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Pour kettle and let steep the gods of tea. I built NewsBlur and Turn Touch.
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What if I told you I had a from-scratch cinnamon roll recipe that was effortlessly veganized, required no kneading, and could be coming out of your oven in just over two hours? And what if I told you’d I’d been making it for years and didn’t tell you about it because I thought, for some bizarre reason, that the site didn’t need another breakfast bun recipe? Yes, I’d throw a jar of cinnamon at my head too. Good news, though, you can stop yelling now because I’ve come to my senses.
Unread by Golden Hill Software has long been an excellent and elegant RSS client for iOS and iPadOS. Today, it arrives on macOS with version 4.0. While I have been exploring new ways to keep up with my favorite feeds as the web enters its federated era, using Unread on the Mac hasn’t felt like a step backwards. Unread 4.0 is a fully native, fully-featured app built using AppKit and SwiftUI that feels modern and performs incredibly quickly.
Let’s check it out.
In addition to keeping your subscriptions on-device or using the app’s own syncing service, Unread supports a variety of third-party RSS syncing options including my service of choice, Feedbin, which lets you subscribe to email newsletters. But the app also allows you sign in to several read later services – like Raindrop.io, Pocket, Plinky, and more – to perform ‘Article Actions’ via toolbar buttons that allow you to save an article with a single click.
Several third-party RSS syncing services are supported…
…as well as several read later services that can be added to Unread’s toolbar.
Unread’s interface on the Mac is very straightforward. In the leftmost sidebar, you will find all of your subscribed feeds in alphabetical order, as well as three main sections to view your unread, starred, and saved items. While I wish the sidebar also included favicons to help distinguish feeds, this classic layout style remains the clearest way to design an RSS reader, and I’m glad that Unread 4.0 is sicking with it.
The app’s toolbar behaves like any native Mac app’s. It is fully customizable with a selection of buttons that can be placed in any order. In Unread 4.0, a new button will also let you easily fetch an article’s content from either the RSS feed or directly from the webpage. The app will even ask if you would like to make that setting persistent for the current feed.
Unread’s toolbar is customizable like most native Mac apps.
Overall, I have been impressed with the way Unread fetches and displays content. Newsletters (via Feedbin), regular articles, and YouTube videos all display perfectly inside the app. Unlike other RSS clients on macOS, Unread is able to display images and video in fullscreen and thus can act as a great YouTube client.
Unread 4.0 can fetch content from the RSS feed, directly from the linked web page, or from both at the same time.
Even YouTube feeds behave nicely in Unread.
Despite its native foundation, Unread’s appearance on the Mac is still fairly customizable. It comes with 14 different theme palettes (seven light and seven dark) that will alter the app’s accent colors as well as its desktop widgets. You can also combine these themes with one of Unread’s 32 custom Dock icons. Even though the custom Dock icon will only appear when the app is running due to a system limitation, it is a welcome touch that I wish we could see in more native apps on the Mac.
Unread’s 14 themes…
…and 32 Dock icon options.
Unread’s widgets look great on the Mac desktop and follow the app’s color theme by default.
Unfortunately though, it is currently impossible to change Unread’s default font, Whitney, apart from tweaking its size.
Font customization is limited to size adjustment.
Moving forward, I plan to use Unread as my go-to RSS reader on the Mac, at least for a while. The app’s ability to cache articles will likely prove useful during my regular train trips across France, where cellular connectivity can become unreliable at times.
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. In this respect, it contrasts with Reeder, my long-time favorite RSS client on the Mac. If it gains a few more display options, like favicons in the sidebar and custom font choices, Unread may be able to win me over in the long run.
Unread 4.0 is available to download for free on the App Store for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. An optional $29.99/year or $4.99/month subscription unlocks caching articles, saving to Unread via the share sheet, saving to third-party services from Unread, widget customization, and custom icons.
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Happy Anniversary to us! On August 26, 2014, we released Discourse v1.0 and introduced hosting services. We have been full throttle ever since. Now that we’ve hit this milestone we’re taking a look back to see how far we’ve come.
What was the big idea that started Discourse? “To raise the standard of civilized discourse on the Internet through seeding it with better discussion software and to remain “100% open source and free to the world, now and forever”. To create software that “feels great to use” and has “built-in moderation and governance systems” to help community owners to keep out bad actors.
Since our launch, we’ve continually rolled out major updates to enhance the Discourse experience. Starting with just 15 plugins, we’ve expanded our offering to 49 official plugins, allowing communities to tailor their platforms to their unique needs. We introduced chat to facilitate easier side conversations, making real-time communication within communities seamless. Additionally, we’ve embraced AI-driven features, such as our AI bot and Summarization, to assist with moderation and improve user experience. We’re always listening to your feedback and focusing on quality-of-life improvements, ensuring that both admins and community members find Discourse easier and more intuitive to use.
With this vision in mind, we launched the beta version with a team of four in 2013, by 2015 we had grown to 9 and today as we celebrate a decade of Discourse we are a team of 102 in 25 countries and 14 time zones working asynchronously together. Discourse serves as our primary collaboration tool, enabling us to work effectively, no matter where we are in the world. You can read about the thought and effort that goes into keeping Discourse a safe and inclusive workplace.
What started as a small team with a big idea has evolved into a platform that powers meaningful conversations across the globe, backed by a community and a company culture that we’re immensely proud of.
Three years ago, we received what felt like an early anniversary present—$20 million in Series A funding! This wasn’t just a financial boost; it was a huge vote of confidence in what we’re building together. Thanks to this investment, we’ve been able to grow our team, accelerate our product development, and make sure that Discourse is here for the long haul. It’s allowed us to double down on our mission and keep pushing forward.
At the start of 2023, we made some big changes in our leadership team. Jeff Atwood, one of our three founders, decided to take on a new role as Executive Chairman, handing over the reins to Sarah Hawk and Sam Saffron as co-CEOs. They’ve done an incredible job leading Discourse into its next phase of growth, and we couldn’t be more excited about where they’re taking us. It’s been a smooth transition, and the future is looking brighter than ever with them at the helm.
Now, let’s talk numbers—because we’ve got some to be proud of!
Plus, we created our Discourse Discover site to make it easy to find and join new communities. Whether you’re looking to connect over shared interests or explore new topics, Discover helps you find your next favorite community.
This brings us to the people who make our mission possible—our customers. We want to extend a big, heartfelt thank you for trusting us with your communities. Your feedback, support, and loyalty have been the driving force behind our growth and success over the past decade. Whether you’ve been with us since the early days or joined us more recently, your commitment has helped shape Discourse into what it is today.
We’re incredibly proud to work with so many amazing communities. A special shoutout to some of our early adopters, including BoingBoing, Mcneel Forums, SmartThings Community, AN Forums, Docker, Sitepoint, SketchUp Community, CodeCombat, and Rust whose trust early in our journey meant so much to us.
We’re honored to be part of the journey of every community that uses Discourse, and we look forward to another decade of meaningful conversations and thriving communities together!
As we celebrate how far we’ve come, we’re even more excited about what lies ahead. The past ten years have been an incredible journey, but we’re just getting started. Looking forward, we have big plans to continue evolving Discourse, ensuring that it remains the best platform for fostering meaningful conversations and building strong communities.
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google is dropping continuous scroll in Search, saying it didn't lead to significantly higher user satisfaction and pagination enables serving results faster — Google Search will stop its continuous scroll user experience where Google loads more results as you scroll past the first page of the search results.
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