While the best websites provide RSS feeds with full article content, some feeds contain only summaries or previews of article content. Without the webpage text feature an article from such a feed would look something like this in Unread:

Unread for Mac is now available from the Mac App Store. Unread for Mac incorporates every Unread capability that makes sense on Mac including:

Continue reading…

To read the full article, you would need to read it on the website.

When an RSS reader shows article content that looks like this, it is because the website excludes most article content from its feed.

Unread’s webpage text feature makes reading such articles in Unread much more pleasant as follows:

  • Most articles in RSS feeds have a corresponding webpage. Unread can retrieve the webpage and parse the full article content out of that. Retrieving and parsing the article is done by Unread’s servers, so it uses very little battery and very little bandwidth.
  • When you initially subscribe to a feed, Unread determines whether that feed contains only article summaries. Based on that, Unread will decide whether to show feed text or webpage text by default for articles from that feed. Feed text is the article content from the feed. Webpage text is the article content parsed out of the webpage.

Switching Between Feed Text and Webpage Text

Unread’s determination of whether a feed contains full article content is usually correct. But there is no perfect algorithm for making that determination, and occasionally a website will change whether it publishes full text feeds versus summary-only feeds.

On iPhone and iPad, you can switch between feed text and webpage text on the article you are reading by swiping the screen to the left, choosing Display from the resulting menu, and then choosing either Feed Text or Webpage Text from the resulting submenu. You will then be asked whether to apply that display mode change to all articles from that feed, versus just the current article.

On Mac, you can switch between feed text and webpage text on an article by choosing Feed Text or Webpage Text from the View menu. After making that change, a prompt will appear above the article asking whether to apply that change to other articles from that feed. Click the Apply button to do so, or click the close box to remove the prompt.

In Unread Cloud accounts, display mode (feed text versus webpage text) settings for feeds and for individual articles sync between devices.

Reporting Webpage Text Issues

There is no perfect algorithm for parsing article content out of a webpage. Like determining whether a feed contains full article content, this is based on heuristics. If you are subscribed to a summary-only feed and find that the webpage text is missing article content or contains extra junk, I encourage you to report that to me.

On iPhone and iPad, the best way to report an issue with webpage text is to open the share sheet of an article and choose Report Article Issue from the share sheet.

On Mac, the best way to report an issue with webpage text is to open the article and choose Report Article Issue… from the Article menu.

Link Articles

A link article is an article consisting of a quote from and comment on an article from another website. For example, this Daring Fireball article is a link to and comment on a Flexibits article.

You can tell whether Unread is treating an article as a link article by looking at it in an article list. A link article will have the website host (“flexibits.com”) at the bottom of its article list entry.

A third display mode is designed for link articles: Feed & Webpage Text. For a link article, this shows the feed text of the article at the top and the webpage text of the linked article below it. In this example, the Daring Fireball article would be on top and the Flexibits article would be below it.

Unread maintains two different display mode settings for each feed, one for traditional articles and one for link articles. You might show feed text for traditional articles, and feed & webpage text for link articles.

Caching

Subscribers to Unread’s premium features can enable caching of webpage text. When caching is enabled, webpage text for new articles is already available on the device when you open the article. This makes opening the article much faster, and makes it available when you have no internet connection.

Ben Werdmuller:

If you’re looking for signal, here are some non-profit newsrooms that speak truth to power on a national scale. You can follow all of them for free; all of them could also use your support.

Every news source in his list has an RSS feed. I recommend checking it out.


Update: René Fischer points out that Deutsche Welle (DW) would make a great addition to that list.

Unread does not find its RSS feed (I will fix that), but it is at https://rss.dw.com/rdf/rss-en-top.

Unread 4.2.3 is available from the App Store with these improvements:

  • Unread now detects link articles from politicalwire.com.
  • This update improves discovery of feeds offered by Discourse forums.
  • On Mac, the single letter keyboard shortcut X will clear read items including the currently selected item. This keyboard shortcut will work on English keyboard layouts. It will not work on all keyboard layouts.
  • This update improves the display of carscoops.com articles.
  • This update fixes a bug around invoking the swipe left menu from an article via trackpad on iPad.
  • This update fixes a bug around syncing articles with incorrectly encoded characters from Feedly.

