Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
Yes, ReadKit can sync subscriptions, articles and read statuses between platforms with iCloud RSS and iCloud Read Later services, or by using one of the supported third-party feed aggregators and read-later services. The built-in RSS and Read Later services can also be used locally without syncing.
News services:
Read-later services:
Yes, ReadKit includes iCloud RSS and iCloud Read Later services. You can also use the built-in RSS and Read Later services locally without syncing.
The iCloud RSS service syncs feed subscriptions, folders, smart folders, and article read and starred statuses. RSS feeds remain the primary source for articles, so ReadKit does not upload RSS article content to iCloud. Instead, it syncs article read and starred statuses, improving sync speed and reducing network traffic. Starred RSS articles, including their content, are stored in iCloud while they remain starred. Unsubscribing from a feed removes its associated starred articles from ReadKit and iCloud. Smart folder notification settings remain specific to each device.
The iCloud Read Later service syncs saved articles, read and starred statuses, tags, and smart folders across your devices.
Smart folder definitions sync across devices with iCloud RSS and iCloud Read Later, but smart folder notifications remain device-specific. You can also export an account's settings, including its smart folders, from the account settings. Exported account settings can be imported individually on another device.
Smart folders are saved views that automatically collect articles matching the conditions you choose. Instead of moving articles manually, ReadKit checks new and existing articles and keeps each smart folder up to date.
You can create rules based on details such as an article's title, content, URL, or date. For text, a rule can look for words or phrases that contain, do not contain, begin with, end with, exactly match, or do not exactly match the text you enter. For dates, you can find articles from the last day, week, month, or year, or articles that are not from those periods.
Rules can be combined to describe exactly what you want to see. When you choose All of the following are true, an article must meet every rule. With Any of the following are true, meeting at least one rule is enough. With None of the following are true, the article must fail every rule in that group.
You can also place groups of rules inside other groups. This lets you build combinations such as articles about either topic A or topic B, but only when they were published recently. Think of each group as a question: the article must satisfy all, any, or none of the conditions inside it.
The list uses indentation to show which rules belong to which group. A rule that is farther to the right is inside the group above it. To move a rule out of its current group and one level higher, decrease its indentation from the context menu: right-click the rule on macOS or long-press it on iOS. You can also drag rules to move them and organize the groups they belong to.
You can use a negative rule when you want to exclude a match. For example, “title does not contain travel” keeps articles with “travel” out of the folder. For groups of rules, choose the option that describes how the conditions should be combined: “All” requires every condition to match, “Any” requires at least one condition to match, and “None” requires no condition to match.
Smart folders can optionally notify you when new matching articles arrive. They can also automatically mark those new articles as read or starred, helping you organize recurring searches without extra work.
iCloud sync uses the RSS feeds themselves as the primary source of truth. ReadKit does not store RSS article content in iCloud. This keeps synchronization faster and significantly reduces network traffic.
Your devices may not sync at exactly the same time. For example, if an article disappears from its source feed before another device has synchronized, the devices may show different results. A later sync cannot restore an item that is no longer available in the source feed, so the difference may persist.
iCloud synchronizes feed subscriptions, folders, smart folders, and article read and starred statuses across your devices. Smart folder notification settings are kept separately on each device.
The Keep Read Items setting determines how long ReadKit retains read-item statuses, and this setting is synchronized across devices. Keep the value as short as practical. The default is 3 days; a shorter period means fewer old status records need to be synchronized, reducing iCloud traffic.
Starred articles are saved in iCloud for as long as they remain starred. If you unsubscribe from a feed, ReadKit also removes that feed's associated starred articles from ReadKit and iCloud. Having many starred articles can make the initial sync slower.
Importing a large number of subscriptions through an OPML file can also increase the time required for the initial sync.
Custom app icons are available on iOS and iPadOS. The macOS version does not include the custom app icon feature, so its app icon cannot be changed from ReadKit. This option is limited to the mobile platforms.
First of all, you should have a news reader account in ReadKit. It can be any of the supported news reader aggregators or the built-in RSS service. Then, you can add subscriptions by tapping the + button on the bottom left on the sidebar / folder list on iOS or by selecting "File" menu's "Add subscription..." on macOS.
The macOS version of ReadKit also has a Safari Extension, that can recognize the embedded feed of visited pages. You can select between the recognized channels and subscribe them in ReadKit by pressing the toolbar button. The "Subscribe in ReadKit" Safari Extension can be enabled in the "Extensions" preferences of Safari.
You can save RSS entries into iCloud Read Later, the built-in Read Later service, or another configured 3rd-party service by pressing the bookmark toolbar icon or selecting "Read Later..." from the context menu of the entry list. Articles saved to iCloud Read Later are synced across your devices, while the built-in Read Later service stores articles locally without syncing. It is also possible to save articles from other applications, such as browsers, for reading later with the "Read Later in ReadKit" share extension, which is accessible through the share menu of other apps.
Select the "Mail Article" option under the share toolbar item or from the "Item" menu on macOS.
Some feeds doesn't include the full content of the posts, just a summary. ReadKit has built-in reader mode, which can extract the content of the original article. The content parser doesn't communicate with any external text parsing service, it extract the content directly from the original page, and protects your privacy. Reader mode can be turned on by the "Show reader mode" (article) toolbar button on individual articles, or it can be turned on automatically on a feed subscription by enabling "Use reader mode by default" option of feed settings. Feed settings are reachable through the "Manage..." option of context menu.
ReadKit Premium
ReadKit's core functionality is available for free, completely free — no ads, no data mining. If you like it and want to unlock additional features, you can do so through by subscribing to ReadKit Premium with a single universal purchase. It unlocks all premium features and removes all restrictions on both platforms. In addition to the universal ReadKit Premium, separate lifetime plans are now available for iOS/iPadOS and macOS, and a free trial is also offered.
- Multi-Account Support: Manage multiple accounts simultaneously.
- Unlimited Smart Folders: Create and customize more than one smart folder per account.
- Enhanced Reader Mode: Extract full-text content from articles, even when missing from the feed source.
- Article Summary: summarize articles using AI on supported devices (requires ReadKit Premium, Apple Intelligence and iOS 26).
- Unlimited Feeds: Remove the 20-feed limit for the built-in RSS service.
- Advanced Organization Tools: Organize feeds and articles into folders or tags.
- Image Caching: Enjoy offline reading with cached images.
- Themes: Unlock exclusive themes.
- Custom Icons: Choose custom app icons on iOS.
- Full OPML Support: Import and export feed subscriptions with ease.
- Account and Smart Folder Export: Export account settings with smart folders and import them individually.
- Early Access: Enjoy upcoming premium features as they're released.