Mozilla recently announced that it is shutting down Pocket, its popular read later service. Unread has a Pocket article action, and both are reading apps. So I wanted to describe options for Pocket users, specifically as they relate to Unread.

Unread as Your Read Later App

Unread has a Save to Unread extension that lets you save any article webpage to Unread when visiting that webpage with Safari, Chrome, or just about any other web browser. This works with Unread Cloud, Local, Feedbin, Feedly, and NewsBlur accounts. In an Unread Cloud, Local, or NewsBlur account, the article is saved to the set of Saved Articles. In a Feedly account, the article is saved to Read Later. In a Feedbin account, the article is saved to Pages.

Save to Unread requires a subscription to Unread’s premium features. I have a support page describing how to find and/or activate the extension.

Importing Articles From Pocket Into Unread Cloud

I just released Unread 4.4.4. This update adds the ability to import articles from a Pocket export file into an Unread Cloud account.

To get a Pocket export file, visit Pocket’s Export page and click or tap the Export CSV file link. Pocket will then email you a link to download the export file. Pocket states that the ability to export this data will be available until October 8, 2025.

To import the articles on iPhone or iPad, open the Settings screen, tap the Unread Cloud account under the Account Settings section, and then tap Import From Pocket.

To import the articles on Mac, choose Import Articles From Pocket… from the File menu. The Import Articles From Pocket… menu item will only be present if you have an Unread Cloud account.

Articles imported from Pocket will have a title, link, and date based on the Pocket export file. Article content will be generated using Unread’s webpage text engine. The imported articles will be marked saved and unread.

The process of uploading information from the Pocket export file to Unread Cloud should take well under a minute. It may take up to an hour for all of the articles to be added to your account. That work will take place on Unread Cloud servers. Unread will later download those articles when it refreshes your account.

Unread will ignore any article that duplicates another article imported from Pocket or created via Save to Unread.

Unread’s Other Article Actions

You may want your read later functionality in a different app, but also want an article action that lets you easily save articles from Unread to that different app.

Unread also has article actions for Anybox, Flyleaf, GoodLinks, Instapaper, Matter, Pinboard, Plinky, Raindrop.io, Readwise, Safari Reading List, and wallabag.

I would describe Pinboard and Plinky more as bookmarking apps than read later apps — in that they save links but do not have a reader view. They open links in a web browser view. Joe Fabisevich, the developer of Plinky, has publicly stated that a reader view is coming to Plinky soon.

With regard to Unread’s article actions themselves, the article actions for Instapaper, Pinboard, Plinky, Raindrop.io, and wallabag are particularly nice because they happen without requiring additional user interaction. Others need to bring another app to the foreground briefly on iPhone and iPad, or need to first present a confirmation alert.

Unread’s article actions are available with a subscription to Unread’s premium features.

Unread’s Pocket Article Action

Shortly after Pocket shuts down on July 8, I will release an update that removes Unread’s Pocket article action.

Unread 4.4.3 is available from the App Store. This update incorporates these improvements:

• Mark All Read is now faster under some circumstances.
• This update adds the ability to find the feed for an Etsy shop from Etsy webpages related to it.
• Invoking the swipe left menu from the article screen on iPhone and iPad is now smoother.
• On Mac when zooming in on an image and a larger version of that image is available, Unread will verify that the larger version of the image has the same aspect ratio as the original image before showing it in place of the smaller version.
• This update fixes a bug that prevented showing the context menu via control-click on Mac from working under some circumstances.
• This update fixes a bug that prevented images from sspai.com from loading.
• Inoreader does not support marking an article unread if it is more than 30 days old. This update fixes a bug that allowed marking an article unread in an Inoreader account when it was older than that under some circumstances.
• This update fixes some bugs around handling responsive images.

If you enjoy using Unread, please consider subscribing to its premium features.

I am going to remove the Omnivore article action with the next feature update to Unread. Omnivore is a read later service that shut down late last year.

Omnivore is open source, and customers can run it on their own servers even though the service has shut down. I kept the article action in place for the benefit of customers who may have been doing just that, using a custom Omnivore URL. But I also added analytics to determine how many customers had enabled Omnivore with a custom Omnivore URL. It appears that no customer is using Unread with a custom Omnivore URL. Therefore I am going to remove the Omnivore article action with the next feature update.

