Substack Debuts iOS App for Reading Newsletters
Substack Reader lets users tap into a writer's related content, including podcasts and videos.
Substack's new mobile app is only available on Apple's iOS.
Substack has just unveiled its first mobile app, which operates like an RSS reader for Substack writers.
Launched in 2017, Substack provides a publishing platform for monetizable newsletters covering a variety of topics, including politics, tech, finance, culture, parenting, music, comics and food.
Instead of scrolling through their email inbox, users of the Substack Reader app can access a feed of the newsletters they follow, available in a reader view with comments included.
Users of the Substack app can digest their favorite newsletter in a reader format.
Followers get notifications when new installments are available, and can tap into an author's related content, including podcasts and videos. They also receive recommendations for new authors.
Substack writers benefit, too, the company said, with reliable delivery and "multiple media formats in a single package."
In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie compared the new app to the dearly departed Google Reader, the RSS reader that shuttered in July 2013.
"I remember how good it felt to be a thinking person who liked to read on the internet," wrote McKenzie, a former journalist. "I remember being able to follow my favorite writers and read them at length, where their arguments could be made calmly, where there was a point in aiming for beauty."
Hearkening back to "the time before we gave up our minds for dopamine hits," McKenzie said the Substack app "makes me feel like a reader again."
The Substack Reader is currently only available in the Apple App Store. A representative told CNET a waiting list is available for those who want to be notified when the Android version launches.