Unread 4.2.1 is available from the App Store with these improvements:
If you enjoy using Unread please consider purchasing a subscription to its premium features.
The webpage text service had a period of about 7 hours where it was not reliably retrieving webpage text. It was not completely unavailable, but it was not working reliably either. I fixed this. All servers are now operating as expected.
I am sorry about this. The fact that this went on for so long without my being aware of it is inexcusable. I am working on improvements to my monitoring so that such a scenario does not go undetected going forward.
I am investigating issues with the webpage text service.
Unread 4.2 adds iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 features and a variety of other improvements. This update is available now from the App Store.
The standard icon for Unread now has a dark mode variant on iPhone and iPad for iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. After enabling dark mode icons on your home screen, Unread’s icon will have a dark background. This change will not apply when using an alternate icon for Unread.
This update also adds support for tinted icons on iPhone and iPad for iOS 18 and iPadOS 18.
This update adds the ability to show widgets with a tint on iPhone and iPad for iOS 18 and iPadOS 18.
^1 (Control-1) keyboard shortcut. On most (but not all) keyboard layouts, typing just 1 will also invoke that menu item. ⌥1 (Option-1) keyboard shortcut will open the first account, ⌥2 will open the second account, etc. This update is available now from the App Store. If you enjoy using Unread, please consider purchasing a subscription to its premium features.
Unread 4.1 adds article actions for GoodLinks and Omnivore, new settings around clearing read items, and more. This update is available now from the App Store.
This update adds new article actions for GoodLinks and Omnivore.
You can invoke an article action in any of the following ways:
The keyboard shortcut for GoodLinks is Control-G (^G). The keyboard shortcut for Omnivore is Control-O (^O).
Like other premium article actions, these require a subscription to Unread’s premium features.
The GoodLinks article action requires that the GoodLinks app be installed. On iPhone and iPad, the GoodLinks article action works by opening GoodLinks. GoodLinks will open briefly, and it will then bring Unread back to the foreground. On Mac, the GoodLinks article action works by opening GoodLinks in the background.
The Omnivore article action sends links directly to Omnivore via its API.
I updated Unread’s privacy policy, adding links to the GoodLinks Privacy Policy and to the Omnivore Privacy Policy.
This update adds a setting to enable clearing read items automatically when manually refreshing. When an article list should only include unread articles, either because you are in the list of unread articles or because Hide Read Items is enabled, articles stay in that list even after they are marked read – until you perform a Clear Read Items action. If this setting is enabled, Unread will clear read articles automatically when you manually refresh the account by selecting Refresh from the View menu on Mac, by using the Refresh toolbar button on Mac, by selecting Refresh from the swipe left menu on iPhone or iPad, or by pulling to refresh on iPhone or iPad.
On Mac there is also a setting to automatically clear read articles on Mark All Read. When this takes effect, marking all read will result in an initially empty article list.
On Mac, these options are under the General pane of the Settings window. On iPhone and iPad the new setting is on the Read & Unread settings screen.
This update is available now from the App Store. If you enjoy using Unread, please consider purchasing a subscription to its premium features.
These are a few tips for navigating Unread for Mac via keyboard.
You can scroll down one page in the current article by pressing the space bar. If Unread is already at the end of that article and you are in a main viewer window, Unread will advance to the next article in the article list.
You can clear read items with ⌘' (command-apostrophe). By default that will leave the currently selected article, even if it is read. You can clear read items including the currently selected article with ⇧⌘' (shift-command-apostrophe).
These keyboard shortcuts are available in English keyboard layouts. They are not available in all keyboard layouts:
J: Select next article
K: Select previous article
N: Select next feed in the source list
P: Select previous feed in the source list
L: Select next pane in the main viewer window
H: Select previous pane in the main viewer window
B or V: View on web
A: Mark all read
Unread 4.0.2 for Mac is available from the Mac App Store. This update fixes bugs around article list selection and navigating the article list via keyboard on Unread for Mac.
If you enjoy using Unread, please consider purchasing a subscription to its premium features.
Ernest Rudak, writing at Just Text:
If you are a VoiceOver user and wondering if Unread is accessible, I have good news. The app is more than just accessible; it uses standard layouts, and all buttons and menus are clearly labeled. Unread is not only a pleasure to use from a visual perspective but also from a VoiceOver perspective. The Mac version is built with native technologies, specifically AppKit. What this means for you as a VoiceOver user is that the app behaves as it should, and you will not encounter cumbersome corners in the app that feel unfamiliar or strange.