Unread 4.4.2 is available from the App Store with these improvements:

• This update adds improvements to Unread’s ability to find feeds for Substack-hosted websites.
• This update incorporates improvements to the set of suggested feeds for new Unread Cloud and Local accounts.
• This update fixes a bug that caused Feedbin newsletters to appear as link articles. This fix will apply to new newsletter articles downloaded after installing this update.
• This update fixes a bug that caused an incorrect title on a settings screen on iPhone and iPad.

If you enjoy using Unread, please consider subscribing to its premium features.

Unread Cloud uses Sign in with Apple for authentication. The nice thing about Sign in with Apple is that you do not need a separate password or other set of credentials to sign in. You just use your Apple Account.

But this begs an important question: what if you need to use your Unread Cloud account from a device configured with a different Apple Account? In addition to your personal devices, you might use Unread on a company-owned device or on a household iPad. Those devices might use different Apple Accounts. Fortunately there is a way to grant other Apple Accounts access to your Unread Cloud account.

1. Create Your Unread Cloud Account

If you do not already have an Unread Cloud account, create it from a device signed in to your primary Apple Account.

2. Find Unread in the Passwords App

When you create an Unread Cloud account, the system creates an entry for it in the Apple Passwords app. You can find it by opening Passwords and searching for “Unread”.

3. Create a Shared Group

The Group popup in Passwords lets you share an entry with a group of Apple Accounts. Click or tap the popup, and choose “New Group…” from the resulting menu.

3. Invite the Other Apple Account to Join the Group

Click or tap “Add People” to invite your other account to access the group.

You will need to create an entry in Apple Contacts for your second Apple Account, if one does not already exist.

4. View and Accept the Invitation to Join the Group

From the device signed in to your second Apple Account, open Apple Passwords and find the invitation to join the shared group. View and accept that invitation.

5. Sign in to Unread Cloud

On the device with the second Apple Account, open Unread and add the Unread Cloud account as you otherwise would. The Sign in with Apple screen will let you choose between the shared account and the Apple Account to which you are signed in.

Caveats

These steps are available on macOS Sequoia (macOS 15), iOS 18, and iPadOS 18. Since the Apple Passwords app is new, these steps will be different (if they work at all) on prior versions of the operating systems.

There may be additional restrictions on corporate-managed devices and Apple Accounts.

For about 45 minutes after 1:00 PM today Boston time, the webpage text service had a partial outage. The system is now back to normal.

I am adding disk space to the database server that powers Unread Cloud. This requires a two-hour maintenance window. I am going to perform this upgrade on Thursday, April 17, from 5:00 AM Boston time to 7:00 AM Boston time.

While this upgrade is taking place, Unread will be able to sync or retrieve new articles from an Unread Cloud account or a Local account. Subscribing to feeds and editing feed subscriptions will also be impacted.

This will not affect customers syncing with other services such as Feedly or Feedbin.

Update: This maintenance was completed at around 5:40 AM Boston time. Everything is back to normal. Unread Cloud has additional database storage capacity.

I had some issues with the Unread Cloud servers for about two hours starting around 9:30 AM Boston time today (March 30). I addressed the issue, and the servers are now operating normally again. I am sorry about this.

Unread 4.4.1 is available from the App Store.

Ability to Disable Universal Links on iPhone and iPad

The Articles screen under Settings on iPhone and iPad now has these settings for opening links:

Open Links In: This setting can be set to either Unread or Web Browser. When set to Unread, Unread will open links with the in-app Safari View. When set to Web Browser, Unread will open links with your system web browser such as Safari or Chrome.

Reader Mode: When this setting is on, Unread will open the in-app Safari View in reader mode when possible.

Universal Links: When this setting is on and a dedicated app for a link exists (such as the New York Times app when opening a New York Times link), Unread will open the link in that app.

The Reader Mode and Universal Links settings only apply when Open Links In is set to Unread. When Open Links In is set to Web Browser, the Reader Mode and Universal Links settings are grayed out.

In prior versions, the Reader Mode setting existed as a third Open Links In setting option. The Universal Links setting is new to this version of Unread.

Reddit Feed Improvements for Customers Syncing With Feedly

Unread now lets you connect your Reddit account to your Feedly account. This makes Feedly’s checking a subreddit for new articles much more reliable.

