News Explorer

Tips and Tricks


News Explorer is a newsreader with a built-in download engine that supports RSS 2.0, RDF, ATOM, JSON, Reddit, YouTube, Podcast and Mastodon feeds. News Explorer runs on Mac computers (macOS), iPhone (iOS), iPad (iPadOS), Apple Watch (watchOS) and Apple TV (tvOS). News Explorer offers automatic iCloud synchronization of feeds, folders, filters and news including their settings and statuses.

Adding feeds

Click on the device type below to read more about adding RSS, RDF, Atom or JSON web feeds.

With the Mac version of News Explorer, you have five options to add new web feeds.

  • Add new feeds by searching:
    1. Choose File > Search… in the menu.
    2. Enter one or more search phrases.
    3. Press the Enter key on your keyboard.
    4. Select one or more search results.
    5. Choose a folder for the new feeds.
    6. Click on the 'Add selected Feeds' button.

  • Add feeds manually:
    1. Choose File > New Web Feed… in the menu.
    2. Enter the feed URL or website URL, for websites with auto discovery feed metadata.
    3. The detected feed or feeds will be presented in a dropdown. Select the desired feed when more than one is detected.
    4. Choose a folder for the new feed.
    5. Click on the 'Add Feed' button.

  • Add feeds from a webpage in Safari:
    1. Click on the Share button on the toolbar.
    2. Click on the Add to News Explorer menu item. Read the Troubleshooting section below if you don't see this item.
    3. News Explorer will be started, showing the feed URL (when available) in a dialog.

  • Add feeds from a webpage in Chrome:
    1. Choose File > Share > Add to News Explorer in the menu.
    2. News Explorer will be started, showing the feed URL (when available) in a dialog.

  • Add new feeds by clicking a feed URL:
    1. Click on a feed URL (these are URL's that start with 'feed:'.
    2. A confirmation dialog may appear, asking to allow opening the link in News Explorer.
    3. News Explorer will be started and will show a dialog with the new feed URL.
    4. Choose a folder for the new feed.
    5. Click on the 'Add Feed' button.

  • Add new feeds by importing an OPML file:
    1. Choose File > Import OPML… in the menu.
    2. Select an OPML file.
    3. Click on the 'Import' button.

In the iOS version of News Explorer, you have five options to add new feeds.

  • Add new feeds by searching:
    1. Tap on the + icon at the bottom of the feeds list.
    2. Tap Search New Feeds.
    3. Enter one or more search phrases.
    4. Press the Search button on the keyboard.
    5. Select one or more search results.
    6. Tap Done.
    7. Choose a folder for the new feed.

  • Add feed manually:
    1. Tap on the + icon at the bottom of the feeds list.
    2. Tap New Web Feed.
    3. Enter or paste the feed URL or website URL, for websites with auto discovery feed metadata.
    4. The detected feed or feeds will be presented in a list. Tap the desired feed when more than one is detected.
    5. Tap Done.
    6. Choose a folder for the new feed.

  • Add feeds from a webpage in Safari
    1. Tap on the Share button in the toolbar.
    2. Tap on the Add to News Explorer item. Read the Troubleshooting section below if you don't see this item.
    3. News Explorer will be started, showing the feed URL (when available) in a dialog.

  • Add new feeds by clicking an feed URL:
    1. Tap on a feed URL (these are URL's that start with 'feed:'.
    2. News Explorer will be started and will present a dialog with the new feed URL.
    3. Tap Done.
    4. Choose a folder for the new feed.

  • Add new feeds by importing an OPML file:
    1. Tap on the Configuration button on the right side on top of the feeds view.
    2. Tap on Import OPML.
    3. A file selection dialog will be shown, showing the content of your iCloud Drive.
    4. Tap on the Locations button if you want to use another source, like DropBox.
    5. Then tap on the OPML file that you want to import.

In the tvOS version of News Explorer, you can add new feeds by searching.

  1. Press the Menu button on your remote, until the Search tab menu becomes visible.
  2. Select the Search tab.
  3. Enter one or more search phrases.
  4. Select an article from the search results.
  5. Choose a folder for the new feed or make a new one by selecting the + button.

The news article list of News Explorer on the Apple Watch is based on the latest news downloaded by the News Explorer app on your iPhone. There is no additional configuration needed on your Apple Watch. To change the article list source for the Apple Watch, long press on an item in the Feeds list on your iPhone, and select Show on Apple Watch in the popup context menu.

Click on the device type below to read more about adding Mastodon feeds.

With the Mac version of News Explorer, you have two options to add new Mastodon feeds.

  • Add a Mastodon feed manually:
    1. Choose File > New Mastodon Feed… in the menu.
    2. Enter a Mastodon account name including the @-prefix and @-server postfix, like @betamagic@mastodon.social. Or simply add the Mastodon account name without any pre- and postfix if the account is located on mastodon.social.
    3. The detected feed or feeds will be presented in a dropdown. Select the desired feed when more than one is detected.
    4. Choose a folder for the new feed.
    5. Click on the 'Add Feed' button.

  • Add a Mastodon feed by searching:
    1. Choose File > Search… in the menu.
    2. Change the feed source to Mastodon Feeds.
    3. Enter one or more search phrases.
    4. Press the Enter key on your keyboard.
    5. Select one or more search results.
    6. Choose a folder for the new feeds.
    7. Click on the 'Add selected Feeds' button.

In the iOS version of News Explorer, you have two options to add new Mastodon feeds.

  • Add a Mastodon feed manually:
    1. Tap on the + icon at the bottom of the feeds list.
    2. Tap New Mastodon Feed.
    3. Enter a Mastodon account name including the @-prefix and @-server postfix, like @betamagic@mastodon.social. Or simply add the Mastodon account name without any pre- and postfix if the account is located on mastodon.social.
    4. The detected feed or feeds will be presented in a list. Tap the desired feed when more than one is detected.
    5. Tap Done.
    6. Choose a folder for the new feed.

  • Add new feeds by searching:
    1. Tap on the + icon at the bottom of the feeds list.
    2. Tap Search New Feeds.
    3. Change the feed source to Mastodon Feeds.
    4. Enter one or more search phrases.
    5. Press the Search button on the keyboard.
    6. Select one or more search results.
    7. Tap Done.
    8. Choose a folder for the new feed.

In the tvOS version of News Explorer, you can add new Mastodon feeds by searching.

  1. Press the Menu button on your remote, until the Search tab menu becomes visible.
  2. Select the Search tab.
  3. Change the feed source to Mastodon Feeds by highlighting it.
  4. Enter one or more search phrases.
  5. Select an item from the search results.
  6. Choose a folder for the new feed or make a new one by selecting the + button.

The news article list of News Explorer on the Apple Watch is based on the latest news downloaded by the News Explorer app on your iPhone. There is no additional configuration needed on your Apple Watch. To change the article list source for the Apple Watch, long press on an item in the Feeds list on your iPhone, and select Show on Apple Watch in the popup context menu.

Click on the device type below to read more about adding Reddit feeds.

Follow these steps to add a Reddit feed:

  1. Choose File > New Reddit Feed… in the menu.
  2. Enter a Reddit subreddit name.
  3. The detected feed or feeds will be presented in a dropdown. Select the desired feed when more than one is detected.
  4. Choose a folder for the new feed.
  5. Click on the 'Add Feed' button.

Follow these steps to add a Reddit feed:

  1. Tap on the + icon at the bottom of the feeds list.
  2. Tap New Reddit Feed.
  3. Enter a Reddit subreddit name.
  4. The detected feed or feeds will be presented in a list. Tap the desired feed when more than one is detected.
  5. Tap Done.
  6. Choose a folder for the new feed.

In the tvOS version of News Explorer, you can add new Reddit feeds by searching.

  1. Press the Menu button on your remote, until the Search tab menu becomes visible.
  2. Select the Search tab.
  3. Enter a Reddit subreddit name including the r/ prefix.
  4. Select an item from the search results.
  5. Choose a folder for the new feed or make a new one by selecting the + button.

The news article list of News Explorer on the Apple Watch is based on the latest news downloaded by the News Explorer app on your iPhone. There is no additional configuration needed on your Apple Watch. To change the article list source for the Apple Watch, long press on an item in the Feeds list on your iPhone, and select Show on Apple Watch in the popup context menu.

Click on the device type below to read more about adding YouTube feeds.

Follow these steps to add a YouTube feed:

  1. Choose File > New YouTube Feed… in the menu.
  2. Enter a YouTube channel name.
  3. The detected feed or feeds will be presented in a dropdown. Select the desired feed when more than one is detected.
  4. Choose a folder for the new feed.
  5. Click on the 'Add Feed' button.

Follow these steps to add a YouTube feed:

  1. Tap on the + icon at the bottom of the feeds list.
  2. Tap New YouTube Feed.
  3. Enter a YouTube channel name.
  4. The detected feed or feeds will be presented in a list. Tap the desired feed when more than one is detected.
  5. Tap Done.
  6. Choose a folder for the new feed.

The news article list of News Explorer on the Apple Watch is based on the latest news downloaded by the News Explorer app on your iPhone. There is no additional configuration needed on your Apple Watch. To change the article list source for the Apple Watch, long press on an item in the Feeds list on your iPhone, and select Show on Apple Watch in the popup context menu.

Managing feeds

All changes you make are automatically synced to your other devices via iCloud.

Click on the device type below to read more.

In the Mac version of News Explorer, you have following feed management options:

  • Move a feed:
    1. Select a feed in the sidebar.
    2. Hold down your left mouse button and drag the feed to a new position until a blue horizontal line becomes visible.
    3. Release the mouse button.

  • Sort feeds within a folder:
    1. Select a folder in the sidebar.
    2. Choose Folder > Sort Alphabetically > Content of this Folder.

  • Edit a feed:
    1. Select a feed in the sidebar.
    2. Choose Feed > Settings in the menu.
    3. Edit the feed properties that you want to change.
    4. Click on the 'Save' button.

  • Delete a feed:
    1. Select a feed in the sidebar.
    2. Choose Feed > Delete… in the menu.
    3. Click on 'Delete' to confirm the removal.

  • Delete multiple feeds:
    1. Choose Window > Feed Manager in the menu.
    2. Select the correct account, if you use multiple accounts.
    3. Select the feeds you want to delete by selecting the related rows.
    4. Press and hold ⌘ Command to extend your selection of feeds.
    5. Click on the Delete Selected Feeds button to initiate the feed deletion.

In the iOS version of News Explorer, you have following feed management options:

  • Move a feed:
    1. Tap on the ••• icon on top of the feeds list.
    2. Tap on Edit Feeds in the menu.
    3. The feeds list is shown in edit modus, with on the right side of each feed a drag icon.
    4. Tap and hold down on this icon next to the feed you'd like to move.
    5. Drag it up or down in the list. Repeat this for each feed you'd like to move around until the order is to your liking. Then tap the Done button in the upper right hand corner to return to your feeds list.