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

Unread 4.2.2 is available from the App Store with these improvements:

  • On Mac, the Article menu now has a Copy Article Link item with a ⇧⌘C (Shift-Command-C) keyboard shortcut.
  • On Mac, the share popover for an article now includes a Copy Article Link option.
  • On Mac when Clear Read Items on Manual Refresh is enabled, Mark All Read is always available in article lists limited to unread articles if there is at least one article, even if all articles are already marked read.
  • On Mac when Clear Read Items on Manual Refresh is enabled, Articles removed as a result of marking all read will be reinstated in the article list upon undo, even those articles that were already marked read. Redoing a Mark All Read operation will not clear read items again.
  • On Mac, the set of undoable commands for a main window is reset when Hide Read Items is toggled under some circumstances, when Clear Read Items is manually invoked, when the selected sidebar item changes, and when search criteria is set or changed.
  • This update improves detection of link articles from sixcolors.com that link to podcasts.
  • This update improves the display of carscoops.com articles.
  • This update incorporates a new set of suggested feeds for new Unread Cloud and Local accounts.
  • On Mac, Unread will no longer offer to show webpage text for all articles from a feed after switching to webpage text fails.
  • This update fixes a bug on iPhone and iPad that allowed modal views for editing feed subscriptions and other information to be swiped away without a prompt to save changes.
  • This update fixes bugs that made the share sheet on iPhone and iPad and the share popover on Mac accessible for articles that have no URL.

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

Unread 4.2.1 is available from the App Store with these improvements:

  • This update fixes a bug that prevented article list thumbnails for BBC articles from appearing under some circumstances. This fix will apply to new articles downloaded after installing this update.
  • This update fixes a bug around setting a custom icon on iPhone and iPad.

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.

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.

Dark Mode Icon and Tinted Icon

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.

Widget Updates

This update adds the ability to show widgets with a tint on iPhone and iPad for iOS 18 and iPadOS 18.

Additional Improvements

  • On Mac, a new Next Article toolbar button selects the next article in the article list. This button is not present by default, but can be added to a main viewer window by choosing Customize Toolbar… from the View menu. Similarly there is a new optional Next Article menu item for the swipe left menu of the article view on iPhone and iPad. To enable it, open the Settings screen, select Articles under Basic Options, and turn on Next Article under Basic Actions.
  • On Mac, this update adds a First Article menu item to the Article menu. This selects the first article in the article list. This menu item has a ^1 (Control-1) keyboard shortcut. On most (but not all) keyboard layouts, typing just 1 will also invoke that menu item.
  • On Mac for customers using more than one account, the ⌥1 (Option-1) keyboard shortcut will open the first account, ⌥2 will open the second account, etc.
  • On Mac, this update adds an optional New Subscription… toolbar button. This button is not present by default, but can be added to a main viewer window by choosing Customize Toolbar… from the View menu.
  • This update fixes a bug that caused articles to be associated with Feedbin saved searches after they no longer met the saved search criteria under some circumstances.
  • This update fixes a bug around the Clear Read Items on Mark All Read setting on Mac.
  • This update fixes a bug around article list table selection on Mac.
  • This update fixes a bug that caused broken images in some apartmenttherapy.com articles.

Available Now

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.

New Article Actions: GoodLinks and Omnivore

This update adds new article actions for GoodLinks and Omnivore.

You can invoke an article action 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 an article.
  • Using a toolbar button on Mac. Article action toolbar buttons are not present by default. 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 iPad with a hardware keyboard.

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.

Clear Read Items Settings

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.

Additional Improvements

  • The prompt offering to apply a display mode change between feed text, webpage text, or both to all articles from a feed is now displayed more prominently on Mac.
  • Under the Advanced tab of the Settings window on Mac, there is now a setting around whether to mark an article read when opening it. By default this is enabled.
  • This update fixes bugs around the display of emoji from feeds generated by WordPress.
  • This update fixes a bug around the layout of images inside blockquotes on iPhone.
  • This update adds fixes around article list images for articles from uploadvr.com.
  • This update fixes a bug that prevented some images from loading.
  • This update fixes a bug around keyboard focus when using the Unread Articles, All Articles, etc., menu items on Mac.
  • This update adds a Certificate pinning setting to the Advanced pane of the Settings window on Mac. This is enabled by default. When enabled, Unread uses certificate pinning when making requests to Unread Cloud and to the webpage text service. This provides an additional layer of security, but it results in requests failing when used in combination with some antivirus software and on some corporate devices. I recommend leaving it enabled unless you have specific reason to disable it. Unread for iPhone and iPad always uses certificate pinning when making requests to Unread Cloud and to the webpage text service.
  • For customers not subscribed to Unread’s premium features, the main window toolbar on Mac now has an Upgrade button making it easy to upgrade. Similarly on iPhone and iPad the swipe left menu of several screens now has an Upgrade menu item making it easy to upgrade. Neither appears when already subscribed to Unread’s premium features.
  • The first time Unread is opened on iPhone or iPad after installing this update, it will display a news alert about the availability of Unread for Mac.

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