Unread 4.0 Release Announcement Time: 9:00 AM Boston Time on July 29, 2024
Unread is an RSS reader with beautiful typography, a variety of color themes, and great handling of summary-only feeds.
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Links and Details
Product Page: https://www.goldenhillsoftware.com/unread/
App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/unread-an-rss-reader/id1363637349
Mastodon: @unread@mastodon.goldenhillsoftware.com
Requirements: Unread 4.0 requires macOS 14.2 or later; iOS 17.0 or later; or iPadOS 17.0 or later.
Pricing: Most functionality is free. Premium functionality is available with a $29.99 (USD)/year or $4.99 (USD)/month subscription. Prices vary by country and currency. Renewal prices are not changing for current subscribers. A single subscription works across Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Contact: John Brayton (jbrayton@goldenhillsoftware.com)
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What’s New in Unread 4.0
Unread 4.0 adds an entirely new platform: the Mac.
Unread for Mac was built from scratch to be a native Mac app, using AppKit and a touch of SwiftUI.
Unread for Mac is fully-featured. Every feature that is feasible and makes sense from the iPhone and iPad versions of Unread are available on the Mac. In addition there are some Mac-only features:
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, 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.
What Makes Unread Different From Other RSS Readers
Automatic Webpage Text: For articles from feeds that contain only summaries, Unread displays full article text from the webpage. Unread attempts to determine whether each feed is summary-only or contains full article content. For summary-only feeds, Unread displays webpage text by default. You can change this for each feed. Unread can cache webpage text and images ahead of time, allowing articles to be displayed very quickly and when offline. Unread’s caching feature requires a subscription to premium features.
Unread Cloud: Unread Cloud is a syncing and feed retrieval system for Unread. Create or log in to an Unread Cloud account from all your devices using Sign in with Apple. With an Unread Cloud account, our servers retrieve articles from feeds, and your device retrieves those articles from our servers. This makes refreshing your account fast, reduces the battery power and bandwidth required by your device, and ensures that you do not miss articles when your device is offline. Since Unread Cloud is independent of iCloud, syncing is not subject to iCloud’s throttling and does not consume iCloud storage. Unread can also sync with Feedbin, Feedly, Fever API-compatible services, Inoreader, and NewsBlur.
Subscribe in Unread: Subscribe in Unread is a share extension that makes it easy to subscribe to feeds offered by a website when visiting with Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or just about any other browser. It even works from the YouTube app, letting you subscribe to YouTube’s channel and playlist feeds.
Save to Unread: Save to Unread is a share extension that creates an article in Unread based on the contents of the webpage you are visiting with Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or just about any other browser. Save to Unread works with an Unread Cloud, Local, Feedbin, Feedly, or NewsBlur account. Save to Unread requires a subscription to premium features.
Beautiful Typography: Unread renders articles using the Whitney font from Hoefler&Co.
Designed for Comfort: On iPhone or iPad, move anywhere in the app with a sweep of your thumb, without having to reposition your hand. Unread’s stacked navigation was built from scratch to be the most comfortable interface you’ve ever used. Flick left-to-right to go back from anywhere on the screen. Tug any screen right-to-left to show options for that screen.
Multiple Themes: Unread includes 14 different themes including a Day theme, a Night theme, and a Black theme. You can set one theme for light mode and another for dark mode.
Accessibility: Unread has 100% VoiceOver coverage. Every screen and every feature is available to users with vision impairments. Font sizes are adjustable.
Footnote Popovers: Articles with properly formatted footnotes will show convenient popovers when you need to read a footnote.
iPad Features: Unread has great support for trackpads and multiple windows. Almost all navigation and operations can be performed from a hardware keyboard.
Great Widgets: Unread has widgets that let you monitor recent articles and unread article counts. The Articles widget lets you limit articles to a feed or folder. Limiting articles to a feed or folder requires a subscription.
Article Actions: Unread has article actions allowing you to save articles to Instapaper, Pinboard, Plinky, Pocket, Raindrop.io, Readwise, and Safari Reading List; for sharing article links content via email; and for sharing article links via Messages. Article actions require a subscription to premium features.
Who is Behind Unread
John Brayton develops Unread at Golden Hill Software. Golden Hill Software develops apps for Apple platforms. Golden Hill Software is owned and operated by John and is located in Massachusetts.
Jared Sinclair originally wrote Unread. Supertop later acquired Unread and maintained it for several years. Golden Hill Software acquired Unread from Supertop in August 2017.
Unread’s Premium Features for Paying Subscribers
Unread’s core functionality is free. A subscription is available that unlocks premium features:
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. Save to Unread works with an Unread Cloud, Local, Feedbin, Feedly, or NewsBlur account.
Custom Icons: Unread offers 32 different icon options. The shapes are the same but they have different color schemes. On iPhone and iPad, the custom icon always appears on the home screen. On Mac the custom icon appears 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.