  • Move a feed to a new folder:
    1. Tap on the ••• icon on top of the feeds list.
    2. Tap on Edit Feeds in the menu.
    3. Select the feed that you want to move to the new folder.
    4. Tap on the Move To... button in the bottom toolbar.
    5. Select the new folder from the folder list.
    6. Then tap the Done button in the upper right hand corner to return to your feeds list.

  • Edit a feed:
    1. Long press on the feed in the feeds list.
    2. Choose Edit in the menu that appears.
    3. Edit the properties of the feed that you want to modify.
    4. Tap on the Save button.

  • Delete a feed:
    1. Swipe from right to left on the feed you'd like to delete.
    2. Choose Delete in the menu that appears.
    3. Confirm with tapping Delete in the confirmation dialog.

  • Delete multiple feeds:
    1. Tap on the ••• icon on top of the feeds list.
    2. Tap Feed Manager.
    3. In the Feed Manager, tap on the Edit button.
    4. Select the feeds you want to delete by tapping on the circle located for each feed.
    5. Tap on Delete Selected Feeds button in the bottom toolbar to initiate the deletion.

In the tvOS version of News Explorer, you have following feed management options:

  • Move a feed:
    1. Select the feed you'd like to move in the feeds list and select it again on the remote to activate a menu.
    2. Choose Move….
    3. Select the folder where you'd like to move the feed to.

  • Delete a feed:
    1. Select the feed you'd like to delete and press again on the remote to activate a menu.
    2. Choose Delete.
    3. Confirm by selecting Delete in the confirmation dialog.

Settings on feed level can be administered in the Feed settings dialog. This dialog can be opened by double-clicking or double-tapping on a feed in the feeds list, or via the Settings menu item in the right-click (macOS) or long-press (iOS) context menu. All changes you make are automatically synced to your other devices via iCloud, if the feed stored in iCloud.

In the Feed settings dialog, you can view and edit the following feed settings:

General tab Description
Icon Click or tap on the icon on top of the Feed settings dialog to open a popup where you can select an alternative icon, if available.
Title Title of the feed as displayed in the app.
Link The source link of the feed. Click or tap on the button with the pen icon to change the link.
Website The link of the website related to the feed. Click or tap on the button with the pen icon to change the link.
Account The storage account associated with the feed. Read-only. Could be iCloud or an On My Device account.
Folder The folder where the feed is assigned to. Click or tap on the dropdown to change the folder.
Sorting The sorting of articles within the feed, when openend as feed. Click or tap on the dropdown to change the sorting.
Status Determines if new articles must be downloaded as part of the sync procedure. Choose Inactive the feed when this is no longer needed.
Show in Notification center Determines if the feed must be included to be shown in Notification center, after downloading new articles. This setting is disabled when Notifications are disabled on system level for the app.
Show in Spotlight Determines if the feed must be indexed by Spotlight. This setting is disabled (macOS) or hidden (iOS) when Spotlight indexing is disabled in the General section of the app settings.
Prefilters tab Description
Do not download articles with titles containing Add one or more keywords to this section to prevent downloading articles that contain any of the added keywords.
Only download articles with titles containing Add one or more keywords to this section to only download articles that contain any of the added keywords.
Syncing tab Description
Use feed update interval data When activated, the sync interval as included in the feed metadata is being used to determine if the feed needs to be refreshed during a sync session.
Auto correct invalid feed data Corrects some common errors with feed data, like incorrect encoding, before parsing it. This setting is automatically activated when adding a feed, when necessary.
Ignore last build date Determines is the last build date metadata field of a feed can be used to determine if the feed contains new articles.
Account Show the user name and an edit button when the feed needs authentication. When this is not the case, this setting is not visible (iOS) or disabled (macOS).
Reading tab Description
Article view The default article view that must be used for this feed. With this you can overrule the default article view that is set on app level. See action Reading news for more info.
Enable JavaScript Determines if JavaScript can be executed within the article viewer. Applicable on all article view types, except Safari view controller (iOS).
Enable private browsing When enabled, the website will not be allowed to permanently store cookies and other data. Applicable on all article view types, except Safari view controller (iOS).
Prevent autoplay media When enabled, prevents that video or audio automatically starts when you open an article. Applicable on all article view types, except Safari view controller (iOS).
External links Determines if the external link, when the article has one, must be displayed on top of the article, and whether the external link must be used for Reader view.
Comments Determines if comments, if available, must be automatically downloaded when opening an article.

Managing folders

Feeds in News Explorer are stored in folders. A folder named 'Feeds' is automatically made for you, when you start the app for the first time. You can add new folders, and in macOS and iOS, also rename folders, reorder folders and move feeds from one folder to another. All changes you make regarding folders are synced automatically to your other devices via iCloud, if the folder is associated with the iCloud storage account.

Click on the device type below to read more.

In the Mac version of News Explorer, you have following folder management options:

  • Add a new folder:
    1. Choose Folder > New… in the menu.
    2. Enter a new folder name.
    3. Click on the 'Add' button.

    Perform these steps to add the new folder to the sidebar:

    1. Select a feed that you want to move to the new folder
    2. Right-click to make the context menu visible.
    3. Select Move to > Name of your new folder
    4. The feed will be moved to the new folder and will become visible.
    5. You can now drag-and-drop other feeds to the new folder.

  • Move a folder:
    1. Select a folder in the sidebar.
    2. Hold down your left mouse button and drag the folder to a new position until a blue horizontal line becomes visible.
    3. Release the mouse button.

  • Sort all folders:
    1. Select a folder in the sidebar.
    2. Choose Folder > Sort Alphabetically > All Folders.

  • Edit a folder:
    1. Select a folder in the sidebar.
    2. Choose Folder > Settings in the context menu.
    3. Edit the folder properties.
    4. Click on the 'Save' button.

  • Delete a folder:
    1. Choose Window > Folder Manager in the menu.
    2. Select the folder that you want to delete.
    3. Click on 'Delete selected folder' button.

In the iOS version of News Explorer, you have following folder management options:

  • Add a new folder:
    1. Tap on the + icon at the bottom of the feeds list.
    2. Tap Add new Folder.
    3. Enter a new folder name.
    4. Tap on the Add Folder button.
    5. The new folder will be added to the database, and can be used next time you add or manage feeds.

  • Move a folder:
    1. Tap on the ••• icon on top of the feeds list.
    2. Tap on Edit Feeds in the menu.
    3. The feeds list is shown in edit modus, with on the right side of each folder and feed a drag icon.
    4. Tap and hold down on this icon next to the folder you'd like to move.
    5. Drag it up or down in the list. Then tap the Done button in the upper right hand corner to return to your feeds list.
    6. Alternatively you can also move folders in the Folder Manager, which can be opened via the ••• action menu on top of the feeds list.

  • Edit a folder:
    1. Long press on the folder in the feeds list.
    2. Tap on Settings in the context menu.
    3. Edit the feed.
    4. Tap on the Save button.

  • Delete a folder:
    1. Tap on the ••• icon on top of the feeds list.
    2. Tap on Folder Manager in then menu.
    3. A list with folder names appears, deletable folders are displayed with a red removal icon.
    4. Tap on the red - button before the folder you'd like to delete.
    5. Tap on the Delete button to confirm the removal.

In the tvOS version of News Explorer, you have following folder and feed management options:

  • Add a new folder:
    1. You can a new folder as part of the feed search procedure by selecting the + button in the upper right hand corner.

  • Move a feed:
    1. Select the feed you'd like to move in the feeds list and select it again on the remote to activate a menu.
    2. Choose Move….
    3. Select the folder where you'd like to move the feed to.

In the Folder settings dialog you can edit the folder title and overrule app settings for sorting and grouping. All changes you make are automatically synced to your other devices via iCloud.


Do this to open the Folder settings:

  1. Select a folder in the sidebar.
  2. Choose Folder > Settings in the context menu.

Viewing feeds

Reading news in News Explorer using the List view is very similar to reading mail messages in the Mail app:

  1. Select a filter, folder or feed in the sidebar (macOS, iPadOS and tvOS) or feeds list (iOS).
  2. The articles of the selected source will be opened in the article list view.
  3. Select a news article you'd like to read.
  4. The article is shown in the article reading view on the right side (macOS, iPadOS and tvOS) or on the next view (iOS).

Follow these steps to open the List view, in case you are currently in the Timeline view:

macOS
  • Press ⌘ Command + 1 on the keyboard to open the List view.
  • Or click on the list icon in the toolbar.
iOS
  • Tap the list icon on top of the feeds list to open the List view.
tvOS
  • Select Menu on the remote and activate Feeds on top of the screen.

In macOS and iOS you can navigate to the original news article by pressing/tapping the title of a news article. Furthermore, you can change the look and feel of the list view. For more info, read the Viewing part of the Settings section below.

Instead of using the article list for browsing and selecting news articles you can also use the Timeline view. This view shows all articles in a newspaper like way with news article summaries shown side by side accompanied with thumbnails, if available.


Follow these steps to open the Timeline view, and to open articles in the Timeline view:

macOS
  • Press ⌘ Command + 2 on the keyboard to open the Timeline view.
  • Double-click or press Enter to open the original news article.
iOS
  • Tap the thumbnails icon on top of the feeds list to open the Timeline view.
  • Tap a article to open the original news article.
  • Perform a long tap to activate a context menu.
tvOS
  • Select Menu on the remote and activate Timeline on top of the screen.
  • Select a article to open the news article in a separate view.

In macOS and iPadOS you can change the filter, feed or folder in the sidebar, in iOS in the feeds list. To show the sidebar or feeds list while being the in the Timeline view when using iPadOS or iOS, tap on the sidebar button (iPadOS) or navigate back button (iOS) in the navigation bar. Alternatively, you can swipe from the left edge to the middle.

Filtering news

Sidebar filters, or ‘Smart folders’ as Apple likes to call them, are fully customizable filters, allowing you to make a selection on your news according your own conditions. You can add as many filters as you like, and they are all synced across all your devices. Filters created in iOS do work and can be edited in macOS and vice versa, with one exception. In macOS, you can create complex filters with nested filters. These complex filters are synced to and do work on other platforms, but can only be edited in macOS.

Click on the device type below to read more about adding and editing sidebar filters:

Follow these steps to add a new filter:

  1. Choose File > New Filter in the menu.
  2. The Filter editor appears, with a preselected ‘All’ main comparison operator and a ‘Title’ condition field.
  3. The condition field is a dropdown control, which allows you to select another condition field.
  4. Each condition field has an accompanying condition value control, and depending on the field, a comparison operator dropdown.
  5. You can add additional conditions by clicking on the + button at the right side of an existing condition.
  6. Conditions can be removed by clicking on the - button at the right side of an existing condition. Removing is only possible after adding additional conditions.
  7. To add a nested condition, hold down the ⌥ Option button on your keyboard while clicking on the + button in the Filter editor.
  8. Adjust the main comparison operator, add, remove and adjust conditions until you have the filter you need.
  9. Enter a title for the filter.
  10. Optionally choose an icon for the filter.
  11. Save changes by clicking on the Save button.

