Articles + lets you bookmark and save news, blog or other stories for reading later. It doesn't simply save links to those pages you want to return to, it also downloads their content and converts it to a minimal format.

Read anything you saved later with just the essential text and images, without any headers, ads or clutter to get in the way.

Refer to the Get Started Guide for more information about the reader app.

Articles + is intended as an alternative to other read-it-later apps such as Pocket or Instapaper. While similar in its functionalities, it however differs in many ways.

Articles + is focused on bookmarking text based content. It can capture news, blog or other stories with no hassle and stores your articles in your personal iCloud account. The reader's design is carefully crafted for such articles and offers custom styles for better readability and distraction-free reading.

Articles + does not collect or sell any personal information and won't try to promote you paid articles you don't want to read. It is the only private read it later app (as in it doesn't rely on advertising and user data) and it keeps your data safe.

No, like with Photos, Books or other Apple apps, you do not need to signup or login. Your personal iCloud account from that device is used. But you will need to be signed in on your device with the same Apple ID on all platforms.

All articles and annotations are stored securely in a private database in your iCloud account. Storage limits apply and depend on your corresponding plan.

Articles + is available for iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Please note that you need to be signed in on your device with the same Apple ID on all platforms.

The app is published on Apple's App Stores. You can download it for free for your iPhone, iPad or Mac.

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/articles/id1301189222?mt=8

Mac App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/articles/id1301189222?mt=12

The Articles + app comes bundled with a share extension, which integrates with any other iOS or Mac app. Save articles directly from e.g. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Twitter, Medium or Reeder by using the bookmark extension.

See the Bookmark Extension Guide for how to enable and use the extension.

The bookmark extension integrates with any browser or app that supports sharing either a web page or link. Below is a non-exhaustive list of such apps.

The Articles + app includes widgets to quickly view and open your latest, unread, favorite or random articles.

Refer to the Widgets Guide for how to enable and use the widget.

Articles + is free to use and includes all basic features. Every setting, theme or preference is available and lets you try out the unrestricted reader.

A premium subscription offers additional or unlimited bookmarks per month.

Your purchase supports the further development of the app. Thanks!

Articles + is intended for bookmarking text based content. This means you can save almost any news or blog article for reading later.

It will however not work if you try to bookmark a site's home page, search results, videos, image galleries, consent screens, tweets or other non textual or non semantic pages. In this case, the content can not be determined.

When you bookmark a website, the corresponding page is saved to your device. But before an article appears in your library, it must be processed to extract its plain content. This happens automatically when the app is already running in the background, otherwise only at the next launch.

While many articles can be successfully extracted, the content of some web pages can not be determined.

In most cases, there is simply not enough text available to determine what the actual content is. If you for example try to bookmark a Twitter post, the 280 characters do not represent the main content of the overall page.

If a website has dynamically generated content, the web page source code does not contain any text. Such pages can only be bookmarked with the share extension in Safari, because it allows to directly store the generated page to your device. It will not work if you save a shared link or use a third-party browser like Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Brave.

When you bookmark links to newspaper articles, they often use tracking links or show some kind of consent screen. You would need to save the actual web page of the article instead, because such links or opt-in blockers can not be resolved automatically.

Another case where article extraction can fail are websites with outdated, non-standard or unstructured formats. For pages without semantic markup, it is simply not possible to determine what the actual content is. If text is contained in div or span elements instead of paragraphs, a parser can not know its meaning.

When saving an article, text as well as images are processed and converted to a minimal format.

Like with text paragraphs, images need to be formatted according to official standards as well. In case a website uses non-standard or unstructured formats, such non-semantic images can not be loaded.

Many websites also use so called "lazy loading" images, which are only downloaded when scrolled into view. Articles + supports such images as well, but only if they are implemented according to certain standards. If a website uses some other custom made image loading, it is not possible to determine an image's source.

In contrast to other read it later apps, Articles + allows to also save password or paywall protected pages.

This is however only possible when bookmarking from Safari or integrated in-app browsers, as in this case the page is directly stored on your local device. If you save a shared link or use a third-party browser, a protected url can not always be successfully resolved.

Articles + keeps your bookmarks, annotations and tags stored securely in Apple’s iCloud. Every time you change something on one device, it’s synced to all your other devices. Always have the latest version, when you start reading on your iPad or Mac and continue on your iPhone on the go.

All data is stored in a private database in your personal iCloud account. Storage limits apply and depend on your corresponding plan. Please note that you need to be signed in on your device with the same Apple ID on all platforms.