Ernest’s review describes Unread in detail with a focus on its accessibility via VoiceOver.
In order to retrieve new articles from feeds, Unread Cloud needs to check those feeds periodically. In general, Unread Cloud polling intervals range from every 5 minutes to every 60 minutes, depending on a variety of factors:
If a server returns a 429 (Too Many Requests) response, Unread Cloud automatically slows its polling for that feed down to once every four hours. I do not want to be a burden on websites or fight the policies of those trying to publish a feed.
If a server returns a 403 (Forbidden) response, Unread Cloud will not check that feed for another four hours. That polling interval change is temporary if the next retrieval is successful.
Unread Cloud uses “If-Modified-Since” and “If-None-Match” headers to avoid retrieving an entire feed when it is unchanged. Unread Cloud retrieves feeds in a compressed form from servers that support HTTP/HTTPS compression.
There is more nuance to the timing than this, and it is subject to change over time. This is just a rough summary.
Rachel at rachelbythebay.com recently started working on a feed reader score project. The project is a laudable effort to encourage RSS reader developers to behave respectfully towards websites hosting RSS feeds: to not poll more frequently than needed, and to use HTTP/HTTPS caching. This is important work. If RSS readers are a burden to websites, website owners are dissuaded from providing feeds.
I learned of this project about a week ago, when a follower on Mastodon kindly sent me a link to an article describing feed reader polling behavior. That article describes Unread Cloud’s behavior as follows:
Unread RSS Reader. Godawful poll timing. 6103 requests in 52 days is about one poll every 736 seconds _on average_, but they’re hugely spread out. WTF? Put it this way: the list of unique intervals (nn seconds, nn minutes, ...) is *four pages tall* on my web browser.
One poll every 736 seconds sounds great, but the description indicates that something is amiss. I got in touch with Rachel, who kindly shared with me the data used to arrive at these conclusions. I did some analysis on this data.
The request count for those days is roughly double that of the other days, and the minimum interval is absurdly low.
This coincides with my configuring a test instance, essentially a temporary clone of Unread Cloud, that started with a copy of the production database. I did this in part to do a test restore from the offline backup. The Unread Cloud production database has a warm backup that stays up-to-date via replication. The offline backup is there in case both database servers fail. Every few months I do a test restore from the offline backup to ensure that the backups are functioning as expected – and are not subtly broken in a way that my monitoring does not catch. I also did some testing of code changes against this database. I do not often test against a full copy of the production database, but in this particular case I was concerned that the changes I was making could introduce a performance issue.
Since there were two different Unread Cloud instances checking this feed, there were roughly twice as many requests. Each instance was determining the timing for its own polling independently.
It is fair to point out that an Unread customer being subscribed to a feed resulted in twice the number of requests to that feed during this time! I am seriously considering that impact.
The maximum interval for that day is 124 minutes. One request had that high interval. The others were within the expected range. I did have some server issues this day, so this does not surprise me.
The minimum interval is fairly consistent, but the maximum interval varies between the minimum and almost 30 minutes (ignoring the specific date ranges above).
When a new customer signs up and imports a large number of feeds that Unread Cloud is not already checking, Unread Cloud will check those feeds right away and defer checking other feeds. Checking feeds also gets deferred when rebooting servers in order to deploy a security update that requires a reboot. Similarly when I deploy an update to the Unread Cloud server software, that pauses feed checking for a period of time.
I feel good knowing there is a good explanation for the anomalous polling intervals from 2024-06-29 through 2024-07-08. Even during that period, the highest daily request count is 192. On average that is one every 7.5 minutes. The rest, except for the 2-hour polling interval on 2024-07-11, are as expected.
I intend to continue the practice of occasionally creating a clone of Unread Cloud, starting with a backup of the production database. This does result in additional polling of feeds. But it is necessary to test the performance impact of changes under some circumstances, and it is necessary to ensure that my backups are functioning as expected.
I now have my own test feed polling on Rachel’s feed reader score project - so I can get an up-to-date external view of Unread’s polling to ensure that it aligns with my intentions. I have to pay the Unread Cloud server costs, so I am motivated to ensure that I am not polling feeds more often than necessary or using unnecessary bandwidth. I thank Rachel for this project.
Unread 4.0.1 is available from the App Store.
The biggest change in this update is that Unread’s old icon with the white background is back as the default icon. With Unread 4.0 (and Unread for Mac) I changed Unread’s icon to be one with a silver background. I thought it was an improvement, but after receiving several thoughtful messages from customers it has become clear that the silver icon was not popular. The silver icon remains available as an alternative icon for customers who subscribe to Unread’s premium features.