A Feedly account only needs to be connected once from one device, either from within Unread or via the Feedly website. To connect your Feedly account to a Reddit account on Mac: open the Settings window, select the Accounts tab, select your Feedly account, and click the “Connect…” button next to the “Reddit” label. To connect your Feedly account to a Reddit account on iPhone or iPad: open the Settings screen, scroll down to the Feedly Account section, and tap “Connect to Reddit”.

Subscribing to a Reddit feed in a Feedly account from within Unread now requires that your Feedly account be connected to your Reddit account.

These changes only apply to customers using Feedly.

Additional Improvements

• This update adds modest improvements around Unread’s ability to find an RSS feed for a website.
• This update adds bug fixes around footnote handling for Substack-hosted RSS feeds.
• On Mac, this update fixes drawing bugs around the prompt that offers to apply a feed text/webpage text display mode change to all articles from a feed.

You can download this update now from the App Store. If you enjoy using Unread, please consider subscribing to its premium features.

Both Unread Cloud and the Webpage Text system had some intermittent server issues between roughly 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM this evening, Boston time. These issues have been resolved. I am sorry about any problems you might have encountered refreshing your account or loading webpage text.

Unread 4.4 makes it easier to subscribe to feeds offered by Bluesky, Mastodon, Reddit, and YouTube. This update is available now from the App Store.

Unread now lets you search for a feed as follows:

• Search for any feed by entering a website URL or feed URL.
• Search for the Bluesky feed of a user by entering their Bluesky handle.
• Search for the Mastodon feed of a user by entering their Mastodon handle.
• Search for the feed of a subreddit by entering its name – such as “r/macapps”, or even just “macapps”.
• Search for the feed of a YouTube channel by searching for it by name.

These changes make it even easier to follow Bluesky users, Mastodon users, subreddits, and YouTube channels with Unread.

YouTube

Webpage text for YouTube videos includes the author’s notes about the video. Unread is great for following YouTube channels without the distractions of comments and other suggested videos.

Bluesky

The webpage text for a Bluesky post includes the links to Bluesky handles, hashtags, and link previews that you would see on Bluesky.

Additional Improvements

• This update fixes a bug that affected the layout of some MacRumors articles.
• When deleting old articles, Unread will no longer delete an article that is currently open — even if it otherwise meets criteria for being deleted.
• This update improves article list summaries of articles from Bluesky feeds.
• This update fixes an animation bug around switching panes in the Settings window on Mac.

The Privacy Policy and Terms of Use have been updated to reflect that Unread’s servers use YouTube’s APIs. The servers use YouTube’s APIs for webpage text generation for YouTube videos and for finding YouTube channels.

This update is available now from the App Store. If you enjoy using Unread, please consider subscribing to its premium features.

2024 was a big year for Unread. The highlight of the year was the release of Unread for Mac. I first announced that I would be working on a Mac version at the start of 2023. I released the first public beta at the start of 2024. I released the final version in July 2024.

Additional improvements included:

• New article actions for Anybox, Flyleaf, GoodLinks, Omnivore, Plinky, Matter, and wallabag.
• The ability to assign a custom keyboard shortcut to each article action.
• The ability to perform your own shortcuts on articles and links, along with the ability to assign a custom keyboard shortcut to each.

As we enter the new year, these are some improvements I am seriously considering:

• Improvements that make it even easier to subscribe to feeds offered by some websites and services.
• An ability to get webpage text for articles behind paywalls for paying subscribers to those publications. This is becoming increasingly important as paywalled articles become more common.
• Functionality around organizing saved articles – both articles saved or starred from RSS feeds, and articles saved via Save to Unread.
• Support for additional feed syncing services.

My plans change over time, so it is important to emphasize that I am not making specific promises around any of these features. But at this moment these are my areas of focus for Unread.

I love working on Unread and making it even better. If you enjoy using Unread, please consider subscribing to its premium features.

Happy New Year.

Unread 4.3.2 is available now from the App Store. This update adds these improvements:

• This update fixes a bug that prevented the “Don’t ask again” checkbox in Mark All Read confirmation alerts from working in Fever accounts on Mac.
• This update fixes bugs around handling expired Inoreader authentication tokens.
• This update fixes a bug around the way in-app purchase error messages are presented on iPhone and iPad.
• This update fixes bugs around feed discovery for some websites.
• This update fixes bugs around updating the widgets.

If you enjoy using Unread, please consider purchasing a subscription to its premium features.

