I posted a new beta of Unread for macOS (build 400192) with this modest set of improvements:
This update adds significant article list performance improvements. In service of this, the first time you open Unread after installing this update the app will take up to a minute to optimize its article database.
You can now expand the Saved Articles sidebar item to get a list of saved articles by feed. (This sidebar item might be called Starred Articles or Read Later, depending on the type of account.)
The “Next Pane” and “Previous Pane” menu items now flash a border around the newly focused pane.
This update fixes some bugs around subscribing to and unsubscribing from feeds in Inoreader accounts.
The account-specific area of the Accounts pane in the Settings window now has a “Show Account” button. I also made some layout adjustments in that area.
This update changes the order of menu items in the “View” menu.
This update adds a setting to open links in the background. This setting works with Safari and Firefox, but it does not work with all browsers – most notably Chrome. The setting is available in the Advanced pane of the Settings window.
This update is available now from TestFlight. You can join the beta now if you have not already done so.
A new beta version of Unread for macOS is available: build 400191. This update focuses on article list improvements, functionality pertaining to images, and font size settings. If you are not already beta testing Unread for macOS, I invite you to join the beta now.
Article List Improvements
Article lists now have section headings, dividing articles into sections based on date or feed. To change the grouping of an article list, select Group by Date or Group by Feed under the View menu.
Images in article lists are larger. Their size is based in part by the width of the article list pane in the window. This makes better use of space when using a large screen.
When flicking quickly through an article list using a trackpad the current section title will appear at the top or bottom, depending on the direction in which you are scrolling.
This article list occupies about 30% of the screen width on a 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Images
Clicking an image now opens that image fullscreen. When an image is open fullscreen you can zoom further in or back out using the trackpad or the ⌘+ and ⌘- keyboard shortcuts.
Each image in an article has a context menu with these items: View Fullscreen, Share Image…, Save to Photo Library, Save Image As…, Copy Image, Copy Image Link, and (when available) View Alt Text.
Font Size Settings
The article list font size and article font size settings are now in a Font Sizes tab in the Settings window.
The Font Sizes tab also has a source list font size setting. The default value of this is System. When set to System, the source list font size setting is based on the sidebar icon size setting from System Preferences. You can set this to Small, Medium, Large, or System.
This update is available now from TestFlight. You can join the beta now if you have not already done so.
Unread 3.6.1 for iPhone and iPad is available from the App Store. This update fixes a crash that would occur when subscribing to feeds under some circumstances.
A new beta of Unread for macOS, build 400182, is available from TestFlight with the same bug fix.
Enabled article actions can be invoked via the Article menu, the context menu for an article in an article list, the context menu for a link, or keyboard shortcut. There is also a toolbar button for each article action. You can add an article action to the toolbar of main viewer windows or standalone article windows by selecting Customize Toolbar… from the View menu.
When Unread for macOS is released through the Mac App Store, article actions will require a subscription.
Notes About Article Actions on macOS
Implementing Mail Content on macOS appears infeasible. I wrote about why on my personal blog.
The Safari Reading List action has the side effect of bringing Safari to the foreground. I also wrote about this on my personal blog
Both articles on my personal blog include Apple Feedback IDs, for the benefit of readers who happen to work for Apple.
Additional Improvements
This update changes the keyboard shortcuts for Next Article, Previous Article, Next Pane, and Previous Pane. The prior keyboard shortcuts still work, but they are unavailable on some non-English keyboard layouts. The new keyboard shortcuts should work regardless of keyboard layout.
This update improves feed discovery for odysee.com feeds.
This update adds modest tweaks to support Inoreader’s transition from Active Searches to Monitored Keywords. The searches now appear among your feeds just like they do on the Inoreader website. You can assign folders to monitored keywords, rename monitored keywords, and unsubscribe from monitored keywords just like any other feed. Monitored Keywords use a search (magnifying glass) icon in the left pane of the viewer window.
This update fixes a bug that caused search to stop working under some circumstances.
This build fixes a crash that would happen when opening the Source menu while the Pages sidebar item was selected in a Feedbin account.
