Unread for Mac will have the same pricing structure as Unread for iPhone and iPad. Most functionality in the app will be free. No purchase or subscription is required to use Unread. Similar to the way premium features work on iPhone and iPad, a subscription will make these premium features available on your Mac:

Caching: Cache webpage text and images ahead of time.

Save to Unread: A share extension that creates an article in Unread from the webpage you are visiting with Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or any other web browser. This works with Unread Cloud, Local, Feedly, Feedbin, and NewsBlur accounts.

Custom Dock Icon: Unread offers 32 different dock icon options. The icons all have the same shape but each has a different color scheme. The alternate icon is displayed in the dock while Unread is running.

Article Actions: Unread’s article actions let you save articles to Instapaper, Pinboard, Plinky, Pocket, Raindrop.io, Readwise, and Safari Reading List; share article links via email; and share article links via iMessage.

Widget Customization: Limit articles or unread article counts shown by widgets to specific feeds or folders.

Premium Support: Paying customers get first class customer support.

A single subscription to Unread’s premium features will make those premium features available on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Price Changes

Effective July 1, 2024, I am raising the price for an annual subscription to Unread’s premium features to $29.99 (USD) per year for new subscribers. I am raising the price for a monthly subscription to $4.99 (USD) for new subscribers. Prices in different countries and currencies will vary.

These price changes will only affect new subscribers. If you are already subscribed at the current level when the price change takes effect, the subscription price will not change for you and you will get access to premium features on the Mac.

I have not yet chosen a release date for Unread for Mac. It will be some number of weeks after this price change.

Great Time to Subscribe

If you have been considering subscribing to Unread’s premium features or moving from a monthly plan to an annual plan, doing so before July 1 is a great way to take advantage of the lower price. You can do so now from Unread on your iPhone or iPad. Please be aware that once the price change takes effect, I will have no way to give a new subscriber the lower price.

A new beta of Unread for macOS is available. This build adds in-app release notes, a new “About Unread” window, and more. You can join the Unread for macOS beta now if you have not already done so.

Important Note: This build makes a change that requires Unread to perform a data migration at first launch. On the first screen, click “Migrate accounts… (recommended)”. The app will present a file picker. Simply click the “Open” button. You do not need to select a file or change the current folder. Once that is done, Unread will work with your accounts as it did before. More information is available in an earlier post. Please get in touch if you have any questions.

In-App Release Notes

Continuing Unread’s tradition of incorporating release notes history in the app, this build adds a Release Notes window. You can open it from the Release Notes item in the Help menu.

“About Unread” Window

This build adds a new “About Unread” window showing the current version number and copyright notice. You can open it by selecting About Unread under the Unread menu.

Other changes

• Toolbars are no longer displayed when showing a window fullscreen.
• This build fixes bugs around showing windows fullscreen.
• This build fixes a bug that prevented Save to Photo Library from working for WebP images.
• The progress indicator displayed while loading a high resolution image for viewing fullscreen is now a horizontal bar displayed at the bottom of the screen.
• This build fixes a bug that prevented empty tags and folders from appearing in the source list of main windows.
• If you Mark All Read and check “Don’t ask again” at the prompt, and then undo that operation, the “Confirm mark all read” setting will now be re-enabled.
• This build addresses some bugs around image operations for articles after they are updated.
• This build fixes a bug that could cause a memory error when viewing an image fullscreen.

“To Be Implemented Before Release” List

This build removes the “To Be Implemented Before Release” list that was available from the Help menu. I removed it because there are no remaining items in the list. I have some work to do before releasing Unread for macOS, but the current build is feature complete. 🎉

You can join the Unread for macOS beta now if you have not already done so.

The next beta build of Unread for macOS will require a one-time migration process. When you first open it, the app will ask you to migrate data. This will require the following:

1. When you first open the new build, a dialog will appear asking you to migrate your data. First, click the “Continue…” button.
2. A file picker will appear. Its default location will be a folder named “group.com.goldenhillsoftware.Unread2”. You will not need to change the folder or select a file. Just click the “Open” button.

That is all you need to do. Here is a 10-second video demonstrating this:

If you have any questions, please contact me at support@goldenhillsoftware.com.

Technical Details

On both macOS and iOS, sandboxed apps use group container folders to share data between the main app and extensions, such as the Subscribe in Unread share extension and Unread’s widgets.

On iOS, group container identifiers should start with the prefix “group.”, whereas on macOS they should start with the developer’s Apple Team ID. Prior beta builds of Unread for macOS used the “group.” prefix. That worked, but it was incorrect.