Follow these steps to edit an existing filter:

  1. Select the feed in the feeds list.
  2. Choose Filter > Settings in the menu.
  3. Add, remove and adjust conditions as needed.
  4. Optionally change title and icon for the filter.
  5. Save changes by clicking on the Save button.

Delete a filter by following these steps:

  1. Select the feed in the feeds list.
  2. Choose Filter > Delete in the menu.
  3. Confirm the deletion.

Follow these steps to add a new filter:

  1. Tap on the + button at the bottom of the feeds list, and select New Filter in the menu.
  2. The Filter editor appears, with a preselected ‘All’ main comparison operator and a ‘Title’ condition field.
  3. The condition field is a dropdown control, which allows you to select another condition field.
  4. Each condition field has an accompanying condition value control, and depending on the field, a comparison operator dropdown.
  5. You can add additional conditions by tapping on the Add Condition button located under the last added condition.
  6. Conditions can be removed by tapping on the - sign before an existing condition. This is only possible after adding additional conditions.
  7. Adjust the main comparison operator, add, remove and adjust conditions until you have the filter you need.
  8. Enter a title for the filter.
  9. Optionally choose an icon for the filter.
  10. Save changes by tapping on the Save button.

Follow these steps to edit an existing filter:

  1. Long press on the filter until a context menu appears.
  2. Select Settings from the context menu.
  3. Add, remove and adjust conditions as needed.
  4. Optionally change title and icon for the filter.
  5. Save changes by tapping on the Save button.

Delete a filter by following these steps:

  1. Long press on the filter until a context menu appears.
  2. Select Delete from the context menu.
  3. Confirm the deletion.

In the tvOS version of News Explorer, you cannot add or edit filters to the sidebar. However, filters made and edited on other devices will appear in the tvOS app after syncing with iCloud.

>In the watchOS version of News Explorer, you cannot add or edit filters. However, you can select a filter in the feeds list on your iPhone as source on your Apple Watch, by tapping on the Show on Apple Watch menu item of the long press context menu of a selected feed.


In addition to the customizable filters as discussed above, there is a special ‘All Articles’ filter with special behavior. This filter is displayed as first filter. The filter adapts to the global article filter available at the bottom of the feeds list, regarding title, filtering, and icon. The filter can be removed just like any other filter. If it is removed it can be re-added later by selecting the Restore All Articles Filter item from the + menu.

You can apply a global data filter on the feeds list, articles list and timeline, to show only show articles that are still unread or marked as favorite.
macOS
  • Press ⌥ Option (Alt) + 2 to apply the global 'Unread articles' filter.
  • Press ⌥ Option (Alt) + 3 to apply the global 'Favorites' filter.
  • Press ⌥ Option (Alt) + 1 to remove the global filter.
iOS
  • Tap the circle icon in the middle of the bottom toolbar to apply the global 'Unread articles' filter.
  • Tap the star icon on the bottom toolbar to apply the global 'Favorites' filter.
  • Tap the four lines icon on the bottom toolbar to remove the global filter.

When filter 'Unread articles' is active, you can manually clear the articles that you've just read with the Clear read articles command.

macOS
Press C on the keyboard.
iOS
Tap the clear button on the bottom bar, located at the right side.

Setting After clearing read articles works together with the new 'Clear read articles' command. The default option is Select next article, but you can also opt for Select first article or Do nothing.

You can add prefilters to feeds to prevent downloading unwanted news. Click on the device type below to learn more.

Follow these steps to add or edit prefilters of a feed:

  1. Select a feed in the sidebar.
  2. Choose Feed > Settings in the menu.
  3. Click on the Prefilters tab.
  4. Start typing a phrase in one of the two input boxes, and press ⏎ Enter on your keyboard to save the phrase as prefilter.
  5. To delete a prefilter, click on it and press Delete on your keyboard.
  6. Add prefilters to the first input box to prevent downloading articles with titles that contain any of the set prefilters.
  7. Add prefilters to the second input box to only download articles with titles that contain at least one of the set prefilters.
  8. Save changes by clicking on the Save button.

Copy prefilters from a feed by following these steps:

  1. Select a feed in the sidebar.
  2. Choose Feed > Copy Prefilters in the menu.

Paste prefilters to one feed by following these steps:

  1. Select a feed in the sidebar.
  2. Choose Feed > Paste Prefilters in the menu.

Paste prefilters to all feeds in a folder by following these steps:

  1. Select a folder in the sidebar.
  2. Choose Folder > Paste Prefilters in the menu.
  3. In case the folder contains 5 feeds or more, confirm the Confirmation dialog.

Follow these steps to add or edit prefilters of a feed:

  1. Long press on the feed until a context menu appears, and choose Settings.
  2. Open the Prefilters tab.
  3. Click on Add Prefilter to add a prefilter phrase.
  4. A textbox dialog will appear to enter a new prefilter. Tap on the Add Prefilter button to add the new prefilter to the feed.
  5. To delete a prefilter from the feed, tap on the - sign before the prefilter in the list.
  6. Add prefilters to the first prefilter list to prevent downloading articles with titles that contain any of the set prefilters.
  7. Add prefilters to the second prefilter list to only download articles with titles that contain at least one of the set prefilters.
  8. Save changes to all your prefilters editing for the feed by clicking on the Save button.

Copy prefilters from a feed by following these steps:

  1. Select a feed in the sidebar.
  2. Choose Feed > Copy Prefilters in the menu.

Paste prefilters to one feed by following these steps:

  1. Select a feed in the sidebar.
  2. Choose Feed > Paste Prefilters in the menu.

Do this to paste prefilters to all feeds in a folder:

  1. Select a folder in the sidebar.
  2. Choose Folder > Paste Prefilters in the menu.
  3. In case the folder contains 5 feeds or more, confirm the Confirmation dialog.

Feed settings can not be changed in the tvOS version of News Explorer. However, changes made on other devices with News Explorer will sync with the tvOS version, including prefilters.

You can search for articles in the current database using full text search.
macOS
  • Press ⌘ Command + F on the keyboard.
  • Type one or more search phrases in the search box.
  • Search results are updated while you type.
iOS
  • Open a filter, folder or feed from the feeds list.
  • Scroll the article list to the top. As a shortcut you can tap on the status bar on top of the screen.
  • A search bar will be displayed.
  • Type one or more search phrases in the search box.
  • Search results are updated while you type.

Reading news

Feed articles can be read in different ways in News Explorer. In order to understand and make efficient use of all reading options in News Explorer, it is important to understand how they are named in the app.


Feed Article
This is the unaltered feed article as downloaded from the feed source. Depending on the feed, this concerns just a summary or first few paragraphs of the referred source article, or it concerns the whole article.
  • Toolbar icon: shows the outline icon of the default Reader view engine, as defined in the Settings. If the Reader view is manually triggered, the shown icon is a filled variant of the icon of the applied Reader view engine.
Mercury Reader
The news article is presented in Reader view generated by the Mercury Reader library. Reader view extracts the entire original news article from the web, and present it in a clean and easy-to-read format in the article viewer. This is also called ‘Full text retrieval’.
  • Sub options: Mercury Reader has the following sub option:
    • Optimize parsing if possible: when enabled, the parsing engine will use special optimized algorithms for popular feeds.
  • Toolbar icon: filled Mercury Reader icon (large M), or outline Mercury Reader icon if the Reader view is not yet available.
Arc90 Readability
The news article is presented in Reader view generated by the Arc90 Readability library.
  • Sub options: Arc90 Readability has the following sub option:
    • Optimize parsing if possible: when enabled, the parsing engine will use special optimized algorithms for popular feeds.
  • Toolbar icon: filled Arc90 Readability icon (sofa), or outline Arc90 Readability icon if the Reader view is not yet available.
Web Article
The original complete website article will be opened, including all styling, ads, etc. With default settings, you can always open the Website view of an article by clicking or tapping on the article title.
  • Sub options: Web Article view has the following sub option:
    • Open in Safari view controller (iOS only): when enabled, the article will be loaded in Safari view controller, which has a lot in common with Safari.
  • Toolbar icon: filled Safari web browser icon.

You can configure a default article view for all feeds in the macOS, iOS and iPadOS editions of News Explorer. To do that, follow these steps:

  1. Open app settings as discussed in the Settings section below.
  2. Open the Reading section.
  3. Select a article view for Default article view. The available article views are discussed in the previous Article view options section.

Sub options

Depending on the selected article view type, you may see some additional options:

Skip feeds with full articles

When you select 'Mercury Reader' or 'Arc90 Readability' as default article view, you'll see an additional option Skip feeds with full articles. When enabled, articles of feeds with full articles are not processed by the chosen reader view engine.

Optimize parsing if possible

This sub option is visible when 'Mercury Reader' or 'Arc90 Readability' is selected as default article view. When this option is enabled, the parsing engine will use special optimized algorithms for popular feeds.

Open in Safari view controller

This sub option is visible when 'Website View' is selected in the iOS or iPadOS app. When selected, the app opens articles in Safari view controller, a standard view controller of Apple which gives more-or-less the same web browsing experience as in Safari — including features like Password Autofill, Reader, and Secure Browsing. When disabled, the app opens articles in the built-in web browser component. With this you can enable additional settings on feed level, like private web browsing.


On feed level you can overrule app level default article view settings, as discuseed in the previous section.

There are two ways to open the feed level default article view settings:

  • Long press the Reader view button in the article viewer. This will open the Reading Options dialog for the feed associated with the currently opened article.
  • Select Settings in the long-press (iOS) or right-click (macOS) context menu of a selected feed in the feeds list, then open the Reading tab.

Sub options

Depending on the selected article view type, you may see some additional sub options. The article view specific sub options are discussed in the previous ‘Article view options’ section. In addition to the article view specific sub options, you have the following sub options for all article views, except when sub option ‘Safari view controller’ has been selected:

Enable JavaScript

Determines if JavaScript is allowed for loading website articles for this feed. Disabling JavaScript may improve loading speed, but may also lead to missing or non-working content, like videos.

Enable private browsing

When enabled, the website will not be allowed to permanently store cookies and other data.

Prevent autoplay media

When enabled, prevents that video or audio automatically starts when you open an article.


To go back to the app level default article view, tap on the Reset button, displayed at the bottom of the Reading tab, or on top of the settings popup (iOS).

Article view settings on app or feed level can always be overruled after opening an article. You can toggle between Feed article view and Reader view, and open the Website variant of an article.

Feed Article view

If the Reader view button shows a filled icon, click or tap on the Reader view button to go back to the Feed article view.

Reader view

To open an article in Reader view, click or tap on the Reader view button. The Reader view engine (Mercury Reader or Arc90 Readability) and related button icon depends on the Manual Reader view that is selected in the app settings.

Website Article

To open the website article view of an article, click or tap on the article title.