Unread 4.3.1 is available now from the App Store with these improvements:

• When invoking a shortcut on an article, the article information dictionary now includes the date of the article; the author of the article if it is known; and selected_text and selected_html if content of that article is selected.
• The shortcut dictionary view for an article or link now shows all lines of each dictionary value. Previously the view was limited to the first line of text. The appearance of this view is very different on Mac.
• This update improves Unread’s ability to discover feeds offered by Bluesky.
• This update adds feeds to the set of suggested feeds for new Unread Cloud and Local accounts.
• This update adds screenshots to the Shortcuts help article.
• The settings window on Mac had inconsistencies around using title case versus capitalizing the first word in settings names. This update fixes that.
• The name “wallabag” is now lowercased in the user interface. That appears to be the preferred way to refer to it.
• This update adds the ability to follow Unread on Bluesky (@unread.app). This is available in the Help menu on Mac, and on the About screen on iPhone and iPad.
• Unread’s Mastodon profile is moving to @unread@goldenhillsoftware.com. The About screen on iPhone and iPad and the Help menu items on Mac are updated to reflect this. (If you follow Unread via Mastodon this change should be transparent. But if you follow with another ActivityPub system, you may need to manually follow @unread@goldenhillsoftware.com to continue to get updates.)

If you enjoy using Unread, please consider purchasing a subscription to its premium features.

I am moving Unread’s Mastodon presence to a new account: @unread@goldenhillsoftware.com.

Next week I will setup a redirect so that Mastodon followers of the old account should be redirected to the new account automatically. But if you follow using an ActivityPub/fediverse system other than Mastodon, that redirect may not work for you. Therefore you may want to follow the new account manually.

Reasoning Behind the Change

The company hosting my old Mastodon instance is shutting down. I needed to make some changes to keep the Mastodon presence running.

I created the old Mastodon instance with the host “mastodon.goldenhillsoftware.com”. It was a mistake to use the name “mastodon”, instead of something more generic like “social”. In addition I did not realize at the time that I could make a handle with just the “@goldenhillsoftware.com” domain. The new handle @unread@goldenhillsoftware.com is much cleaner.

You can also follow Unread on Bluesky, or follow this website via its RSS feed.

Will Bishop:

Indie Charity Weekend surpassed my wildest expectations!

I’m so happy to share that in just 2 days, 30 developers came together to raise:

$31,200

THIRTY ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS

Thank you so much to everyone who participated, developers and customers alike.

I thank Will for organizing this!

You can now follow Unread on Bluesky: @unread.app.

Unread 4.3 is available. This update adds these improvements and more:

• Article actions for Anybox, Flyleaf, Matter, and wallabag.
• You can now customize the keyboard shortcut assigned to each premium article action.
• You can now run shortcuts on articles and on links inside articles. On a device with a hardware keyboard, you can assign a custom keyboard shortcut to each.

You can download Unread 4.3 now from the App Store.

New Article Actions: Anybox, Flyleaf, Matter, and wallabag

This update adds new premium article actions for Anybox, Flyleaf, Matter, and wallabag. Like other article actions, you can invoke these in any of the following ways:

• Using the context menu of an article in an article list.
• Using the context menu of a link in any article.
• Using a toolbar button on Mac. Article action toolbar buttons are not present by default, but you can add them to the toolbar by choosing Customize Toolbar… from the View menu.
• Using the swipe left menu from inside an article on iPhone or iPad.
• Using a keyboard shortcut on Mac, or on iPhone or iPad with a hardware keyboard.

The Anybox article action requires that the Anybox app be installed. On iPhone and iPad, the Anybox article action works by opening Anybox. Anybox will open briefly, and it will then bring Unread back to the foreground. On Mac, the Anybox article action works by opening Anybox in the background.

Similarly the Flyleaf article action requires that the Flyleaf app be installed. On iPhone and iPad, the Flyleaf article action works by opening Flyleaf. Flyleaf will open briefly, and it will then bring Unread back to the foreground. On Mac, the Flyleaf article action works by opening Flyleaf in the background.

The Matter article action requires installing a shortcut. Unread provides a button that makes installing that shortcut easy. The Matter article action also requires that the Matter iPhone/iPad app be installed. The Matter shortcut will save the article via the Matter app. Since the Matter app runs on Mac with Apple Silicon, this article action runs on Mac with Apple Silicon, iPhone, and iPad. On iPhone and iPad, the Matter article action works by opening Shortcuts. Shortcuts will open briefly, and it will then bring Unread back to the foreground. On Mac, the Matter article action works by opening Shortcuts in the background.

