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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Atode is available for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Please note that you need to be signed in on your device with the same Apple ID on all platforms.

The app is published on Apple’s App Stores. You can download it for free.

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/atode/id6475672239?mt=8

The Atode app comes bundled with a share extension, which integrates with any other iOS app. Save articles directly from e.g. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Twitter, Medium or Reeder by using the bookmark extension. As an alternative, you can also use the native Safari extension.

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

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

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

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

Atode is free to use and includes all basic features. Every setting, theme or preference is available and lets you try out the unrestricted reader. However, there is a limit to the number of bookmarks you can save per month.

A premium subscription offers additional or unlimited bookmarks per month.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

However, this is only possible when bookmarking from Safari or integrated in-app browsers. In this case, the page can be accessed and saved directly from your local device. If you save a shared link or use a third-party browser, a protected url cannot always be successfully resolved.

Atode is free to use and includes all basic features. Every setting, theme or preference is available and lets you try out the unrestricted reader. However, there is a limit to the number of bookmarks you can save per month.

A premium subscription offers additional or unlimited bookmarks per month. Data is stored in your personal Apple account, storage limits and restrictions of your iCloud plan apply.

There are two different plans available: Atode Plus increases the number of bookmarks and Atode Pro offers unlimited bookmarks per month.

The Plus edition is monthly while for the Pro edition you can choose between a monthly and discounted yearly subscription. Atode Pro also offers a free 3-day trial for new subscribers. If you don’t want to pay after a trial subscription, cancel it at least 24 hours before the trial period ends.

Atode is an independent app, your purchase supports the further development.

Atode is available as a Universal Purchase. Enjoy Atode premium on your iPhone, iPad and Mac with one single subscription for all platforms.

If you buy Atode premium on one of your devices, it’s unlocked for free on any other device where you’re logged in to the same Apple ID. You can also open the settings from the sidebar in Atode and navigate to purchase. Tap on restore to enable the premium version on that device.

For more information, see Apple’s support documentation.

Restore in-app purchase:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204530

Atode offers a paid premium subscription (“plus”, “pro”) which, among other things, provides certain features that are not made available to users of the standard, free version.

You can upgrade to Atode Plus or Pro by buying an in-app purchase subscription. Open the settings from the sidebar in Atode and navigate to purchase to select one of the available plans.

When you buy a subscription, you are doing so through Apple’s App Store and you are agreeing to their terms and conditions. Payments will be charged to the credit card of your Apple account.

Subscriptions will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. To end a subscription, disable auto-renewal and allow the current period to end. It will not be possible to immediately cancel a subscription. Refunds are not available for unused portions of a subscription.

You can upgrade or downgrade an existing subscription. For an upgrade, the new purchase is charged and goes into effect immediately, whereas a downgrade will take place at the next reneval date.

To change your subscription:

1. Open the App Store app.
2. Tap your Apple ID at the top of the screen.
3. Tap Subscriptions.
4. Select the subscription that you want to manage.
5. Use the available options to manage your subscription.

To end a subscription, disable auto-renewal and allow the current period to end. It will not be possible to immediately cancel a subscription. Refunds are not available for unused portions of a subscription.

To cancel your subscription:

1. Open the App Store app.
2. Tap your Apple ID at the top of the screen.
3. Tap Subscriptions.
4. Select the subscription you want to cancel.
5. Tap Cancel Subscription.
6. Confirm when prompted to cancel your subscription.

For more details about canceling a subscription or managing payment information, refer to the Apple Support Billing and Subscriptions documentation.

In-app purchases are handled by Apple’s App Store. When you buy an in-app purchase, you are doing so through their store. Developers do not have access or can assist you with any issues.

If you can not buy or restore a purchase:

• Verify your App Store account settings
• Make sure your device is connected to the Internet
• Update your device to the latest available operating system

If it doesn’t work on your device, you can try to either:

• Retry sometimes later
• Close and restart the app
• Close all apps and restart your device
• Logout/login from your App Store account
• Uninstall and then reinstall the app once again

When a purchase can’t be restored you can also attempt to “buy” the same item again. It should show a message saying “You’ve already purchased this. Would you like to get it again for free?”. In that case, tap on OK to unlock the premium edition.

In case of problems with an in-app purchase, please refer to Apple’s official documentation or contact Apple Support if you still can’t buy or restore a purchase.

Buy an in-app purchase:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202023

Restore an in-app purchase:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204530

Manage your payment method:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201266

App Store connection issues:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201400

Migrate purchases to another Apple account:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/117294

If you experience a problem, you can request a refund directly from Apple. You’ll need to have a valid reason for the request, like if you bought the subscription by accident or in case it is not working. Developers do not have access nor can issue any refund related to App Store purchases.

To request a refund from Apple:

1. Go to Apple’s problem reports page:
   http://reportaproblem.apple.com
2. Login with your Apple ID.
3. Select the Apps tab.
4. Select Report a Problem to the right of the purchase you want a refund for.
5. Click on Choose Problem and select your problem from the menu.
6. Enter details about your problem and then submit.

You should hear back from Apple within a few days to a week with whether your request for a refund is approved.

Request a refund:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204084

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

Atode saves articles and data in Apple’s iCloud. Please note that you need to be signed in on your device with the same Apple ID on all platforms. Storage limits and restrictions of your iCloud plan apply.