Inspecting news

On top of the article viewer, there is a button at the very right side which will open the Inspector panel. This panel contains four tabs: Metadata, Media, Notes, and Comments. These are discussed in more detail below. On the Mac and iPad, the Inspector panel is located at the right side of the article viewer. On the Mac you can leave the Inspector open at all times; on the iPad, you can do the same, partly depending on the display size of your iPad. On iPhone, the Inspector panel is one navigation action away, by using the said Inspector button. Optionally, you can also enable an edge swipe gesture in the Reading section of the app settings on iOS or iPadOS.

In the macOS app, the Inspector panel and the tabs can be opened and closed via the View main menu. In addition to this, you can use the keyboard shortcuts to do the same. These do also work in the iPadOS app. For more info about these shortcuts, see the Keyboard shortcuts section below.

The Metadata Inspector shows 3 sections:

  1. Information section shows the technical metadata of the article.
  2. Summary section shows the summary text of the article. This section can be made hidden via the menu button on top of the Inspector.
  3. Tags section shows downloaded tags and custom tags.


Article categories, normally called ‘tags’, are downloaded as part of the sync process. In addition to these downloaded tags, you can add your own tags. These personal custom tags are tinted with the tint color of the current theme, so they are easily distinguishable from the downloaded ones. Custom tags are synced via iCloud.

Interaction

To add a custom tag to an article, do this:

  1. Click or tap on the + button in the header of the Tags section.
  2. Enter a custom tag title or select one or more existing tags in the Tags editor.
  3. Click or tap on the Save button.

To remove one or more custom tags from an article, do this:

  1. Click or tap on the button with a writing pen icon in the header of the Tags section.
  2. Deselect the tags that you want to remove from the article in the Tags editor.
  3. Click or tap on the Save button to save your changes.

In macOS and iPadOS you can add a custom button to the toolbar to open the Tag editor, even when the Inspector is not visible. In macOS the Tag editor can also be opened via menu item Article > Custom Tags.

The Media Inspector displays all images, videos and audio detected in the article in a list as large thumbnails.

  • Media items are grouped by Images, Videos and Audio.
  • Videos and audio can be played directly in the list by tapping or clicking on the item.
  • Image and videos can be opened in a Slideshow, by double-clicking on an item when using macOS, or via the long-press context menu in iOS.
  • All media items can be downloaded to disk when using macOS, via the Download context menu item.

You can add one or more rich text notes to each article, optionally linked to highlighted text. The created notes are visible in the Notes tab of the article Inspector and can be edited afterwards. Notes are synced via iCloud.

Interaction

To add a note based on a selected text in the article, do this:

  1. Select text in the article.
  2. Choose New Note in the right-click context menu.
  3. Enter text in the New note dialog.
  4. Click or tap on the Save button.

To add a note without selected text, do this:

  1. Tap on the ellipsis button on top of the article and select New Note from the menu. In macOS, choose menu item Article > New Note.
  2. Enter text in the New note dialog.
  3. Click or tap on the Save button.

To edit an existing note, do this:

  1. Select the note in the Notes Inspector panel.
  2. Choose Edit Note in the right-click (macOS) or long-press (iOS) context menu.
  3. Edit the note.
  4. Click or tap on the Save button to save your changes.

To delete an existing note, do this:

  1. Select the note in the Notes Inspector panel.
  2. Choose Delete Note in the right-click (macOS) or long-press (iOS) context menu.
  3. Confirm the deletion.

In macOS and iPadOS you can add a custom button to the toolbar to add a new note, even when the Inspector is not visible.

Article comments are automatically downloaded and displayed in the Comments Inspector panel when the article has a comment feed, public comment API, or when the source webpage uses Open Web comments. You can mark comments as read, which is being synced via iCloud. The comments themselves are not synced to prevent iCloud sync and storage problems.

Toolbar badge

When the Inspector is not visible, a special comments badge is being shown in the toolbar on top of the article viewer when the article has one or more comments. Tapping or clicking on this badge will open the Comments tab of the Inspector.

Comments settings

The app settings contains a ‘Comments’ section. In this section, you can determine if comments are downloaded automatically when opening an article, if comments must be displayed with an unread status symbol, whether the comments badge in the toolbars stands for the total number of comments or only unread comments, and you can adjust the grouping of comments.

Interaction

Marking comments as read:

  1. Tap or click on the button with the ellipsis icon on top of the Comments list.
  2. Choose Mark All As Read in the displayed menu.

Refresh comments:

  1. Tap or click on the button with the ellipsis icon on top of the Comments list.
  2. Choose Refresh in the displayed menu.

Alternatively, in macOS you can use menu item Article > Download Comments, or use the associated keyboard shortcut D.


Marking news

When you open a news article, then it's automatically set to read after 2 seconds. You can change this behavior in the settings of the app. On Apple Watch you must manually mark news articles as read. Setting articles manually to read or back to unread can be done on all platforms:

macOS
  • Press R on the keyboard to mark a news article as read.
  • Press again R to mark a news article as unread.
iOS
  • Swipe from left to right to mark an selected article as read.
  • Swipe again from left to right to mark a news article as unread.
tvOS
  • Select a news article and press on the remote to active a menu, then choose Mark as Read to mark a news article as read.
  • Repeat this and choose Mark as Unread to set the article back to unread.
watchOS
  • Open a news article by tapping on it. Long press on the article to activate a menu, then choose Mark as Read to mark the news article as read.
  • Repeat this and choose Mark as Unread to set the article back to unread.

The macOS version support the same swipe gestures for toggling between Read and Unread as the iOS version. And if you use a Bluetooth keyboard with the iOS version, then you can use the same shortcut keys as the macOS version.

While scrolling through the article list, you can mark all articles above or below the selected article as read:

macOS
  • Press ⌘ Command + ↑ on the keyboard to mark all articles above the selected article as read.
  • Press ⌘ Command + ↓ on the keyboard to mark all articles below the selected article as read..
iOS
  • Long press on an article and choose Mark Above as Read to mark all articles above the pressed article as read.
  • Long press on an article and choose Mark Below as Read to mark all articles below the pressed article as read.

These commands are also available in the Timeline view.

In macOS, you can also use the context menu to perform the described actions, while in iOS you can also use the shortcuts of macOS, if your iOS device is connected to a bluetooth keyboard.

All articles in an article list of a feed, filter or folder, can be marked as read by a single tap or click.
macOS
Press ⌘ Command + D on the keyboard
iOS
Tap on the Checkmark icon in the toolbar
tvOS
Select the feed or filter in the list which contains articles you'd like to set to read, and choose Mark All as Read in the menu.

Depending on the number of unread articles, a confirmation dialog will be shown. This number can be configured in the settings of the app. See section Settings for more info. All articles in the Favorites filter cannot be marked as read with one command.

Setting After marking all as read gives you the option Select next feed or folder, which does exactly what it says. If you are in a feeds list than the next feeds list will be opened. And when you're in a folder, the next folder will be opened. It will also select the first article in the list. It works even better when combined with the global 'Unread articles' filter.

When the global 'Unread articles' filter is active, you can manually clear the articles that you've just read with the Clear read articles command. In macOS, you can use shortcut key C, in iOS you can use tap on the circle icon, which represents the global global 'Unread articles', at the bottom of the articles list to get the same effect.

Articles marked as favorite can be found back by applying the global Favorites filter. Favorite articles are stored indefinitely on your device and in iCloud. So if you want to save an article for later reading, just mark it as favorite:

macOS
  • Press F on the keyboard to mark a news article as favorite.
  • Press again F to remove the favorite mark.
iOS
  • Swipe from right to left on a news article in the list and tap on Mark as Favorite to mark a news article as favorite.
  • Swipe again from right to left and tap on Mark as Unfavorite to remove the favorite mark.
tvOS
  • Select a news article and press on the remote to active a menu, then choose Mark as Favorite to mark a news article as favorite.
  • Repeat this and choose Mark as Unfavorite to remove the favorite mark.
watchOS
  • Open a news article and long press on the article to activate a menu. Then choose Mark as Favorite to mark the news article as favorite.
  • Repeat this and choose Mark as Unfavorite to remove the favorite mark.

Sharing news

Share menu

In macOS and iOS, you can share articles by using the share menu button. The share menu button is located on the right hand corner of the toolbar on top of the news article view.

The items in the share menu are populated with the share services of the apps installed on the device. For example, when Evernote is installed on your iPhone, you'll see an Evernote sharing option in the share menu. In addition to the share service items of other apps, News Explorer offers two built-in share services in the macOS version, namely Instapaper and Pocket. More info can be found in the dedicated sections below.

Copy menu

In macOS you can copy the internet address of the current selected news article in the list by using menu item Edit > Copy or shortcut ⌘ Command + C on the keyboard. To copy the internet address of the current feed, highlight the feed in the list and use the said menu item or shortcut key.

On iOS you can copy the internet address of the current news article by tapping on the Copy item in the Share menu.

Preferences

In macOS you can configure share services in the Sharing tab of the Preferences panel. In this tab you can determine the visibility of the share services in the menu, and you can assign shortcut keys to each service. Follow these steps to assign a shortcut key to a service:

  1. Select the service in the list
  2. Press ↩︎ Enter on the keyboard
  3. Type the keys you want to assign to the service
  4. Press again ↩︎ Enter to save your shortcut

News Explorer has built-in support for sending news articles to Instapaper, after you have authorized News Explorer to use your Instapaper account.

Sending news articles to Instapaper is easy in News Explorer, after you have authorized News Explorer to use your Instapaper account. Click on the device type below to read more.

Follow these steps to authorize News Explorer to use your Instapaper account:

  1. Open the Preferences panel
  2. Click on the Sharing tab
  3. Click on the 'Login to Instapaper' button
  4. Enter your credentials in the login form
  5. Save your credentials by pressing on the 'Login' button
  6. A confirmation is being shown when the authorization is handled correctly

For quick access, you can assign a shortcut key to the Instapaper share option:

  1. Select the Instapaper service in the list
  2. Press ↩︎ Enter on the keyboard
  3. Type the keys you want to assign to the service
  4. Press again ↩︎ Enter to save your shortcut

There are two ways to send a selected news article to Instapaper:

  • After assigning a shortcut key, you can use it to add selected news articles to Instapaper.
  • You can also use the Share button in the toolbar, the share menu contains a Instapaper item on top of the list.

Follow these steps to authorize News Explorer to use your Instapaper account:

  1. Open the 'Preferences' panel
  2. Tap on the Sharing section
  3. Tap on 'Allow access to Instapaper'
  4. Enter your credentials in the login form
  5. Save your credentials by pressing on the 'Login' button
  6. A confirmation is being shown when the authorization is handled correctly

After logging in, the following additional options are displayed:

  • Show in long press menu: when enabled, an 'Add to Instapaper' menu item will be displayed in the long-press context menu of the article list and Timeline view.
  • Show in share sheet: when enabled, an 'Instapaper' item will be shown in the share sheet of the article viewer and places in the app where the share sheet is displayed.