When iCloud synchronisation is enabled, changes to articles, annotations and tags are automatically synced to all connected devices.

Devices are notified of changes by silent push notifications. This requires Background App Refresh to be enabled for Articles + in Settings > General > Background App Refresh. As a fallback or if you do not want to enable automatic refreshing, a periodic sync fetches changes in regular intervals.

In most cases, synchronisation happens automatically and within minutes. But since notifications are not guaranteed to be always delivered or can be turned off, you might not see updates until the next periodic sync. In case changes are not transferred automatically, you can also use «pull-to-refresh» for a manual synchronisation.

Apple's iCloud service is used to store and sync your library. It's a secure and (in most cases) reliable service, but problems can occur. It is unfortunately not possible for developers to find out why something does not work for certain users.

Make sure iCloud is setup and working:

• Verify you are signed in:
  Settings > Apple ID
• Verify iCloud and iCloud Drive is enabled:
  Settings > Apple ID > iCloud Drive
  Settings > Apple ID > iCloud Drive > Articles
• Verify network connection is available (no flight mode, vpn etc.):
  Settings > Network

If iCloud can't be enabled or your library is not synced:

• Try again later
  → Maybe iCloud is temporarily unavailable
• Relaunch the app
  → This should refresh iCloud synchronization
• Restart your device
  → This should relaunch iCloud system services
• Uninstall/reinstall the app
  → This should reinitialise iCloud zones and records
• Logout/login from your Apple iCloud account (at your own risk):
  → This should reconnect your device and iCloud account

If iCloud storage or sync still does not work it's most likely a problem with your device or account. iCloud is a service provided by Apple, please refer to their documentation or contact Apple support for any iCloud related issues.

Apple iCloud Support:
https://support.apple.com/icloud

Articles + uses Apple’s iCloud to store and sync your library. Apple’s iCloud is a secure and (in most cases) reliable service, but problems can occur during synchronisation.

For general problems with iCloud, please refer to Apple’s official support:
https://support.apple.com/icloud

Below you find a list of the most common iCloud issues. Most problems are recoverable (e.g. no network), but some of them are fatal and require to re-enable synchronisation.

Recoverable Problems

Fatal Problems

In case of a fatal error, it is generally best to disable iCloud synchronisation for that particular device and enable it again after you fixed the problem. Since your data is stored in your local library and on Apple’s iCloud, the affected device should sync up again without any lost information.

Articles + supports external devices like keyboard, mouse or trackpads to navigate and perform common actions.

When you connect a mouse or trackpad to your iPad, a circular pointer appears on the display. Move the mouse or swipe on the trackpad just as you would with a desktop or notebook computer.

Refer to Apple's documentation to learn how to connect or use a Bluetooth wireless device with your iPad.

Connect a mouse or trackpad:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211009

Use a Bluetooth mouse or trackpad:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211008

Connecting a Bluetooth accessory to your iPad requires iPadOS 13.4.

Please note that not all devices are supported by Apple and certain features may not be available. For example, iPadOS doesn't support scrolling or other gestures with Apple Magic Mouse (1st generation) or Magic Trackpad (1st generation).

Keyboard shortcuts help you make efficient use of Article + reader features. You can e.g. go to the next page by using the arrow keys or create notes or copy selected text.

With a keyboard connected to your iPad, hold down the command key (⌘) for about two seconds and a window will pop up listing the available shortcuts on that screen.

Shortcuts for common tasks like notes, highlights or copy are available as context actions as well.

When a mouse or trackpad is connected, handling selected text works differently than when using touch gestures. Like on a Mac, you will need to first select some text using the cursor and then right click (control click) on the selection to show the available context menu.

How to right-click:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207700

Apple introduced a new productivity feature on iPadOS 15+ and macOS 12+ called Quick Note that aims to provide a quicker way to jot down things without you having to go in and out of the Notes app. When you activate it, the Notes app quickly opens and is available immediately.

You can bring up a floating Quick Note window on iPad using your finger or an Apple Pencil by swiping diagonally up from the bottom right corner of the screen. On Mac, Quick Note is implemented as a Hot Corner function. Pick a corner of the screen and move the cursor to that corner to trigger it.

Tap on the note brings up the virtual keyboard and you can begin typing. Quick Note also detects the app you are using and will show an Add Link button at the top of the editor window to insert a link to the current content.

When you are back on that content, a thumbnail of the note you saved before appears. Tap or click the preview to show your note. Likewise, selecting a previously added Quick Note link will open the corresponding content inside an app.