This update also incorporates these improvements:
If you enjoy using Unread, please consider purchasing a subscription to Unread’s premium features.
It was seven years ago today that I officially took over development of Unread. It is a nice coincidence that this is the launch week of Unread for Mac.
Unread got some nice press attention this week. Here are some highlights:
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, 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
It feels so fast. It feels so good to use. I'm really, really impressed with the Mac app.
— Matt Birchler, Comfort Zone
I’ve been using the Mac app for a couple of weeks, and it’s really quite nice, and I love that Brayton went the AppKit route.
— Stephen Hackett, 512 Pixels
I want to thank everyone who helped spread the word about the launch – everything from podcasts and blogs to social media boosts. It is helpful to me, and helpful to Unread’s success.
If you enjoy using Unread, please consider subscribing to Unread’s premium features.
Now that Unread for Mac is available through the Mac App Store, I am winding down the public beta. If you are still using the public beta of Unread for Mac, please download the newest version from the Mac App Store.
The release of Unread for Mac has been very smooth. A big reason for that is the input I have received from beta testers. I want to thank everyone who beta tested Unread for Mac. I especially want to thank those of you who sent me suggestions and bug reports. You made Unread a better product.
If you enjoy using Unread, please consider purchasing a subscription to Unread’s premium features.
I released Unread for Mac yesterday. I want to thank everyone who downloaded Unread for Mac, everyone who helped spread the word online, and everyone who sent me questions or suggestions.
I think I wrote back to everyone who contacted me, but if you sent me a question and did not hear back then please email me. I pride myself in being responsive to customer inquiries.
While the release of Unread for Mac is a big milestone, there is always more to do. Here is what I am considering next for Unread:
I tend to plan one release at a time, and my long-term thinking is likely to change based on customer input and the evolution of Apple’s platforms. Therefore I ask that you not treat this list as a set of specific promises. This is just a snapshot of what I am considering.
If you enjoy using Unread, please consider purchasing a subscription to Unread’s premium features.
Unread for Mac is now available from the Mac App Store. Unread for Mac incorporates every Unread capability that makes sense on Mac including:
Unread for Mac is a native Mac app. The user interface is built with AppKit and a touch of SwiftUI. There are some ways in which Unread for Mac goes beyond Unread for iPhone and iPad.
Search Suggestion Menu
Unread for Mac includes a search suggestion menu. When you search articles for a term and one or more of your feed titles match that term, Unread will present a search suggestion menu letting you select a matching feed in the source list. This is convenient when you subscribe to a large number of feeds and you want to quickly get to articles from a specific feed.
Switching Between Feed Text and Webpage Text
Like on iPhone and iPad, on Mac you can easily switch between showing feed text, webpage text, or both for an individual article. After doing so, you are prompted to apply that change to other articles from the same feed.
On Mac you have the ability to see the result of that change on the current article before applying it to other articles from the same feed. After switching the display mode, the prompt to apply that change to other articles from the same feed is at the top of the article. This lets you see the result of the display mode change before deciding whether to apply it to other articles from the same feed.
Bulk Subscription Management
Unread for Mac makes it easy to move subscriptions between folders or tags via drag and drop. You can unsubscribe from a set of feeds quickly by selecting them and choosing Unsubscribe… from the context menu or pressing the Delete key.
Viewing Images Fullscreen
Like on iPhone and iPad, you can click any image in an article to view it fullscreen. When viewing an image fullscreen, Unread for Mac will retrieve and display a higher resolution version of that image when one is available.
Unread 4.0 is also available for iPhone and iPad. Its default app icon has a graphite background color, similar to that of Unread for Mac. In-app text and help articles have been updated to reflect the release of Unread for Mac.
Unread has the 4.0 version number across platforms. I intend to keep the version numbers in sync when feasible.
Unread is a free app. Premium features are available with a subscription.
A single subscription unlocks premium features on all platforms: Mac, iPhone, and iPad. If you are already a subscriber to Unread’s premium features on iPhone and iPad, those premium features are available on Unread for Mac at no additional charge. There is no change to the renewal price for current subscribers.
I made these changes to the Unread Privacy Policy:
Unread requires macOS 14.2 or later, iOS 17.0 or later, or iPadOS 17.0 or later. Unread 4.0 for Mac, iPhone, and iPad is available now from the App Store. If you enjoy using Unread, please consider telling your friends on social media.