In addition to these options, you can set the leading action of the left-to-right swipe menu of the article list in the Viewing section of the Preferences.

News Explorer has built-in support for sending articles to Pocket, after you have authorized News Explorer to use your Pocket account.

Sending news articles to Pocket is easy in News Explorer, after you have authorized News Explorer to use your Pocket account. Click on the device type below to read more.

Follow these steps to authorize News Explorer to use your Pocket account:

  1. Open the Preferences panel
  2. Click on the Sharing tab
  3. Click on the 'Login to Pocket' button
  4. Your default browser will be started, to open the login webpage
  5. Log into Pocket, if necessary
  6. Click on the Authorize button
  7. Confirm 'Do you want to allow this page to open “News Explorer”?'
  8. A confirmation is being shown when the authorization has been handled correctly

For quick access, you can assign a shortcut key to the Pocket share option:

  1. Select the Pocket service in the list
  2. Press ↩︎ Enter on the keyboard
  3. Type the keys you want to assign to the service
  4. Press again ↩︎ Enter to save your shortcut

There are two ways to send a selected news article to Pocket:

  • After assigning a shortcut key, you can use it to add selected news articles to Pocket.
  • You can also use the Share button in the toolbar, the share menu contains a Pocket item on top of the list.

Follow these steps to authorize News Explorer to use your Pocket account:

  1. Open the 'Preferences' panel
  2. Tap on the Sharing section
  3. Tap on 'Allow access to Pocket'
  4. A web form appears
  5. Follow the on-screen instruction to login to Pocket
  6. After successful login, tap on the Authorize button
  7. A confirmation is being shown when the authorization has been handled correctly

After logging in, the following additional options are displayed:

  • Show in long press menu: when enabled, an 'Add to Pocket' menu item will be displayed in the long-press context menu of the article list and Timeline view.
  • Show in share sheet: when enabled, an 'Pocket' item will be shown in the share sheet of the article viewer and places in the app where the share sheet is displayed.

In addition to these options, you can set the leading action of the left-to-right swipe menu of the article list in the Viewing section of the Preferences.

Syncing news

News Explorer will sync your feeds, folders, articles, read status and favorites as long as you use a valid iCloud account on your Apple device. You'll receive clear warnings within the app when this is not the case. Syncing with iCloud is optional for macOS and iOS devices, you can also use a Local account which can be enabled in the Accounts section of the app settings.

Automatic sync

The default interval for syncing and downloading news is 15 minutes. This can be changed in Syncing section of the app settings. See Settings. Each status change of an article or feed, like marking as read or favorite, and most other changes will be synced immediately and as part of the periodic sync. In addition to this, some additional syncing is performed by the app to keep all devices with News Explorer in sync via iCloud.

Manual sync

In addition to, or instead of automatic sync, you can also start a manual sync session:

macOS
Press ⌘ Command + S on the keyboard.
iOS
Pull down the feeds list until the progress indicator keeps spinning.
Or, when an article list is active, press the sync icon at the bottom toolbar.
tvOS
Select a feed in the feeds list, press again on the remote and select Sync in the menu.
watchOS
Force touch the news articles list, and tap Get News to start a background download session on the iPhone. The News Explorer app on the iPhone will push a refreshed news articles list to your Watch when done. Please note that this doesn't include a full sync with iCloud, due to technical limitations of iOS.
Redownload

Automatic and manual sync will download articles conform the Storage settings and also conform the last download data for each feed. If you want to download a complete feed, regardless of the settings and age of the articles within the feed, you can use the Redownload function:

macOS
Select the feed in the sidebar and then select menu item Feed > Redownload.
iOS
Select the feed in the feeds and press the Sync icon in the bottom toolbar. Then tap Redownload.
tvOS
Select a feed in the feeds list, press again on the remote and select Redownload in the menu.
Resync

If a particular feed displays a different unread articles count, despite multiple manual syncs and restart of the app, then you can perform a resync with iCloud for the selected feed. You'll lose local unsynced data for the selected feed, when you use this function.

macOS
Select the feed in the sidebar and then select menu item Feed > Resync.
iOS
Select the feed in the feeds and press the Sync icon in the bottom toolbar. Then tap Resync.
tvOS
Select a feed in the feeds list, press again on the remote and select Resync in the menu.

Data snapshots dramatically speeds up synchronization with iCloud when syncing on a new device or on a device that hasn’t be used for some time. Snapshots are automatically saved to iCloud on a daily basis, as part of the standard sync procedure. A data snapshot stored in iCloud can be used by all devices with News Explorer 1.11 or newer.

The data snapshot feature includes the following extras:

  • The iCloud tab of the Accounts tab in the app settings contains a Data Snapshots section with status info and settings. With these settings you can determine if the app should generate and store data snapshots, and you can define if and when data snapshots are being used for data synchronization.
  • ​Tapping or clicking on the Info icon in the Data Snapshots preferences section will open a new page with more details and options to delete or manually generate a new data snapshot.
  • The Resync All function makes use of Data snapshots when one is available and the usage is allowed according the Data snapshot settings.
Overview

With Background App Refresh you can periodically download news in the background when you are not using News Explorer. To use Background App Refresh you must enable it in the News Explorer section of the Settings App. Background App Refresh is only available on iOS, iPadOS and tvOS.

The sync refresh interval that you have configured in the Preferences acts as a preferred background refresh interval for the operating system. The availability of a network connection, battery level, and some other factors only known by Apple determines the actual background refresh interval.

Limitations

The effective working time of Background App Refresh is limited by Apple to 30 seconds. To make effective use of Background App Refresh, News Explorer only download news of the last 30 recently updated feeds, with a preference for feeds that are selected for Notifications in the Feed Manager. Furthermore, News Explorer doesn't sync with iCloud, to prevent issues with the 30 seconds limit. This data will be synced with iCloud when you open the app.

Tips

Follow these tips to make effective use of Background App Refresh:

  • Disable Background App Refresh for all other apps that do not need to be updated in the background.
  • Do not force close News Explorer.
  • Keep your battery level above 20%.

Please read article 'Background App Refresh doesn’t work as expected. How do I fix this?' in the FAQ if you need additional help.

Overview

When you activate Background Push Notifications in News Explorer, an external notifications server will periodically send a silent push notification that will wake up News Explorer when it is in the background, in order to refresh it’s data. It is very similar to Background App Refresh, but instead of being dependent on a trigger generated by iOS, an external server managed by Betamagic determines the trigger interval. Background Push Notifications is only available in iOS, iPadOS and visionOS.

Enable Background Push Notifications

Follow these steps to enable Background Push Notifications:

  1. Tap on the settings icon on the top right in the feeds list.
  2. Tap on Settings.
  3. Tap on Syncing.
  4. In the 'Background Push Notification' section, switch on Enable silent push notifications.
  5. The Status field value should change after some time from 'Not subscribed' to 'Subscribed'.
Tips
  • When enabled, a silent push notification will be received in about every 20 minutes.
  • To receive silent push notifications, the receiving device must have a working internet connection and News Explorer must be active and running in the background.
  • Never force close the app without restarting it.
  • The date and time of the last received background push notification can be checked in the 'Background Push Notifications Status' panel, which can be opened by tapping on the Info icon on the right side of the Status field.
  • If the last received push notification is longer ago than expected, then please try the following:
    • Resubscribe to the service by toggling the Enable silent push notifications switch.
    • Switch to another Wi-Fi network or toggle the Airplane Mode button to reconnect.
    • Restart your iPhone or iPad.
  • Because silent push notifications are sent with a fixed interval to all subscribed iOS devices at the same time, it’s best to only enable this option on just one of your iOS or iPadOS devices. Otherwise multiple devices will download the same data at the same time in the background, which may lead to an overload of syncing conflicts.
  • Make sure you are using News Explorer version 1.20.5 or newer.

Advanced topics

News Reader supports RSS feeds with Basic and Digest HTTP authentication. If you add a new RSS feed with HTTP authentication, then you will be asked for your login credentials. These credentials will be safely stored in the systems's Keychain and Passwords app after a successful login. You can also change, update or remove the credentials associated with a RSS feed.

Feeds with HTTP authentication are synced via iCloud just like ordinary feeds. The authentication credentials however are not always synced between the different platforms. Follow the 'Update credentials' instructions to handle synced feeds that still need HTTP authentication.

Add a new feed with HTTP authentication:

  1. Choose Feed > New… in the menu.
  2. Enter the feed URL.
  3. While entering the feed URL, a login button will appear.
  4. Complete the feed URL address.
  5. Click on the Login button and follow the instructions of the Login panel.
  6. The detected feed or feeds will be presented in a dropdown after you're successfully authenticated. Select the desired feed when more than one is detected.
  7. Choose a folder for the new feed.
  8. Click on the Add Feed button.

Update credentials of a feed with HTTP authentication:

  1. Select a feed in the sidebar.
  2. Choose Feed > Settings in the menu.
  3. Open the Syncing tab.
  4. Click on the button at the right side of the textbox that displays the credentials user name.
  5. Update your credentials.
  6. Click on the Save button.

Delete credentials of a feed with HTTP authentication:

  1. Select a feed in the sidebar.
  2. Choose Feed > Settings in the menu.
  3. Open the Syncing tab.
  4. Click on the button at the right side of the textbox that displays the credentials user name.
  5. Click on the Delete button.
  6. Click on the Delete credentials button to confirm the deletion of the credentials from the system's Keychain.
  7. You can also optionally choose to remove the authentication marking from the feed by enabling the 'Remove also the authentication mark' check box. This will result in handling the feed as a normal unsecured feed until proven otherwise.

If a selected feed doesn't show an enabled 'Credentials' menu item, then there are at least two possible reasons:

  • The feed is not known as a feed with HTTP authentication. Perform a manual sync to let the app detect the need for HTTP authentication for the selected feed.
  • The credentials are stored in Keychain or Passwords app, and are automatically used to authenticate the feed. If this leads to problem, then first open the Passwords app, and serch for the domain of the feed. When found, either edit the credentials or delete them. Repeat this procedure in the Keychain app. When credentials are removed from both the Passwords and Keychain app, the handling of News Explorer of the protected feed will be more in line with the procedures described above, regarding adding, updating and deleting credentials directly in News Explorer.

Add a new feed with HTTP authentication:

  1. Tap on the + icon at the bottom of the feeds list.
  2. Tap Add New Feed.
  3. Enter or paste the feed URL.
  4. While entering the feed URL, a login button will appear.
  5. Complete the feed URL address.
  6. Tap the Login button and follow the instructions.
  7. The detected feed or feeds will be presented in a list after you're successfully authenticated. Tap the desired feed when more than one is detected.
  8. Tap Done.
  9. Choose a folder for the new feed.