Unread 3.6 for iPhone and iPad is available from the App Store. This is a modest update with a variety of improvements.
Article Action Changes
Copy Article Link and View on Web are no longer considered premium article actions. Both are available with or without a subscription. They are still optional and off by default. To enable them, open Settings and then open its Articles screen. These actions are always available via hardware keyboard shortcut on iPad.
The Article Actions settings screen now divides actions into two categories: Save Article Actions for bookmarking and read later services, and Share Article Actions for those pertaining to email or Messages.
Article actions in context menus and swipe left menus are now sorted differently: first by category and then by name.
Additional Improvements
This update also adds these improvements:
This update improves feed discovery for odysee.com feeds.
This update adds modest improvements to the presentation of feeds on the New Subscription screen and in the Subscribe in Unread share sheet extension.
The context menus for links inside articles now have an Add Subscription item, allowing you to quickly subscribe to feeds offered by the linked webpage. This is not available in Fever accounts.
Images that are smaller than the display width are no longer centered on iPad, except when using a narrow column view in Split View, Slide Over, or Stage Manager.
This update addresses some issues around discovering feeds from ooh.directory.
If an article in a list of unread articles has been marked read but still appears in the list because it was unread when the article list was opened, it will stay in that article list after the app has been terminated and relaunched.
This update loosens the resolution requirements for a thumbnail image to appear in an article list.
This update adds a Technical Notes article describing functionality available in the Save to Unread and Subscribe in Unread share sheet extensions.
This build adds performance improvements around displaying the list of All Articles.
When Unread is configured to display webpage text for an article but webpage text is not available, the display submenu of the swipe left menu now reflects the desired setting (Webpage Text).
This update adds modest tweaks to support Inoreader’s transition from Active Searches to Monitored Keywords. The searches now appear among your feeds just like they do on inoreader.com. You can assign folders to monitored keywords, rename monitored keywords, and unsubscribe from monitored keywords just like any other feed.
This update fixes a bug that caused broken images in weibo.com articles.
The primary keyboard shortcut for the Mail Link article action is now Control-Command-I. The old keyboard shortcut works as well.
Unread 3.6 requires iOS/iPadOS 17.0 or later.
If you enjoy using Unread, please consider purchasing a subscription. A subscription adds premium features to Unread and supports development.
I just posted a new beta version of Unread for macOS, build 400175. This build adds toolbar improvements, keyboard navigation improvements, the ability to see a link URL when hovering over it, the ability to print articles, and more.
Toolbar Improvements
This build adds new toolbar items: Mark All Read, Mark Unread, Save/Star/Read Later, Clear Read, Hide Read, View on Web, and Print. All of these items are available in the main window. Some are also available in standalone article windows. Some are not present by default, but can be added by customizing the toolbar. Toolbars can be customized by selecting Customize Toolbar… under the View menu.
The Sidebar toolbar item is no longer present in the main viewer window by default, but you can add it by customizing the toolbar. The Account toolbar menu is now present in the main window toolbar regardless of whether you have multiple accounts. You can remove it by customizing the toolbar.
Keyboard Navigation Improvements
The space key now scrolls the article view down a page, even when the sidebar or article list has keyboard focus. Similarly shift-space now always scrolls the article view up a page.
When at the end of an article in the main viewer window and the space key is pressed, Unread now opens the next article in the article list. Similarly when at the top of an article in a viewer window and shift-space is pressed, Unread now opens the previous article in the article list.
When in the main viewer window, the H key now puts keyboard focus on the pane to the left of that which currently has keyboard focus. Similarly the L key puts keyboard focus on the pane to the right of that which currently has keyboard focus. Thank you to Rob Fahrni (developer of Stream, another RSS reader) for this suggestion.
When scrolling up and down an article list using the Page Up, Page Down, Fn–Up Arrow, or Fn-Down Arrow keyboard shortcuts, article lists now break based on where article rows start and end.
After pressing Page Down, the first article that was not fully visible at the bottom of the article list becomes fully visible at the top of the article list.
Hovering Over Links
When hovering the mouse cursor over a link in an article, the link URL will now be displayed at the bottom of the window.
