:

• Never
• Wi-Fi or better
• Cellular or better

Unread never caches images when in low data mode.

The caching setting value for webpage text must be at least as broad as that for images, because Unread needs webpage text for an article in order to determine the set of images to cache for that article.

A separate setting allows you to determine whether caching should happen when the device is in low power mode.

The Caching settings screen now displays the current network connection type and whether low power mode is enabled.
If you enjoy using Unread, please consider subscribing to Unread Premium. 4.9 May 28 Unread recently added:

• The ability to sync with an Inkwell account
• Significant webpage text reliability improvements
• Faster loading of link articles

This update adds these improvements:

• Documentation around shortcuts has been updated to reflect changes in the operating systems.
• This update adds bug fixes to the Save to Matter shortcut that the Matter article action uses. To get these fixes, remove and reinstall that shortcut.
• When invoking a shortcut on an article, Unread now includes a “tags” element in the dictionary. This is an array with the names of all tags, folders, categories, or groups associated with the relevant feed subscription. If there is no relevant feed subscription or if you are no longer subscribed, this will be an empty array.
• This update adds improvements to the on-device webpage text generator. 4.8.5 May 14 Unread recently added:

• The ability to sync with an Inkwell account
• Significant webpage text reliability improvements
• Faster loading of link articles

This update adds improvements to the on-device webpage text generator. 4.8.4 May 4 Unread recently added:

• The ability to sync with an Inkwell account
• Significant webpage text reliability improvements
• Faster loading of link articles

This update adds improvements to the on-device webpage text generator. 4.8.3 Apr 26 Recent updates to Unread added:

• Syncing with Inkwell
• Reliability improvements around webpage text
• Faster opening of link articles

This update incorporates these improvements:

• This update adds improvements to the on-device webpage text generator.
• This update fixes a bug that prevented article list thumbnails from appearing for YouTube videos under some circumstances. 4.8.2 Apr 5 Unread recently added:

• Syncing with Inkwell
• Reliability improvements around webpage text
• Faster opening of link articles

This update incorporates these improvements:

• This update fixes a bug that prevented Mark Below Read from working under some circumstances.
• This update adds improvements to the on-device webpage text generator. 4.8.1 Mar 13 Unread 4.8 adds these improvements and more:

• Syncing with Inkwell, a new feed service
• Reliability improvements around webpage text
• Faster opening of link articles
Syncing With Inkwell:

Inkwell is a new web-based RSS reader and syncing service. This update adds the ability to sync with Inkwell. Add an Inkwell account just like you would any other feed service account.

I updated the privacy policy, adding a link to the Inkwell privacy policy.
Reliability Improvements Around Webpage Text:

Webpage text for an article can either be generated via Unread’s webpage text cloud service or on device. The webpage text cloud service is faster, requires less battery power, and uses less data. The cloud service also makes it possible for me to deploy an update to the webpage parsing logic without releasing an update to the app through the App Store.

I added an on-device webpage text generator to Unread when I added the website accounts feature for paywalled articles. When retrieving webpage text via a website account, Unread does not use the cloud service. This ensures that Unread’s servers never see credentials or authorization tokens pertaining to a website account.

When the webpage text cloud service is unable to generate webpage text for an article, Unread now falls back to using its on-device webpage text generator.

One trend I have seen is an increasing number of websites refusing requests from clients in data centers and cloud platforms. I believe the rise of artificial intelligence has motivated websites to block anything that looks like an automated agent from retrieving webpages. A request coming from a data center or from a cloud platform looks like such a request, but a request coming from your device does not. This change makes webpage text much more reliable.

The webpage text cloud service keeps track of websites for which it is unable to generate webpage text. Unread keeps a synced copy of that list of websites. When Unread needs webpage text for an article from such a website, it does not ask the webpage text cloud service. Instead it goes straight to the on-device webpage text generator. This ensures that loading webpage text is not slowed down by a request to the webpage text cloud service when that will likely fail.
Faster Opening of Link Articles:

When showing both feed and webpage text for an article and that article’s webpage text has not yet been retrieved, Unread now shows the feed text immediately when it is opened. It then retrieves the webpage text and appends it to the article. This makes it possible to start reading the feed text immediately. It makes the app feel much faster.
Additional Improvements:

• Menu items for renaming folders and tags are now consistently called “Rename Folder” and “Rename Tag” respectively, except when working in a NewsBlur account. In a NewsBlur account, the menu item is still called “Edit Folder” because the resulting screen also allows you to set the parent folder of the NewsBlur folder.
• Unread now treats most kottke.org articles as link articles. If you set the link article display mode to Feed & Webpage Text for the kottke.org feed, you will see both the kottke.org article and the article to which it links. This change will apply to new articles downloaded after installing this update.
• This update adds minor improvements around sharing articles to other apps via the share sheet.
• This update adds a variety of improvements to the in-app webpage text generator. 4.8 Mar 9 This update adds webpage text improvements for some websites when using website accounts. 4.7.2 Feb 24 This update incorporates these improvements:

• This update adds webpage text improvements for some websites when using website accounts.
• This update addresses a bug that could cause the app to crash. 4.7.1 Feb 11 This modest update adds liquid glass support on iPhone and iPad when running iOS 26 or iPadOS 26. Alerts, software keyboards, and context menus for selected text in articles now look more modern. There is still very little liquid glass in the core user interface.

This update also incorporates these improvements:

• Unread’s premium feature offering is now called Unread Premium.
• This update adds minor improvements around sharing articles to other apps via the share sheet.
• This update fixes a bug that prevented a progress spinner from disappearing after reloading webpage text failed.
• This update fixes a rare crash. 4.7 Jan 19