Update credentials of a feed with HTTP authentication:

  1. Swipe from left to right on the feed in the feeds list.
  2. Choose Settings in the menu that appears.
  3. Open the Syncing tab.
  4. Tap on the credentials user name to expand the menu, and choose Edit Credentials.
  5. Update your credentials.
  6. Click on the Save button.

Delete credentials of a feed with HTTP authentication:

  1. Swipe from left to right on the feed in the feeds list.
  2. Choose Settings in the menu that appears.
  3. Open the Syncing tab.
  4. Tap on the credentials user name to expand the menu, and choose Delete Credentials.
  5. A confirmation dialog will appear.
    • Choose Delete to just delete the credentials from the system's Keychain.
    • Choose Delete and remove mark to delete the credentials from the system's Keychain and to remove the authentication marking from the feed. This will result in handling the feed as a normal unsecured feed until proven otherwise.

If a selected feed doesn't show an an authentication account in the Syncing tab, then there are at least two possible reasons:

  • The feed is not known as a feed with HTTP authentication. Perform a manual sync to let the app detect the need for HTTP authentication for the selected feed.
  • The credentials are stored in the Passwords app, and are automatically used to authenticate the feed. If this leads to problem, then first open the Passwords app, and serch for the domain of the feed. When found, either edit the credentials or delete them. When credentials are removed from both the Passwords app, the handling of News Explorer of the protected feed will be more in line with the procedures described above, regarding adding, updating and deleting credentials directly in News Explorer.

Manually adding a new feed with HTTP authentication is not possible with the tvOS version of News Explorer. Please add the feed with the iOS or macOS version of News Explorer and retrieve this feed on the Apple TV by using iCloud sync. Then use the steps in the next section to authenticate the feed.

Update credentials of a feed with HTTP authentication:

  1. Select the feed you'd like to update and select it again on the remote to activate a menu.
  2. Choose Credentials.
  3. Update your credentials.
  4. Click on the Save button.

Delete credentials of a feed with HTTP authentication:

  1. Select the feed you'd like to change and select it again on the remote to activate a menu.
  2. Choose Credentials.
  3. Choose Delete.
  4. A confirmation dialog will appear.
    • Choose Delete to just delete the credentials from the system's Keychain.
    • Choose Delete and remove mark to delete the credentials from the system's Keychain and to remove the authentication marking from the feed. This will result in handling the feed as a normal unsecured feed until proven otherwise.

If a feed doesn't show a 'Credentials' menu item, then the feed is not known as a feed with HTTP authentication. Perform a manual sync to let the app detect the need for HTTP authentication for the selected feed.

With Handoff you can start reading a news article on one device and continue reading on another device with just one click. Bluetooth must be activated on both devices to make this work. Just open a news article on a device to 'broadcast' a Handoff notification to all devices in reach of the Bluetooth signal. Do the following on the second device to open the news article initiated by the first device:
macOS
  • Look for a special News Explorer icon on the left side of the dock.
  • Click on this icon.
  • News Explorer will be activated and the news article will be opened. If necessary, the related feed will be refreshed first, so be patient if nothing happens on first sight.
iOS
  • Press the home button when your device is locked. On the Lock screen you'll see a special News Explorer icon on the left hand corner at the bottom of the Lock screen.
  • Swipe this icon to the top of the screen to activate News Explorer and open the news article. If necessary, the related feed will be refreshed first, so be patient if nothing happens on first sight.
  • Double press the home button when your device is already unlocked. At the bottom of the screen you'll see a special bar, with on the left side a News Explorer icon, indicating that there is something to hand over.
  • Tap the mentioned bar to activate News Explorer and to open the related news article.
All Apple devices are able to broadcast Handoff notifications, except Apple TV. Read this article to troubleshoot Handoff issues.
More info about database backup and restore in News Explorer can be found here.

Color theme

You can adjust the color theme and some other aspects of the app, to make it fit with your mood and taste.
macOS
  • Choose menu View > Theme.
  • Select one of the five themes represented by the sub-menu items.
  • The System themes support Dark Mode in macOS 10.14 and newer.
iOS
  • Open a news article.
  • Tap the Aa icon at the bottom toolbar of the news article view. Scroll the article downwards when this toolbar is not visible, to make it visible again.
  • Tap on one of the five color theme circles in the popup menu.
    • If you own an iPhone with an OLED display, you may use the black theme to help improve battery life.
    • The System theme (second option) will automatically adapt the system appearance.
  • Alternatively you can also tap on the ellipsis button at the bottom of the article list, or on the ellipsis button at the top of the timeline view, to switch the app theme.
tvOS
  • Open the Settings app of your Apple TV.
  • Open the Appearance setting in the General section.
  • Choose between Light, Dark or Automatic appearance.
  • Open News Explorer. It will use the chosen appearance as theme.
  • The blurred background based on the selected feed can be disabled via setting Use adaptive background in the Settings section in the app.

Tint color

In addition to changing the color theme, you can also change the tint color used by the current color theme in the macOS and iOS app:
macOS
  • Choose menu View > Tint.
  • Select one of the displayed tint colors in the menu.
iOS
  • Open the theme selector popup in the article viewer or article list.
  • Double tap on the active theme.
  • Select one of the displayed tint colors in the list.

Remark: The available tint colors depend on the current theme. When changing the theme, the tint color will be reset to the default tint color of the selected theme.

News Explorer for macOS is a sandboxed app, which is one of the requirements to be in the Mac App Store. Sandboxed apps are not allowed to change default apps for file types like feed URL's. To bypass this limitation, you have to download a small utility which is not 'sandboxed'.

Do the following to change the default newsreader app in macOS:

  1. Download the News Explorer Configurator app.
  2. Start the downloaded app.
  3. Choose the app from the list you'd like to use as the default app for feed URL's.
  4. You're done!

Additional remarks:

  • To make sure that the new setting actually works, you can hit the Test button.
  • Please restart your Mac if the tool doesn't seem to work.
  • The download file is a ZIP file containing the 'News Explorer Configurator' app. This is a small utility to change the default handler for feed URL's.
  • On most Macs the mentioned ZIP file will be automatically extracted, so you can start the utility app right from the Downloads folder.

Changing the default newsreader app in iOS is currently not possible due to multiple limitations of iOS.

In the Mac version of News Explorer, you have following notifications management options:

  • Determine when notifications for new articles must be combined to one notification:
    1. Open the News Explorer Preferences, located in main menu News Explorer.
    2. Open the General section.
    3. Adjust setting Summarize by selecting the desired option from the dropdown list.

  • Select feeds that should be shown in Notification Center:
    1. Choose Window > Feeds Manager in the menu.
    2. Select the feeds that should be shown in the Notification Center when new articles are downloaded.
    3. Click on the 'Save' button.

  • Adjust sound and display options for notifications:
    1. Open the System Preferences app.
    2. Open the Notification item.
    3. Select News Explorer in the list on the left.
    4. Adjust settings in the right panel to your liking.

  • Disable notifications for all feeds:
    1. Open the System Preferences app.
    2. Open the Notification item.
    3. Select News Explorer in the list on the left.
    4. In the panel on the right, set 'News Explorer alert style' to 'None'.
    5. Disable all other checkboxes, except 'Badge app icon'.

In the iOS version of News Explorer, you have following notifications management options:

  • Determine when notifications for new articles must be combined to one notification:
    1. Tap on the ••• icon on top of the feeds list.
    2. Tap on Preferences and open the General section.
    3. In the Notifications sub section, adjust setting Summarize by selecting the desired option from the options list.

  • Select feeds that should be shown in Notification Center:
    1. Tap on the ••• icon on top of the feeds list.
    2. Tap Feed Manager. This option is not visible when the app is syncing.
    3. Select the feeds that should be shown in the Notification Center when new articles are downloaded.
    4. Tap on the Done button.

  • Adjust sound and display options for notifications:
    1. Open the Settings app.
    2. Open the News Explorer section.
    3. Open the Notification item on top.
    4. Adjust the settings to your liking.

  • Disable notifications for all feeds:
    1. Open the Settings app.
    2. Open the News Explorer section.
    3. Open the Notification item on top.
    4. Disable setting 'Allow Notification' on top.
Article viewer

Follow these steps to adjust the article reader font size and type:

macOS
  • Choose menu View > Font to change the font type.
  • Choose ⌘ Command + + to increase the font size.
  • Choose ⌘ Command + – to decrease the font size.
  • Choose ⌘ Command + 0 to reset the font size.
  • You can also use the 'View' tab of the Preferences panel (menu News Explorer > Preferences).
iOS
  • Open a news article.
  • Tap the Aa icon at the bottom toolbar of the news article view. Scroll the article downwards when this toolbar is not visible, to make it visible again.
  • Tap the large A symbol to increase the font size.
  • Tap the small A symbol to decrease the font size.
Article list and Timeline view

Follow these steps the adjust the font size of the feed list, article list and Timeline view:

iOS
  • Open the Settings app.
  • Open section 'Display & Brightness'.
  • Tap Text Size.
  • Select a text size by using the slider.
Main views

Follow these steps the adjust the font size of the article list and article viewer in the app:

tvOS
  • Open the Settings app.
  • Open the Apps section.
  • Open the News Explorer section.
  • Adjust setting 'Font size'.
watchOS
  • Open the Settings app.
  • Open the 'Brightness & Text Size' section.
  • Tap on the Text Size button.
  • Use the Crown to increase or decrease the size of the font used on the Apple Watch.

Do this to open the settings of News Explorer:

macOS
  • Select item News Explorer > Settings in the menu.
iOS
  • Tap on the three-dots icon on top of the feeds list.
  • Tap on Settings.
tvOS
  • Select Menu on the remote until you're back in the home screen of Apple TV.
  • Start the Settings app.
  • Select Apps.
  • Select News Explorer.