On beta releases of Sequoia (macOS 15) using the “group.” prefix results in the customer getting an alert with this text at every launch:

“Unread.app” would like to access data from other apps.

Keeping app data separate makes it easier to manage your privacy and security.

I fixed this by changing the group container identifier. As a result Unread’s group folder is at a different location. Since Unread is sandboxed, it will no longer have access to its old group container folder until it is given access with a system file picker.

With this process, you are giving temporary access to the old group container folder with a file picker. Unread migrates its data from the old group container folder to the new group container folder.

Unread 3.8.1 for iPhone and iPad is available from the App Store. This update adds these improvements:

• This update fixes a bug that prevented Save to Photo Library from working for WebP images.
• This update addresses some bugs around image operations for articles after they are updated.

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

If you are running the Unread for macOS beta on the beta version of Sequoia (macOS 15) that Apple released today, you will get an alert when launching Unread with this text:

“Unread.app” would like to access data from other apps.

Keeping app data separate makes it easier to manage your privacy and security.

You will need to click the Allow button on that prompt in order for Unread to work as expected.

Unread is not sharing any data with other apps, but I believe there is something I need to update around the app’s provisioning profiles. I will do so as soon as possible.

Unread 3.8 is available from the App Store. This update adds handoff improvements, simpler enabling of the Plinky article action, and more.

Handoff

Unread 3.8 adds significant improvements to handoff functionality. Handoff works much more reliably. Handoff also works with the beta release of Unread for macOS. You can seamlessly move between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Handoff will not work between Unread 3.8 and prior versions of Unread for iOS/iPadOS.

Simpler Enabling of the Plinky Article Action

When Plinky is installed on the device, Unread will now automatically retrieve your Plinky ID from Plinky when enabling that article action. You no longer need to copy and paste your Plinky ID.

Other Improvements

• This update also fixes formatting bugs in Engadget articles. These fixes will apply to Engadget articles downloaded after installing this update.
• This update fixes a bug that caused images in email newsletters not to use their full width on iPad under some circumstances.
• This build fixes bugs that caused duplicate images from some articles from The Verge when syncing with Feedly.

Unread 3.8 is available now from the App Store. If you enjoy using Unread and are not already a paying subscriber, please consider purchasing a subscription to Unread’s premium features.

A new beta version of Unread for macOS is available via TestFlight. You can join the Unread for macOS beta now if you have not already done so.

Important Reminder: With this update the ⌘M keyboard shortcut minimizes the current window. It no longer toggles the read/unread status of the currently selected article. I described the rationale for this change in a blog post a couple weeks ago. Going forward ⌘⇧U will be the keyboard shortcut for marking the current article read or unread.

Dock Icon Options

This build adds the ability the choose an alternate icon to appear in the dock for Unread while it is running. To choose an alternate icon, open the Settings window and select the Dock Icon pane. This functionality will require a subscription to Unread’s premium features when Unread for macOS is released.

Fullscreen Image Improvements

When viewing an image fullscreen, Unread will retrieve and display a higher resolution version of that image when one is found in a link around that image:

<a href="image-highresolution.jpeg"><img src="image-lowresolution.jpeg"></a>

Unread will also retrieve and display a higher resolution version of that image when available in a srcset attribute:

<img srcset="image-lowresolution.jpeg 2000w, image-highresolution.jpeg 4000w">

When image caching is enabled, Unread will cache the version shown in the article ahead of time. When a higher resolution version is available for viewing fullscreen, that higher resolution version is not cached ahead of time.

When viewing an image fullscreen, Unread now shows a progress indicator if and when it is retrieving a higher resolution version of that image. It also fades in the higher resolution version of the image nicely.

When showing an image fullscreen, a context menu is available letting you save the image, copy the image, copy a link to the image, or share the image. Commands in that context menu operate on the higher resolution version of the image when it is being shown fullscreen.

Handoff

This build adds handoff support. If you have an article open on one device, you can easily open that article on the other device. This also works for most article lists.

Using handoff between a Mac and iPhone or iPad requires that the iPhone or iPad be running Unread 3.8 or later.

Additional Improvements

• This update fixes formatting bugs in Engadget articles. These fixes will apply to Engadget articles downloaded after installing this update.
• There is now better visual feedback after clicking an article action toolbar button.
• When there are article action errors, the Article Actions settings pane will state this and provide a button for opening the Article Action Errors window.
• This build fixes bugs that caused duplicate images from some articles from The Verge when syncing with Feedly.
• This build fixes a bug that would cause copying or saving an image to fail under some circumstances.
• This build fixes a crash that would sometimes occur when opening the app via the widget.

You can join the Unread for macOS beta now if you have not already done so.