Printing
This build adds the ability to print articles. To print an article, select Print… from the File menu while viewing the article.
Additional Improvements
Switching between feed text and webpage text for an article is now undoable. Applying that change to other articles from the same feed is also undoable.
This build adds layout improvements to the prompt offering to apply a feed text / webpage text setting change to all articles from the feed. That prompt now also has a clear button that will dismiss it without making changes.
For customers using Unread Cloud and Local accounts, a list of feed errors is available. To open it, select Feed Errors from the Window menu. Select that to show a list of feeds that have issues or have become unavailable.
The sidebar menu item for Unread Articles is now a solid circle.
This build adds a Check URL button to the New Subscription window. Click that to check the currently entered URL for feeds. This is an alternative to pressing the return key from inside the Website or Feed URL field.
The Account toolbar menu now has a Manage Accounts… item that opens the Accounts pane of the Settings window.
The Tags… or Folders… menu item, Next Source menu item, and Previous Source menu item in the Source menu are now available in the New Subscription window when there is a list of feeds.
The New Tag…, New Folder…, and New Saved Search… menu items now work when not in a main viewer window. (Only a subset of these menu items is available at one time, depending on your account type.)
When Unread is configured to display webpage text for an article but webpage text is not available, the View menu and the Display toolbar menu now reflect the desired setting (Webpage Text).
This build adds performance improvements around displaying the list of All Articles.
This build fixes a bug that resulted in the onboarding window appearing under the main window upon first launch under some circumstances.
As always I am eager to receive any input you may have. If you enjoy using Unread and are not currently a subscriber, please consider purchasing a subscription from Unread on your iPhone or iPad.
I just posted a new beta version of Unread for macOS, build number 400165, to TestFlight with some improvements. If you have not already done so you can join the TestFlight now.
Multiple Selection and Bulk Editing of Feed Subscriptions
This build adds the ability to select any combination of folders, tags, and feed subscriptions. Select any set of folders, tags, and feed subscriptions to see their combined set of articles.
When a set of feeds is selected, you can edit the set of associated folders or tags via the context menu with a new “Move To” menu item and a new “Folders” or “Tags” menu item.
This context menu lets you easily assign folders or tags to feed subscriptions.
You can also select “Edit Subscriptions…” from the context menu to assign or remove folders or tags for all selected feed subscriptions.
The “Edit Subscriptions…” menu item brings up this sheet.
You can unsubscribe from multiple feeds at once. Similarly you can delete multiple folders or tags at once.
You can also associate feeds with folders or tags via drag and drop.
Adding and removing existing folders or tags to feeds via the context menu or drag and drop works when offline. Those changes will sync later. Those changes are also undoable.
Since the Fever API does not facilitate subscription management, much of this functionality is not available in Fever accounts.
Multiple Selection of Articles
This build adds the ability to select multiple articles in an article list and perform bulk operations on them such as marking them read. The specifics are dependent on the type of account.
Drag and Drop from the Article List
This build adds the ability to drag and drop an article from the article list to almost any web browser window to open the article in that window. This build also adds the ability to drag a set of articles from the article list to the Finder to create bookmark (.webloc) files.
“Source” Menu and New Keyboard Shortcuts
This build adds a “Source” menu to the menu bar. This menu contains items that perform actions on the currently selected sidebar items. The “Edit Subscription…” and “Unsubscribe…” menu items are now in the “Source” menu. This menu has items with keyboard shortcuts that allow you to select “Unread Articles”, “All Articles”, etc. It also has menu items with keyboard shortcuts that let you select the next and previous item in the sidebar.
The “Source” menu simplifies bulk editing and adds convenient keyboard shortcuts.
Other Changes
When the Panic theme is active, the row highlight color is always purple. Previously with that theme the highlight color was randomly selected for each row, but that looked terrible when more than one row was selected.
Context menus no longer include dimmed or disabled menu items. If a context menu item is unavailable the context menu will omit that item.
“Select in Sidebar” in both context menus and the search suggestions menu is now called “Select Source”.
This update fixes a bug that caused sidebar items to disappear when marking all articles read under some circumstances.