News Explorer contains the following settings:

General settings Description macOS iOS tvOS
Application theme Determines color scheme used by the app. ✓ ✓
Tint color The tint color used by the app. Available tint colors depend on the selected application theme. ✓ ✓
Tinted selection Determines if the background color of selected articles is based on the current tint color. ✓ ✓
Menu bar app icon Moves the app icon to the menu bar, when set to another option than 'Disabled'. ✓
Dock app icon Changes the app icon in the dock, when the app is active. ✓
App icon Changes the app icon. ✓
Dock app icon badge Determines which source should be used for calculating the unread count of the app icon badge, when visible in the macOS dock. Can also be set to None, to not show a badge at all. ✓
App icon badge Determines which source should be used for calculating the unread count of the app icon badge. Can also be set to None, to not show a badge at all. ✓
General settings ›
Notifications		 Description macOS iOS tvOS
Summarize notifications Defines when notifications for new articles should be summarized, instead of generated as separate notifications. ✓ ✓
Delete notification of read articles Defines if notifications of read articles must be removed from the Notification center. ✓
Include images Defines if an image should be included in the notification, when the articles contain at least one image reference. ✓
General settings ›
Spotlight		 Description macOS iOS tvOS
Index articles Determines if news articles should be indexed by Spotlight Search. When enabled, you can search for news articles in News Explorer by using Spotlight. The index is updated after each sync session. ✓ ✓
Include images Determines if a thumbnail should be added to news articles, when indexed by Spotlight Search. This is being shown in the search results of Spotlight. ✓ ✓
Delete Spotlight Index Removes the News Explorer articles from the Spotlight database. This index is rebuilt during the next sync session, unless setting 'Index articles in Spotlight' is disabled. ✓ ✓
Accounts ›
iCloud		 Description macOS iOS tvOS
Enable iCloud sync Determines of the iCloud account must be enabled. When disabled, all other settings on the iCloud tab are also disabled. iCloud sync is mandatory on tvOS. ✓ ✓
Local iCloud sync modus Determines how synchronization with iCloud is being handled. With this, you can optimize your News Explorer sync infrastructure by assigning ‘Server’ modus to an always-running Mac, and using ‘Client’ modus on all other devices. The following options are available:
  • Server: The app will perform a full sync with each refresh interval, including downloading new articles from the related news sources. In addition to this, with ‘Server’ modus, the app will keep the Mac awake so you will never miss an article due to automatic sleeping. This modus is only available on the Mac.
  • Client: The app only syncs with iCloud. It will upload local changes like article status changes, custom tags and notes, and it will download new and changed articles from iCloud.
  • Default: The app will perform a full sync with each refresh interval, including downloading new articles from the related news sources, but without keeping the device awake when running on a Mac. As the name implies, this is the default modus.
 ✓ ✓ ✓
Keep unread articles Maximum storage period for unread articles in iCloud. ✓ ✓ ✓
Keep read articles Maximum storage period for read articles in iCloud. ✓ ✓ ✓
Save snapshots to iCloud When enabled, News Explorer saves daily a data snapshot to iCloud. This snapshot can be used to speed up initial syncing on a new device, or on devices that has not be synced for a while. ✓ ✓ ✓
Use snapshots This setting determines if and when data snapshots are being used for synchronisation with iCloud. ✓ ✓ ✓
Clean iCloud data Determines the interval for cleaning News Explorer data in your iCloud data container. Cleaning deletes all News Explorer data in iCloud that should not be stored any longer according the storage period settings discussed above. It can be a lengthy process, especially when you have a lot of feeds. ✓ ✓ ✓
Only clean on Wi-Fi When enabled, cleaning of iCloud data will only be performed when the device is connected to internet via Wi-Fi. This setting is only visible on devices with a cellular connection. ✓
Storage settings are synced across all your Apple devices. All period settings are based on the publication date of the articles.
Accounts ›
On My Device		 Description macOS iOS tvOS
Enable On My Device account When enabled, an extra storage option will be added to News Explorer. The feeds you add to the local account remain local and are not synced. Independent of the chosen storage options, filters are always synced via iCloud and cover both account types. The displayed name of the account depends on the device, ti can be ‘On My Mac’, ‘On My iPhone’ or ‘On My iPad’. ✓ ✓
Keep unread articles Maximum storage period for unread articles, stored locally. ✓ ✓ ✓
Keep read articles Maximum storage period for read articles, stored locally. ✓ ✓ ✓
Syncing settings Description macOS iOS tvOS
Sync interval Determines the interval for syncing with iCloud and for downloading new RSS articles. It's also possible to change this setting to Manual. ✓ ✓ ✓
Mobile data interval Determines the interval when using a mobile data connection, for syncing with iCloud and for downloading new RSS articles. It's also possible to change this setting to Manual. This setting is only visible on devices with a cellular data connection. ✓ ✓ ✓
Refresh on start When active, the app will start a sync session on startup of the app and also download new RSS articles. ✓ ✓ ✓
Enable silent push notifications When enabled, subscribes the app to a notification server that will periodically send a silent push notification to the app, to download new articles in the background. More info about this can be found in section Background Push Notifications above. ✓
Sync Timeout Determines, expressed in seconds, how much time the RSS and Mastodon download session may take. You should increase the default of 20 seconds when you have a lot of feeds. ✓ ✓ ✓
Use feed update interval data Some feeds contains data about the update frequency and interval. When this setting is enabled, the interval data will be used to prevent unnecessary download actions. ✓ ✓ ✓
Cancel sync when quitting the app Determines if the app may perform iCloud sync actions when you close the app. ✓
Optimize tags Removes problematic control characters from downloaded article tags. There is normally no need to enable this setting. ✓ ✓
Syncing settings ›
Apple Watch		 Description macOS iOS tvOS
Update in background When enabled, the Apple Watch connected to your iPhone will be updated with new articles as part of the Background App Refresh. iPhone
Skip images When enabled, no image links will be uploaded to your Apple Watch. As a result, no images will be displayed in articles on your Apple Watch, which may be useful with slow or expensive internet connections. iPhone
Viewing settings Description macOS iOS tvOS
Sidebar indentation Determines how deep feeds are indented in folders. Can be set to 'None' to have no indentation at all. On the iPhone, this setting is named 'Feed indentation'. ✓ ✓
Feed badges Determines which sections in the sidebar should have an unread count badge. It's also possible to not show any badge at all. ✓ ✓ ✓
Badge style Determines the text color of the unread count badges. ✓
Use grayscale icons When enabled, all feed icons will be rendered in grayscale colors. ✓
Viewing settings ›
Sorting and grouping		 Description macOS iOS tvOS
Default sorting Determines the sorting direction:
  • Newest article on top: sorting will be descending on publication date.
  • Oldest article on top: sorting will be ascending on publication date.
 ✓ ✓
Default grouping Determines the grouping field when a folder or filter is selected in the feeds list:
  • Date: articles are grouped on publication date.
  • Feed: articles are grouped on feed title.
 ✓ ✓
Viewing settings ›
Article list		 Description macOS iOS tvOS
Article list preview Determines how many content lines are previewed in the articles list. You can choose between 0 and 10 lines. In iOS, this setting is part of the settings popup that appears when tapping the ●●● button in the article list. ✓ ✓
Article list font size Let you choose between a standard font size or a slightly larger size for all list views. In iOS, this setting is part of the settings popup that appears when tapping the ●●● button in the article list. Also in iOS, the size can be further adjusted using the Text Size property in the Display & Brightness section of the Settings app. ✓ ✓
Article list image type Set the visibility and type of thumbnails in the article list. In iOS, this setting is part of the settings popup that appears when tapping the ●●● button in the article list. ✓ ✓
Article list image size Set the size of the thumbnails in the article list. This setting is only enabled when thumbnails are made visible in the previous setting. In iOS, this setting is part of the settings popup that appears when tapping the ●●● button in the article list. ✓ ✓
Transparency read articles Determines the amount of transparency applied to read articles. The default setting is 50%. This makes them easier distinguishable from unread articles. If you don't want this effect you must set the transparency to 0%. This setting is on iOS part of the List view section. ✓ ✓
Leading swipe action Determines if the 'Mark as Favorite' swipe action in the articles list should be shown instead of 'Mark as Read', when you swipe from left to right. If you enable this setting, the 'Mark as Read' action moves to the trailing actions, which are part of the right to left swipe gesture menu. ✓
Show feed icons Determines when a feed icon should be displayed before an article in the article list. Only applicable when image type 'Poster' or 'None' has been selected. ✓ ✓
Mark as read while scrolling When enabled, marks articles automatically as read that are being scrolled out of sight at the top of the article list when scrolling from top to bottom. ✓ ✓
Scan article source for display data Determines if the app will scan the article web source for thumbnail and summary data, when the original feed data doesn't contain this data. ✓ ✓
Animate image loading Determines if the app animate displaying an image that's downloaded while visible on screen. ✓
Only download on Wi-Fi When enabled, images in the article list are only downloaded with a working Wi-Fi connection. ✓
Hide feeds list after selecting article Determines if the feeds list should be made hidden after selecting an article on the iPad. ✓
Allow panels to be side by side When enabled, a three panel layout can be achieved when using an iPad. ✓
Viewing settings ›
Timeline		 Description macOS iOS tvOS
Mark as read while scrolling When enabled, marks articles automatically as read that are being scrolled out of sight at the top of the Timeline view when scrolling from top to bottom. ✓ ✓
Timeline font size Determines the font size used in Timeline view. In iOS, this setting is part of the menu of the ●●● button. ✓ ✓ ✓
Reading settings Description macOS iOS tvOS
Default article view

Defines the default view for articles. This is discussed in more detail in section App level default article view above.

 ✓ ✓
Manual Reader view

Defines the engine that must be used to render a Reader view when using the Reader view button. Both engines render the Reader view locally.

Mercury Reader is the default engine. This library is developed by Postlight and is more or less based on the same principles as Arc90, but it is totally rewritten with addition of a lot customizations and dedicated parsers for popular websites.

Arc90 Readability will render the Reader view using the Mozilla Readability library. This library is based on the original Arc90's Readability code, is still maintained and is being used as default Reader View engine in FireFox. The accuracy is sometimes better than the Mercury Web Parser, and because the library is less complex than Mercury Reader, it may sometimes perform quicker.

 ✓ ✓
Optimize parsing if possible When enabled, the parsing engine will use a special optimized parsing algorithm for popular feeds. If the current article is not supported by this optimization, the chosen engine will be used. ✓ ✓
Article font family The font type used for the news article viewer. Font type 'San Fransisco' is the default setting. ✓ ✓
Use sans serif font for The following two options are selectable when a serif body font is selected:
  • Article title section: combines serif body font with sans serif font in the article title section.
  • Headers in article: combines serif body font with sans serif font in headers used in the article.
 ✓ ✓
Body font size Font size of the body text of the news article viewer. All other styles are scaled according to this setting. Default size is 12 pt.

In iOS, this setting is part of the Theme settings panel. This panel can be opened by tapping on the Aa icon at the bottom toolbar of the article viewer.		 ✓ ✓
Body font weight Font weight of the body text of the news article viewer. Available font weights depends on the selected font family.

In iOS, this setting is part of the Theme settings panel. This panel can be opened by tapping on the Aa icon at the bottom toolbar of the article viewer.		 ✓ ✓
Body line height Line height of the body text of the news article viewer. With this you can adjust the space between the text lines.

In iOS, this setting is part of the Theme settings panel. This panel can be opened by tapping on the Aa icon at the bottom toolbar of the article viewer.		 ✓ ✓
Title font weight Determines the weight of the font used for the title in the news article viewer. Available weights depends on the selected font family.

In iOS, this setting is part of the Theme settings panel. This panel can be opened by tapping on the Aa icon at the bottom toolbar of the article viewer.		 ✓ ✓
Title font size factor Determines the size of the font used for the title in the news article viewer. The size setting is relative to the Body font size, as discussed above.

