About Wallflower
A social reader with somewhere to put things.
Wallflower reads Mastodon and Bluesky together as one calm, chronological broadsheet — then gives articles, feeds, posts, passages, and even RSS links a quieter second life in your Commonplace Book. From there, saved articles can become a private custom podcast, with each narrated story ready in your Reader as a private episode.
The reading flow
The stream moves. Your reading can stay.
Social timelines are good at bringing things to you and bad at helping you return to them. Wallflower treats discovery and reading as connected but different activities: notice something, decide whether it deserves your time, then open it in the Reader and file it into your workflow without the stream tugging at your sleeve.
Mastodon · 18 minutes ago
The library kept its windows open through the rain. Everyone read a little more slowly.
Bluesky · 26 minutes ago
A field note on attention, public spaces, and the things a city teaches quietly.
To Read · 8 minutes
The patient work of paying attention
An article kept away from the rush of the timeline.
“Keep the sentences that change the way you look.”
Read · Narrate · Export to your private podcast
What is inside
Built around a reader, not a metric.
01
Mastodon and Bluesky
Connect multiple accounts from either network or both. Posts arrive in one edition, while full handles and origins stay visible. Matching cross-posts from linked identities appear once, with their connection intact.
02
Confluence
A deliberately balanced view of both networks, made for the days when one busy source would otherwise crowd out the other.
03
Compose and respond
Write, reply, quote, and cross-post. Quick replies open where you are; images and GIFs carry alt text; drafts wait when you need to leave a thought unfinished.
04
Threads, profiles, and search
Follow conversations through a nested thread or read a self-reply chain as one essay. Search people, posts, and tags, and keep private notes beside the profiles you return to.
05
Inbox, To Read, and Archive
Inbox holds things you have not decided about. To Read is the queue you chose deliberately. Archive keeps what is finished or worth retaining without pretending it is still waiting.
06
A first-class feed reader
Subscribe to RSS and Atom, arrange sources in folders, import or export OPML, sync seen stories, and move an article straight to Inbox or To Read. Cached editions open without a fresh round trip.
07
A focused article reader
Open the full post or feed article in a quiet reading view, search its text, file it into your private workflow, and post a story without leaving the reader. Patron adds a PDF library with persistent highlighting and markup on each device.
08
Highlights that travel
Keep passages with notes, revisit them in context, or turn one into a post or warm-paper quote card. Export reading as EPUB, Markdown, BibTeX, RIS, or Obsidian-ready notes.
09
Listening and read aloud
Have an Apple device read an article aloud on-device. With Patron, turn a saved article into a private Wallflower episode and then into your own private podcast feed, effectively turning your Commonplace reading list into a custom podcast. Save it in Reader first, then listen through AirPods, the Lock Screen, or Dynamic Island without changing your workflow.
10
A library you can shape
Notebooks, full-book search, reading-time filters, batch filing, recoverable trash, and a Reading Year keep a useful library from becoming another undifferentiated pile.
11
Quiet media and safety
Images, video, and podcast audio play inline. Alt text remains available, while content warnings, sensitive-media gates, filters, mutes, blocks, and reporting keep control with the reader.
12
Accessible by design
VoiceOver and screen-reader descriptions, Dynamic Type, keyboard navigation, generous targets, and reduced-motion and transparency support are part of the interface rather than an afterthought.
Wallflower Patron
Keep the calm reader free. Fund the deeper reading room.
The social reader, Commonplace Book, RSS feeds, highlights, exports, and on-device read aloud remain free. Patron supports Wallflower and unlocks the tools with ongoing storage or narration costs.
$3.99 monthly or $19.99 yearly in the U.S. The App Store shows your localized price before purchase.
Social and RSS reading
FreeMastodon, Bluesky, and RSS reading
PatronEverything in Free
Commonplace Book
FreeSaving, highlights, notes, and standard exports
PatronEverything in Free
Read aloud
FreeOn-device voices
PatronOn-device voices
PDF research tools
FreeCredential-free sample
PatronImport, search, highlight, and mark up PDFs
Private reading podcast
FreeFeature preview
PatronNarrated episodes and a private podcast feed
Membership
FreeNo subscription required
PatronOne membership across signed-in Apple devices
Cloud narration includes fair-use allowances. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled in your Apple Account at least 24 hours before the current period ends.
Web · iPhone · iPad · Mac
One reading life, across devices
Wallflower adapts from a single comfortable column on your phone to a broad, adjustable multi-column edition on larger screens. Commonplace material, feed subscriptions and folders, seen stories, column choices, and reading preferences stay connected wherever you read. Apple devices can also carry signed-in accounts through iCloud. Imported PDFs and their markup remain private to the device where you added them.
Available now
Take Wallflower with you.
Wallflower is available from the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The web edition remains available in any modern browser.
A note from the maker
Wallflower is made by Andrew Leahey for people who still like reading the whole thing. It is a sibling to PIVOT, a daily word puzzle with the same quiet temperament.