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 :)

Fixed Swiping Actions — Mati fixed a bug where swiping to manage articles in the feed was interfering with the sidebar menu gesture. You can now use swipe actions without accidentally opening the side menu.

Fixed Ghostreader Timeouts — AI-powered features like summaries, Chat with Highlights and Documents, and Ghostreader prompts should now be more reliable. Ibai fixed some timeout issues that were occasionally causing requests to fail.

Added API Keys — It’s now possible to manage document tags using the Reader Document UPDATE API, thanks to Piotr. We also now have an option to fetch the raw source file for PDFs and EPUBs via the withRawSourceUrl API key.

Fixed Tag Searching — Arek fixed a bug where the manage tags screen would go blank during searches.

Fixed iPad Video Margins — Mati got rid of some unnecessary black margins at the top of YouTube videos on iPad. Videos now use the full screen space available, giving you a better viewing experience without wasted vertical space.

Fixed Bottom Sheet — Arek fixed a bug where multiple bottom sheets could stay open at the same time. Using “find in document” and similar options should be easier now.

Fixed Tag Searching — Arek fixed a bug where the manage tags screen would go blank during searches.

Parsing Updates — Krzys improved how Reader handles posts from readwise.io, feedblitz.com, msn.com, and tldrnewsletter.com.

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.

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.

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

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.