Additional information about Quick Note for iPad and Mac is available here:
MacRumours: How to Use Quick Note (iPadOS)
Macworld: How to use Quick Note (macOS)

Articles + supports to add Quick Note links to articles or annotations.

When reading an article, activate Quick Note to add a link back to the current content. If you select text and create a native annotation, the Add Link button allows to insert a reference to your note or highlight inside the app. To create a link for an existing annotation, tap the annotation and the Quick Note link button changes to the selected highlight.

Afterwards, if you come back to an article with an associated Quick Note, a thumbnail appears which lets you access your note. Or you can select a link you added to Quick Note to open the article or annotation inside Articles + again.

With Articles +, you can select text to create native annotations and export them from your library in text, markdown or json format.

At the moment, third-party apps can not directly add Quick Notes or have access to content inside Apple's Notes app. It is therefore not supported to add selected text or highlights to Quick Note and annotation export will not include your notes.

A shortcut is a quick way to get one or more tasks done with your apps. The Apple Shortcuts app lets you create your own shortcuts with multiple steps.

Articles + includes shortcuts to bookmark, list articles or annotations and export them in text, markdown or json format. All actions are available directly in the Apple Shortcuts app with iOS 16+ and can be freely combined with other ones.

The Bookmark shortcut allows to save an article for reading later. This action requires a url for input, that can be entered when running the shortcut or set from a variable of a previous step.

Bookmark article (example)

1. Add Bookmark shortcut
2. Set url or run to input a link

Individual articles can be exported in text, markdown or json format with the Export Article shortcut. When using the Find Article shortcut, you can also get a filtered list of articles to automate saving metadata and annotations of all your bookmarks.

Export article (example)

1. Add Export Article shortcut
2. Choose a format (text, markdown, json)
3. Choose one or run to select from latest

Export all articles (example)

1. Add Find Article shortcut
2. Optional: Add Filter (date, title, tag, ...)
3. Add Repeat with Each action after list output
4. Add Export Article shortcut for Repeat Item inside the loop
5. Use the Files app Save File action to save the export to e.g. iCloud Drive

Please note that exporting all articles only works with iOS 16.2+. Most likely this is an issue in Apple's Shortcuts app ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You can export selected annotations in text, markdown or json format with the Export Annotation shortcut. The Find Annotation shortcut lets you get a filtered list of annotations that can be used to for example synchronize your notes and highlights with external services like Readwise.

Export annotation (example)

1. Add Export Annotation shortcut
2. Choose a format (text, markdown, json)
3. Choose one or run to select from latest

Export all annotations (example)

1. Add Find Annotation shortcut
2. Optional: Add Filter (date, title, tag, ...)
3. Add Repeat with Each action after list output
4. Add Dictionary and set properties from Repeat Item inside the loop
5. Create new Dictionary action to save the export output in the required format

How you structure or upload highlights depends on the service. Refer to their documentation to learn more:

Readwise
https://readwise.io/api_deets
Raindrop.io
https://developer.raindrop.io/v1/highlights

For example for the Readwise API, you could save the generated annotations.json file and then upload it using the following Mac terminal curl command:

curl -is -X POST https://readwise.io/api/v2/highlights/ \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Token READWISE_API_TOKEN" \
-d @annotations.json

With Shortcuts, annotation export and upload to external services can be automated. Here is an example for Readwise, but the same concepts can be used for other APIs as well. This shortcut is available for download as a template.

Readwise highlights (example)

1. Add Find Annotation shortcut with the following options:
   Sort by created or modified, order by latest, limit to 30
2. Add Choose from List action to select some or all annotations
3. Add a Repeat with Each action for the Chosen Items afterwards
4. For each item, create a Dictionary with the highlight attributes
5. Use a Count script action to determine the number of items in Repeat Results
6. For a single annotation, create a Text object with the highlights structure containing the result
7. Otherwise, set the highlights Dictionary array and use the Get Text from Input action to convert it
8. Insert another Text to capture the If Result used as input for the next step
9. Use a Get Contents of URL action and configure it to upload the highlights:
   POST request to Readwise highlights endpoint
   Request body type File set to the Text contents
   Headers for json content type and authorization token

In summary, the shortcut transforms your annotations to the required json structure and uploads it to the Readwise highlights API endpoint. The text conversion is a workaround, because the Get Contents action somehow does not accept dictionaries for json body type inputs. This solution is based on the custom json payload approach published in Alex W.'s blog.