Apple’s CloudKit framework is used to save all metadata and files. Like with Photos, Books or other apps, all data is stored in a private database in your personal iCloud account. Only devices linked to your account have access, it is not possible for users or developers to directly view or download stored articles and data.

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

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

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

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

Make sure iCloud is setup and working:

• Verify you are signed in:
  Settings > Apple ID
• Verify iCloud and iCloud Drive is enabled:
  Settings > Apple ID > iCloud
  iCloud > iCloud Drive > Apps > Atode
• Verify pending Apple account or iCloud terms and conditions are accepted:
  Settings > Apple Account > iCloud
• Verify network connection is available and not blocked (flight mode, vpn etc.):
  Settings > Network

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recoverable Problems

Fatal Problems

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

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

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

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

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

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

Connecting a Bluetooth accessory to your iPad requires at least iPadOS 13.4.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apple Quick Note aims to provide a quicker way to jot down things without you having to go in and out of the Notes app. When you activate it, the Notes app quickly opens and is available immediately.

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

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

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

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

Atode supports to add Quick Note links to articles or annotations.

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

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

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

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

Atode includes shortcuts to list or open articles and annotations and to export them in text, markdown or json format or save content as text and markdown. All shortcuts are available directly in the Apple Shortcuts app and can be freely combined with other actions. The provided shortcuts require at least iOS 17.4+ but some actions are only supported for iOS 18 or later.

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

Bookmark article (example)

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

The bookmarked article is not available immediately. It will be processed later on by the app, either when running in the background or on the next launch.

Individual articles can be exported in text, markdown or json format with the Export Article shortcut. It can be used together with the Current Article or Find Articles action, which lets you get a filtered list of articles to automate saving metadata and annotations of all your articles.

Export article (example)

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

Export current article (example)

1. Add Current Article shortcut
2. Add Export Article shortcut
   • Connect Current Article output to Export Article input
   • Choose a format (text, markdown, json)
3. Add Save File shortcut from the Files app

Export all articles (example)

1. Add Find Articles shortcut
   • Optional: Add Filter (tag, folder, …)
2. Add Repeat with Each action for all articles
3. Add Export Article shortcut inside the loop
   • Connect Repeat Item to Export Article input
4. Use the Files app Save File action to save the export
   • Disable Ask Where to Save and select a folder instead
   • Enable Overwrite If File Exists to have only one copy

You can save article content as text or markdown with the Save Article shortcut.

Save article (example)

1. Add Save Article shortcut
2. Choose a format (plain text or markdown)
3. Use the Files app Save File action to save the content

This shortcut lets you save the full article content as plain text or markdown for use in other apps. Like with any other shortcut, it can be used together with the Current Article or Find Articles action to select a specific article.

You can export individual annotations in text, markdown or json format with the Export Annotation shortcut.

Export annotation (example)

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

Another option is to create your own annotation export. You can use the Find Annotations shortcut to get a filtered list of all annotations or the Current Annotations action to save all annotations of your current book.

Export all annotations (example)

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

This example iterates over all annotations and creates a new dictionary for each entry with specific annotation properties. The result output can be used as a json payload to upload highlights to external services.

Atode includes a convenience shortcut to upload highlights to the Readwise service. It can be used to upload all or selected highlights with the Find Annotations action or to just upload the Current Annotations of an article.

Upload highlights (example)

1. Add Find Annotations shortcut
   • Optional: Sort by created or modified
2. Optional: Add Choose from List shortcut
3. Add Readwise Service shortcut
   • Connect list output to upload input
   • Enter your Readwise access token

Upload current highlights (example)

1. Add Current Annotations shortcut
2. Add Readwise Service shortcut
   • Enter your Readwise access token

You can obtain your personal Readwise access token from their service
https://readwise.io/access_token

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

Service upload (example)

1. Add Find Annotation shortcut with optional filters
   • Sort by created or modified
   • Order by latest
   • Limit to 30
2. Add Choose from List action to select some or all annotations
3. Add a Repeat with Each action for the Chosen Items afterwards
4. For each item, create a Dictionary with the highlight attributes
5. Create new Dictionary action to save the export output in the required format
6. Use a Get Contents of URL action and configure it to upload the highlights:
   • POST request to Service API endpoint
   • Request body type File set to the Text contents
   • Headers for json content type and authorization token

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

This approach will only work with more than one annotation. The problem is that the Shortcuts app somehow converts list output to an object instead of an array if there is only one item contained. You would need to modify the shortcut to handle zero/one or multiple annotations.

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

– Readwise
https://readwise.io/api_deets

– Raindrop.io
https://developer.raindrop.io/v1/highlights

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can uninstall Atode like any other app on your iPhone or iPad.

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

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

Caution: Deleting iCloud data containers from your device settings will delete it from your iCloud account on Apple’s servers. This action can not be undone and your data can’t be recovered:
Device Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage > Atode: Delete Data

Atode uses Apple’s default text selection, which can sometimes be unreliable. For example, the behaviour (and issues) are similar to when text is selected in the standard Safari browser.

What usually works best is to:

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

It has already been improved in recent OS versions, it’s recommended to update your device to the latest system version. There will likely be more optimizations in upcoming platform updates. Please report this issue directly to Apple for it to be prioritized:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/