There is much more to do, but I hope you enjoy this set of improvements. Please let me know what you think.
I just posted another beta version of Unread for macOS. The build number is 400156. This build fixes a crash that I inadvertently introduced into the prior build.
I posted a new beta version of Unread for macOS to TestFlight. The build number is 400155. This update contains these improvements:
This build fixes a bug that would cause Read Later articles in Feedly accounts to not be marked as such under some circumstances.
This build fixes a bug that caused search criteria not to be reset when selecting an item from the search suggestion menu under some circumstances.
This build fixes bugs around preserving sidebar width and article list width between application launches.
This build fixes a bug that caused the bottom of text of some sidebar labels to be clipped under some circumstances.
This build fixes a bug that caused the caching settings to get lost when the application was quit. If you changed those settings from the default you will need to change them one last time after installing this update.
This build fixes some bugs around the way Unread appears in Mission Control.
This build fixes some bugs around preserving window position and size.
This build fixes a bug that caused broken images in weibo.com articles.
The line width in the article view is now narrower.
Just about a year ago I wrote about focusing my 2023 Unread development work on a macOS version. While Unread for macOS is not ready for release, I am excited to offer access to a beta version. I invite you to join the TestFlight and let me know what you think.
While Unread for macOS is not yet feature-complete, it does provide more than enough functionality to serve as a solid RSS reader on macOS. It syncs with Unread Cloud, Feedbin, Feedly, Fever, Inoreader, and NewsBlur accounts. It also supports Local accounts. It includes Unread’s webpage text retrieval features, themes, search functionality, and both the Subscribe in Unread and Save to Unread share extensions.
I set a limit on the number of allowed testers. I do not expect to exceed that limit, but if you want to get into the beta I recommend doing so now so that you do not miss the chance.
Unique Capabilities of Unread for macOS
There are some ways in which Unread for macOS goes even further than the iOS version.
Search Suggestion Menu
Unread for macOS 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 sidebar. 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 iOS, 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.
A nice additional touch is that 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.
Development Status
This is a list of the most significant items that have not been implemented, but that I intend to implement before releasing Unread for macOS:
Alternative dock icons
In-app release notes
Article actions such as saving to Instapaper and Pocket
Widgets
Drag and drop in the feed list and in the article list
Multiple selection in the feed list and in the article list
Ability to display feed retrieval errors for Unread Cloud and Local accounts
Ability to display article action errors
Keyboard navigation improvements
Mark All Read by scrolling beyond the last article in an article list
Handoff
Functionality around images inside articles
Printing
Overlay showing the section title (date or feed title) when flicking through an article list
A better About window
Subscription Purchases
All functionality in Unread for macOS is available without a subscription while Unread for macOS is in beta. Premium functionality will require a subscription when Unread for macOS is released.
I have not yet implemented article actions, widgets, or alternative dock icons. Caching and Save to Unread functionality is available in the macOS beta now, regardless of whether you have an Unread subscription.
System Requirements
This beta release requires macOS 14.2 or later. I plan to continue aggressively targeting the newest version of macOS.
Keeping Up-to-Date
To keep up with the latest developments and find out when Unread for macOS is released:
The next version of Unread for iOS will contain the updated policy document.
Please Tell Me What You Think
Please send me suggestions, bug reports, and any other input you have. The best way to provide input is to email support@goldenhillsoftware.com. The Help menu contains a Contact Developer… menu item that will create an email message to this address.
It is easy to subscribe to more feeds than you have time to read, or more content than you even have time to scroll through. I subscribe to an inordinate number of feeds myself. I want to share a trick for managing this.
I subscribe to 475 feeds. About half of the new articles I see each day comes from 8 of those feeds. And while I often enjoy articles from those 8 high-volume feeds, they generate a disproportionate number of articles that I am not interested in reading. I have a tag called “High Volume” containing just those 8 feeds. When I fall behind and my number of unread articles is more than I want to go through, I first mark all articles with the High Volume tag read. I do that by long-pressing the “High-Volume” tag and selecting “Mark All Read” from the resulting menu. This trick helps me quickly focus on the articles I am more likely to read.