Readwise Highlights Shortcut

You can download the Readwise highlight shortcut as a template and adjust it to your needs. This shortcut is provided as is without warranty of any kind.

1. Download Shortcut template:
   Articles Readwise Template.shortcut
2. Open in Shortcuts app, you might need to allow untrusted:
   https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210628
3. Edit the template to replace READWISE_API_TOKEN with your token:
   https://readwise.io/access_token

For other questions or more details about Shortcuts, please refer to Apple's official documentation and support.

Shortcuts User Guide:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/shortcuts

Siri can show your most recent articles. Simply ask: "Hey Siri, show my bookmarks list in Articles".

Siri will respond by showing your most recent bookmarks. Tap on an entry to view the article's abstract or open it in the app to continue reading.

Each time you access an article, it is automatically donated as a Siri Shortcut. Siri learns your routines and can suggest articles on the Lock screen or in Search.

You can also run shortcuts by recording a personal phrase. On your iOS device, go to Settings > Siri & Search > All Shortcuts. There you will find all donated Shortcuts. Tap + to record your personalised phrase, which you then can use to run this shortcut.

In addition, all shortcuts are also available in Apple's Shortcuts app. When creating a custom shortcut, you can find them under Search > Apps > Articles or by searching for a specific article title.

Siri and Shortcuts are only supported on devices running iOS 12 or later.

Verify that Siri is enabled by going to Settings > Siri & Search. Toggle either Listen for "Hey Siri" or Press Side Button for Siri to enable Siri on your device.

Also make sure you granted Articles + permission to share data with Siri. Check the Use with Siri switch in Settings > Apps > Articles > Siri.

If Siri does not recognize your phrase, try to emphasize it slowly or correct it manually. After some time, Siri will learn to better understand your intended invocation.

For other questions about Siri, please consult Apple's documentation and support.

Use Siri on all your Apple devices:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204389

If Siri or "Hey Siri" isn't working:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207489

Use Siri Shortcuts:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209055

Location settings work in a somewhat non-intuitive way. As long as an app has not yet requested your permission, it will not be listed in your device settings and it can not be disabled. Settings only allow to change your preferences later.

The first time an app tries to access your location, it must ask for your permission. Apps won't use your location until they have asked for your permission and you grant permission.

In case you have not used this feature, you would need to first open an article and create an annotation. This will show the corresponding location permission dialog: tap on "Don't allow" and it should be disabled in settings.

Likewise, if you have already granted the location permission and changed your mind, you can update your preferences from Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Scroll down to find the app, tap the app and select an option.

For more details, see Apple Support:
Turn Location Services on or off
About privacy and Location Services

You can uninstall Articles + like any other app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.

On your iPhone or iPad, touch and hold an app from the home screen until all apps start to jiggle. Tap the remove icon in the upper-left corner of the app and confirm deletion.

If you have enabled the Cloud Library, data will still be stored in your personal iCloud account. In case you want to completely remove everything, you will need to manually delete it from the device settings.

Please note that this action can not be undone and will delete your articles from all synced devices:
Device Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage > Articles: Delete Data

On your Mac, move the Articles.app from the Applications folder to the trash. Local data will still be stored in the app's container.

Open Finder or the Terminal to manually delete it:
/Users/Your-User/Library/Containers/Articles

Articles + uses Apple's default text selection, which can sometimes be unreliable. The behaviour (and issues) are the same as when you for example select text in Safari browser.

What usually works best is to:

1. Long press on an individual word
2. Adjust the selection handles afterwards

There will likely be some optimizations in an upcoming iOS platform update. Please report this issue directly to Apple for it to be prioritized:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/

On macOS, you can right click text to get a context menu to create highlights or notes. But this no longer works on macOS Monterey because of a system level issue that can't be fixed.

It kind of works again on Ventura, but shows all menu entries instead of only the current. Please note that "Look up" and "Translate" are not available on macOS because this feature is somehow not supported on that platform.

It is recommended to use the toolbar or keyboard shortcuts for highlights/notes:
https://www.article-reader.com/support/faq/#peripherals-shortcuts

Due to a bug in macOS 11.4+, layout rendering for some Mac Catalyst apps no longer works as expected when an external monitor is connected. While the correct content is initially displayed, it breaks the more you scroll or change a page.

According to Apple, a system-level fix is required. It should now work again with macOS 12, but unfortunately a patch for macOS 11 will not be released.

There is no workaround available and you will need to either update to macOS 12 or disconnect external displays. Please report this problem directly to Apple:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/