The wallabag article action sends links directly to wallabag via its API.

These article actions require a subscription to Unread’s premium features.

Custom Keyboard Shortcuts for Premium Article Actions

Unread now lets you set a custom keyboard shortcut for each premium article action. This is available on any Mac, iPad, or iPhone with a hardware keyboard. You can set these in the Article Actions pane of the Settings window on Mac, or on the Article Actions settings screen of iPhone or iPad.

By default keyboard shortcut settings are not visible on iPhone. To see and edit them, open the Article Actions settings screen, swipe the screen to the left, and select Show Shortcuts from the resulting menu.

The interfaces for setting up article actions now show an appropriate icon for each article action.

Article actions are available to customers who subscribe to Unread’s premium features.

Run Shortcuts on Articles and Links

Unread now lets you run shortcuts on articles and links. The shortcuts are defined in the Shortcuts app. Unread sends a dictionary to the shortcut that includes the URL, article title, and other metadata. The shortcut can perform any task with that input data.

You can invoke a shortcut in any of the following ways:

• Using the context menu on an article in an article list.
• Using the context menu of a link in any article.
• Using an optional toolbar menu on Mac. The Shortcuts toolbar menu is not present by default, but you can add it to the toolbar by choosing Customize Toolbar… from the View menu.
• Using the swipe left menu from inside an article on iPhone or iPad.
• Using a user-defined keyboard shortcut on Mac, or on iPhone and iPad with a hardware keyboard.

This functionality is similar to Unread’s Article Actions, but you define the functionality with a shortcut.

This functionality requires a subscription to Unread’s premium features.

A guide for developing and using shortcuts from Unread is available with more details and a sample shortcut.

Custom Keyboard Shortcut Notes

If you choose a custom keyboard shortcut that Unread is using for another keyboard command or menu item, Unread will warn you first and then allow you to reassign it. For example if you indicate that you want ⌘P to invoke the Pocket article action on Mac, Unread will warn you that this keyboard shortcut is used for the Print… menu item. You can then either cancel, or reassign ⌘P to Pocket.

Unread supports using a single key, such as a letter, as a custom keyboard shortcut on Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

Recording a keyboard shortcut on iPad or iPhone requires a hardware keyboard.

Additional Improvements

• Omnivore has shut down its hosted service. Unread’s Omnivore article action still works and is still supported for customers running their own Omnivore server. When enabling the Omnivore article action, Unread no longer asks whether to use the Omnivore hosted service. It just asks for the Omnivore server URL.
• This update improves feed discovery for dw.com.
• On Mac, the ability to import and export subscriptions is now also available from the File menu. Importing subscriptions is only available for Unread Cloud and Local accounts.
• Unread’s dark mode icon on iPhone and iPad now uses the standard iOS/iPadOS dark mode background.
• I changed the color of the Mail Content article action icon on iPhone and iPad.

The privacy policy has been updated to link to the privacy policies of Anybox, Flyleaf, Matter, and wallabag. It also now states that work performed by shortcuts is beyond the scope of Unread’s privacy policy.

You can download Unread 4.3 now from the App Store. If you enjoy using Unread, please consider subscribing to its premium features.

Sunday is the last day of Indie Charity Weekend. 23 apps, including Unread, are donating their proceeds to charity.

My earlier post with more details:

This weekend, November 16-17, is Indie Charity Weekend. Participating apps are donating 100% of their profits to a charity of the developer’s choosing.

I am proud to participate, donating Unread’s proceeds from this weekend to the American Cancer Society. If you purchase an annual subscription to Unread’s premium features this weekend (November 16-17), proceeds from your first year will go to the American Cancer Society. If you purchase a monthly subscription this weekend, proceeds from your first month will go to the American Cancer Society.

I thank Will Bishop for organizing this effort. Please also check out the other apps participating in this event.

This weekend, November 16-17, is Indie Charity Weekend. Participating apps are donating 100% of their profits to a charity of the developer’s choosing.

I am proud to participate, donating Unread’s proceeds from this weekend to the American Cancer Society. If you purchase an annual subscription to Unread’s premium features this weekend (November 16-17), proceeds from your first year will go to the American Cancer Society. If you purchase a monthly subscription this weekend, proceeds from your first month will go to the American Cancer Society.

I thank Will Bishop for organizing this effort. Please also check out the other apps participating in this event.