Readwise Reader 4+

We built first class support for the Apple Pencil, so you can now highlight naturally (like it works in Apple Books) while reading. Many more improvements for iPads/tablets coming up soon :)

Improved EPUB Parsing — Mitch fixed a glitch that prevented some books from parsing. This was a rare edge case that could happen if a book was saved by multiple users, as happens with books shared through our Wisereads newsletter. So if you've saved one and it wasn't working, check it out again!

Fixed PDF Annotations — Mati fixed a PDF-specific bug where the annotation menu wouldn't appear after highlighting text on iPads. You can now add notes and access Ghostreader after highlighting, without needing to go to the sidebar.

Parsing Updates — Krzys improved how Reader handles posts from substack.com, nytimes.com, reddit.com, science.org, and zed.dev.

GPT-5 Models — You can now use GPT-5 across Reader, thanks to Ibai. GPT-5 is now available in Chat with Document and Ghostreader. The default model for summaries/ghostreader is now 5-mini.

Fixed Edge Highlighting — Artem fixed a bug where trying to highlight text near the page margin would sometimes turn the page instead. Long presses on the reading view will no longer trigger navigation.

Fixed Content Links — Krzys fixed a bug with "view content" links. Articles where some content could not be imported from the original document should now properly link out to the source.

Improved Chapter Breaks — Johannes improved how ebooks handle chapter and scene breaks, so we should now properly support a wider range of ePub files.

Fixed Ghostreader Definitions — Thanks to Johannes, Ghostreader can now properly define highlighted words by understanding their context better.

Fixed View Selection — Thanks to Arek, you can now scroll through your entire list of views when adding them to your mobile home screen.

Fixed Missing Headers — Thanks to Johannes, article headers no longer disappear after reading a book in continuous scroll mode.

Previously:

This build has our full ePubs v2 feature -- 10x+ better performance on books, a dedicated long-form reading UI, and so much more. Our goal is to have Reader be the best app in the world for reading books (in addition to other formats), and this project is a big step towards that.

We completely rewrote the PDF Clean View feature, which allows you to read, highlight, and listen to PDFs as if they’re any other responsive document. A much cleaner and nicer way to read your PDFs, on any screen size.

E-ink mode, much faster initial document loading (for all types of documents), and much more.

iOS Custom Icons — Arek added new iOS 18 icons, enabling improved dark mode and tint mode variants for a gorgeous monochrome home screen. Navigate to Account → Change Icon to check out the options!

Better TTS Voices — Try out the new (v8 beta) voices for Text to Speech which are the most lifelike yet! These voices should now be the default in Reader if you haven't selected your own preferred voice. We also fixed crackling/distortion in the new voices.

Summaries in List View — We now display the summary and document title/favicon in the mobile actions sheet: just long press any document in a list to get a quick peak at a document's summary without having to open it.

Improved Youtube viewing — We improved the transcript tracking/autoscrolling for youtube videos, and now automatically enhance the transcripts for most videos so they're easily highlightable. You will see a much clearer error message when viewing YouTube videos while offline.