SharkReader Has Been Rebuilt From the Ground Up

SharkReader has been around for a long time, and for most of that time it ran on the same PHP codebase. That code served us well, but it was showing its age: full page reloads, a dated look, and a foundation that made new features harder to add than they should be.

So we rebuilt it. The new SharkReader has a new engine written in Go and a new interface built with Vue. Your account, your folders, your feeds and your starred posts all came along with it.

Here’s what’s new.

A faster, smoother reader

The new SharkReader works like an app rather than a set of web pages. Moving between folders, opening posts and browsing Discover happens instantly, without reloading the page.

The background feed updater has also been rewritten. It checks feeds several at a time instead of one after another, so new articles show up sooner, even when a slow website is holding things up.

Read your way: three views

Choose the layout that suits how you read:

• List view. Scan headlines quickly and open what catches your eye.
• Full view. Read complete articles in one continuous stream.
• Window view. A compact, focused reading pane.

SharkReader remembers your choice, so it’s there the next time you visit.

Dark mode is finally here

It’s one of our most requested features. Pick Light, Dark or System, which follows your device’s setting automatically. Your choice is saved to your account, so it follows you from device to device.

Never miss a new post

While you’re reading, SharkReader checks for new articles every few minutes. When something arrives, a banner lets you know. One click loads the new posts, and you won’t lose your place.

Starred posts

See something worth keeping? Star it. All your starred posts are gathered in one place, ready when you want to come back to them.

A better Discover

Discover is the place to find your next favourite feed:

• Browse the feeds other readers are following.
• Catch up on recent posts from across SharkReader.
• Search recent articles by keyword.
• Subscribe in one click. Add a feed straight into any of your folders, and see at a glance which folders already have it.

Built for your phone, too

The new interface was designed for every screen size. Layouts, menus and buttons adapt to phones and tablets, with touch-friendly controls throughout.

Share what you’re reading

Every post has its own clean link. Hit Copy Link to share an article with a friend, or save it for later.

Your account, safer than ever

Security got a lot of attention in this release:

• Upgraded password protection. Passwords from the old system still work. The first time you sign in, your password is automatically re-secured with modern hashing. You don’t need to do anything.
• Content from feeds is cleaned before you see it. Feeds come from all over the internet. SharkReader now removes scripts and other unsafe code from every article before showing it, so a misbehaving feed can’t do anything nasty in your browser.
• Logging out really logs you out. When you sign out, that session ends on our servers too, not just in your browser. If an account’s password or email changes, its old sessions end automatically.
• Stronger passwords for new accounts. New passwords need to be at least 8 characters.

Respecting your privacy

• No ads. None.
• No Google Analytics. We use privacy-respecting analytics that we run ourselves.
• Your email stays private. Nothing about your account, including any part of your email address, is shown publicly.

Bugs squashed along the way

The rebuild gave us a chance to fix some long-standing annoyances:

• Some feeds publish posts without links. Previously only the first of those was ever saved; now every one shows up.
• Posts could occasionally appear twice when a feed was refreshed at the same moment from two places. That can’t happen any more.
• Starring and unstarring posts is now completely reliable, with no stuck or duplicate stars.
• When the site is updated, articles that were mid-refresh now finish cleanly instead of being cut off.

Under the hood

For the curious: the new SharkReader backend is written in Go, and the interface is built with Vue 3 and Tailwind CSS. The whole application ships as a single, efficient program, which makes it faster to run, easier to maintain and quicker for us to improve. That means more updates, more often.

What’s next

This release is the foundation, not the finish line. With the new platform in place, we can build new features much faster than before. Have an idea or a request? We’d love to hear it.

Thanks for reading with SharkReader, and welcome to the new version.