In iOS, this setting is part of the Theme settings panel. This panel can be opened by tapping on the Aa icon at the bottom toolbar of the article viewer.		 ✓ ✓
Font smoothing Determines the anti-aliasing technique used for text rendering in the article viewer. ✓
Article poster display Determines of the article poster on top of the article in the article viewer must be resized to maximum width, article width or not displayed at all. Only applicable when the article has a poster image. Not applicable to articles that has a built-in image on top of the article. ✓ ✓
Notes highlight color Determines the background color of highlighted text saved together with notes. Notes can be added to an article by using the New Note context menu item after selecting text, or directly without selecting text. ✓ ✓
Article width Determines the maximum width of the news article viewer.

In iPadOS, this setting is part of the Theme settings panel. This panel can be opened by tapping on the Aa icon at the bottom toolbar of the article viewer.		 ✓ ✓
Reading settings ›
External links		 Description macOS iOS tvOS
Show external link in article viewer When enabled, the external link associated with the current article will be shown under the title of the article, if available. ✓ ✓
Use external link as Reader view source When enabled, the chosen Reader view engine will use the external link, if available, instead of the standard link of the article to generate the Reader view. ✓ ✓ ✓
Reading settings ›
Media		 Description macOS iOS tvOS
Play HTML5 videos inline Determines if HTML5 videos should be opened in full-screen or play within the context of the current page. ✓
Reading settings ›
Navigation 		Description macOS iOS tvOS
Swipe to next article Determines the swipe gesture to navigate to the next (or previous) article in the article viewer. You can choose between Horizontally, Horizontally with page curl or Vertically. If you experience performance problems with the Horizontally option, then please try the 'Horizontally with page curl' option. ✓
Swipe to open inspector panel Determines the swipe gesture to open the inspector panel by swiping from the right edge to the middle. When enabled, this may interfere with the setting discussed above. ✓
Auto hide bars When enabled, the navigation bar above the article and the toolbar under the article will automatically be hidden when you scroll the article upwards. When you scroll downwards, the bars will be made visible again. ✓
Auto hide status bars When enabled, the status bar above the article will automatically be hidden when you scroll the article upwards. When you scroll downwards, the status bar will be made visible again. ✓
Restore bars on opening articles When enabled, the navigation bar and bottom toolbar will be made visible, if necessary, when you navigate to a new article. ✓
Comments settings Description macOS iOS tvOS
Download comments Determines if article comments must be downloaded automatically when opening an article or not. This settings can be overruled for each feed in the Feed settings. ✓ ✓
Toolbar counter badge shows Determines if the comments counter badge displayed in the toolbar shows the total number of comments, or only the number of unread comments. ✓ ✓
Group on date Determines of comments displayed in the Inspector panel are grouped on date, or only sorted on date without any grouping. ✓ ✓
Show unread status When enabled, unread comments are displayed with an unread circle icon, just like unread articles. ✓ ✓

Select next feed or folder opens the next feed, folder or filter without selecting an article.

Open feeds list navigates back to the feeds list. This option is only available on iPhone and iPad.

Do nothing will let you stay in the current filter, feed or folder.

Behaviors settings Description macOS iOS tvOS
Restore last view on startup Determines whether the most recently opened list, timeline or article should be automatically reopened upon the application’s startup. ✓
Mark opened article as read Determines the interval in seconds after which a article, presented in the news article viewer, will be set to read. Can also be set to Immediately or Manual. ✓ ✓ ✓
Confirm mark all as read Determines the lower limit of unread articles for showing a confirmation for the 'Mark all as Read' action. Can also be set to Always or Never. ✓ ✓ ✓
After marking all as read

Determines what happens after marking all articles in a filter, feed or folder as read. Options are:

Select first article of next feed or folder is the default value. It opens the next feed, folder or filter and selects the first article. Selecting the first article is not supported on the iPhone.

 ✓ ✓ ✓
After clearing read articles

Determines what happens after selecting or tapping the 'Clear read articles' menu item or button. This command is available when the 'Unread articles' global filter is active. Options are:

Do nothing will remove the read articles from the list and close the selected article.

Select first article will select the first unread article from the list, if available, and it will open the article in the article viewer (if supported by the device).

Select next article is the default value. It will select the next unread article from the list, following the previous selection, and it will open the article in the article viewer (if supported by the device). If no next article exists, the first article will be selected.

 ✓ ✓
Open links with Determines whether title and article links should be opened in the built-in Safari view controller, with Safari view controller in Reader view modus, the default URL handler or with an external browser, like Chrome or Brave. The default handler can also open custom apps for certain news URL's. For example, when the The Guardian app is installed, all taps on links in news articles in The Guardian will be opened in The Guardian app, instead of Safari. ✓
Animate article rendering Determines if transition animations are displayed during the opening of articles. ✓ ✓
Hitting Enter in List view Determines which action should be performed when you press the Enter key when an article in the articles list has the focus. ✓
Double-clicking in List view Determines which action should be performed when you double-click on an article in the articles list. ✓
Hitting Enter in Timeline Determines which action should be performed when you press the Enter key when an article in the Timeline view has the focus. ✓
Double-clicking in Timeline Determines which action should be performed when you double-click on an article in Timeline view. ✓
Opening a new window Determines if a new window for a news article should be added to a tabbed window, or if should be opened separately (default). ✓
Clicking the article title Determines which action should be performed when you click on the title header of a news article. ✓
Clicking a hyperlink Determines which action should be performed when you click on a link in the news article. ✓
Open YouTube videos videos in full window Determines if the clicked YouTube video should be maximized to the size of the News Explorer window. You need macOS 10.13 or newer for this. ✓
After closing all windows > Close app When enabled, the app will be closed when the last window is closed. ✓
When opening the app > Restore last selected feed or folder When enabled, the app will reselect the last selected feed or folder. ✓
After adding a new feed > Download available articles When enabled, the app will try to download new articles when a new feed has been downloaded. This is the default behavior. Disabling this setting can be handy when you want to define prefilters first in the new feed, before downloading any new content. ✓
Advanced settings Description macOS iOS tvOS
Enable JavaScript Determines if JavaScript is enabled in the in-app browser. When you disable JavaScript, some functionality like automatic scrolling with spacebar key, playing YouTube videos, will stop functioning. ✓
Enable private in-app browsing When enabled, nothing will be stored, like cookies and other data, when using the in-app browser. ✓
Enable plug-ins Determines if plug-ins, like Flash and Java, are allowed to work in the in-app browser. Plug-ins must be compatible with Safari and must be installed outside News Explorer by using the standalone installers associated with these plug-ins. ✓
Delete in-App Browser Cache Deletes the cache, including cookies, of the in-app browser. ✓
Delete unused cache Let you select the period after which unused image cache must be deleted. Image cache is used in the article list, timeline view and article view. ✓ ✓
Delete Image Cache Deletes the current image cache. ✓
Article fetch limit Determines the maximum number of articles that must be loaded in the article list or timeline view, in order to keep the app responsive. ✓ ✓ ✓
Feed slideshow limit Determines the maximum number of images and videos that must be collected for the feed slideshow, in order to limit the initial waiting time. ✓ ✓ ✓
Auto hide feeds When enabled, the feed list will be automatically hidden when the user navigates with arrow keys (on the keyboard or on the remote) to the article details view (right hand side). Navigating back (to the left hand side) will turn back the visibility of the feed list. The main advantage is a larger screen space for reading news and less clutter on your display. ✓
Open article with right arrow key Determines if the article in the in-app browser should be opened, when pressing the right-arrow key and when an article in the article list has the focus. ✓
VoiceOver > Skip feed titles when checked, reading the feed title of a selected article in the article list will be skipped by VoiceOver. ✓
VoiceOver > Skip article dates when checked, reading the article date of a selected article in the article list will be skipped by VoiceOver. ✓
VoiceOver > Skip status icons when checked, reading the description of status icons of a selected article in the article list will be skipped by VoiceOver. ✓
Enable application logging When enabled, important app events like start and end of each sync session, feed deletions and errors are logged to a file. These log files can be send within the app to Betamagic support by using the Send to Betamagic Support button or can be viewed in the document folder of the app by using the Files app of iOS or Finder in macOS. ✓ ✓

You can use keyboard shortcuts to quickly accomplish many tasks in News Explorer. To use a keyboard shortcut, press all the keys in the shortcut at the same time. Shortcuts for common commands in News Explorer are listed in the tables below. In addition to this, News Explorer also supports most common Mac keyboard shortcuts.

The keyboard shortcuts listed here are of the macOS version of News Explorer. To discover the keyboard shortcuts supported in a view in the iOS version, long-press on the Command key on your external keyboard. A info sheet will popup, showing all key commands for the active view. Most keyboard shortcuts in iOS are identical to those in macOS.

General actions Shortcut
Add new feed ⌘ Command + N
Add new folder ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + N
Search for new feeds ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + F
Search locally for articles using full text search ⌘ Command + F
Start manual sync session ⌘ Command + S
Mark all articles in current articles list as read ⌘ Command + D
Redownload the current selected feed ⌘ Command + R
Selects the articles list, or (when already selected) focus the news article view. When setting 'Auto hide feeds' is on, the original source of the selected article will be opened. →
Remove read articles from the current list, when 'Unread articles' smart or global filter is active C
Selects the articles list, or (when already selected) selects the feeds list. ←
Close the slideshow view. Esc
Select the next feed or folder (depending on the current selection) N
Select the previous feed or folder (depending on the current selection) P
Select first article of next group Page Down
Select first article of previous group Page Up
Article list actions Shortcut
Open next article, or scroll the current article when needed Space bar
Open next article, without automatic scrolling J or ↓
Open previous article K or ⇧ Shift + Space bar or ↑
Select and open the first article in the list ↖︎ Home or ⌥ Option (Alt) + ↑
Select and open the last article in the list ↘︎ End or ⌥ Option (Alt) + ↓
Article list actions Shortcut
Open next article, or scroll the current article when needed Space bar
Open next article, without automatic scrolling J or ↓
Open previous article K or ⇧ Shift + Space bar or ↑
Select and open the first article in the list ↖︎ Home or ⌥ Option (Alt) + ↑
Select and open the last article in the list ↘︎ End or ⌥ Option (Alt) + ↓
Inspector actions Shortcut
Toggle visibility of the Inspector panel ⌃ Control + 0
Open Metadata Inspector panel ⌃ Control + 1
Open Media Inspector panel ⌃ Control + 2
Open Notes Inspector panel ⌃ Control + 3
Open Comments Inspector panel ⌃ Control + 4
article actions Shortcut
Toggle selected article as read/unread R
Toggle selected article as favorite/unfavorite F
Mark all articles above the current selected article as read ⌘ Command + ↑
Mark all articles below the current selected article as read ⌘ Command + ↓
Toggle Reader view for the selected news article. V
Toggle Reader view using the alternative reader engine for the selected news article. ⌥ Option (Alt) + V
Open the original source of the selected news article. ↩︎ Enter
Start slideshow for selected article. Only enabled when the current articles contain images. S
Open the original source of the selected news article in the default internet browser. B
Open the original source of the selected news article in the default internet browser behind the News Explorer window. ⌘ Command + B
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