💡 WiseUp! Vol. 33 — Have you called a friend today?
This week, we continue the trend to lead with optimism as we discover habits that rewire our brains for better clarity. Good news: there are a few things that you might already be doing. And yes, you might be able to use this clarity to read more and collect better highlights. (Just remember to toggle on the Highlight Quality Filter!)
On the app side, we’re unpacking a feature we anticipated last week: the Offline Hub (still not the official name). We've also improved tablet reading to offer you an overall better experience. Read on for all the details or check out our log of weekly improvements.
Before we get into the tips…
📍 Let's start with a reading recommendation
7 daily habits to rewire your brain for long-term clarity
As fellow lifelong learners, we’re always looking for ways to keep our brains primed for deep reading and growth. This week, join us in trying a few habits from Dr. Daniel Stickler. You’re already halfway there with your cognitive training. "Your brain isn't destined to decline. It's designed to adapt, grow, and thrive throughout your entire life. The future of your cognitive health is being written by your choices today. Every walk you take, every vegetable you eat, every friend you call, every moment of meditation is an investment in your brain's health tomorrow."
From the support inbox
Have questions about using Readwise or Reader in your workflow? We'd love to be your guide! Reply to this email with your question and you might be featured in an upcoming issue. Even if your question isn’t featured, we’ll respond to every message.
❓ A Readwise question from Vladislav T:
What does the Highlight Quality Filter change in my Daily Review?
The Highlight Quality Filter cleans up your Daily Reviews by skipping over fragments and those random “oops” highlights you didn’t mean to save. It’s on by default, but if you read in shorter-script languages (like Hanzi, Kanji, or Arabic), you might want to turn it off so real highlights don’t get hidden.
❓ A Reader question from Jan K:
Is there a way to clear out old feed documents by date?
Feeds can get messy before you know it, but you can sweep out the old stuff in one go. Create a filtered view (Shift+F) and use a date filter such as(feed:true AND saved__lt:"1 week ago")to surface only what’s outdated, then clear them all at once. You’ll find more detailed instructions here.
📖 New help doc of the week
Use selective caching to optimize your offline reading
You can now manage which sections of your account cache files for offline use with the new Experimental Caching option. This feature helps optimize storage space while ensuring your preferred documents are available for offline reading.
🎬 New video of the week
New: Improved offline caching
Last week, we shipped a new option to the Reader mobile app that lets you manually download your documents before going offline.
Hopefully this will add some peace of mind before your next long flight or subway ride 😌
📰 Sep 7 - Sep 12 updates
What's new in Reader and Readwise
🛜 Improved Offline Caching — Johannes made offline caching significantly faster and more reliable. Interrupted connections should no longer cause downloading to get stuck, with fewer cases of documents not properly caching. The app now syncs every time it becomes focused, so content stays more up to date.
🧠 Improved Theme Suggestions — Ibai made theme suggestions much stronger and broader, so you should see better recommendations when creating a new Themed Review.
🔀 Improved Pocket Import — Rasul fixed an issue that was causing duplicate documents when using both the ZIP file method and the API method to import content from Pocket.
📽️ Improved Video Chat — Chat with Document in Reader will now use the enhanced YouTube transcript when one is available, thanks to Ibai.
✨ Fixed Highlight Navigation — Adam fixed a glitch causing documents in the Reader mobile app to jump erratically when opening a link to a highlight’s original location in a document; for example, from the sidebar or Readwise Daily Review.
📧 Fixed Email Buttons — Arek fixed a CSS glitch causing the action button at the end of certain forwarded emails to appear off-center.
📖 Fixed Fade Effect — Johannes fixed a bug where continuous scroll was sometimes showing a fade effect on regular documents like PDFs. It should now only appear on EPUBs near the end of chapters.
🌟 Improved Tablet Reading — Mati tweaked the default text size and margins, nudged the annotation menu, and re-sized the panels and buttons. He also improved the navigation bar and toolbars. Reading on iPads and other tablets should now be a lot nicer.
🖼️ Improved Image Opening — When tapping an image to open it in the viewer, you should no longer see an extra menu. Thanks Mati!
🔖 Fixed Tag Sheets — Artem fixed a glitch with the tag sheet list layouts, so now they're properly rounded with no extra space.
🛜 Parsing Updates — Krzys made improvements to how Reader handles posts from theatlantic.com, technews.tw, reddit.com, https://news.ycombinator.com, and theparisreview.org.
👍 Three featured finds
From support specialist Max
Something to read 📖
Another Way of Telling by John Berger is a quiet yet radical book on how images speak, remember, and persuade. Max recommends it for the way it gently rewires how you look at photography, and maybe the world.
Something to focus 🔦
When it comes to staying organized without overthinking, Max relies on the app Things 3 for its clean, thoughtful design. It’s focus without the fuss.
Something to unwind 🎥
For slow-burning, visually rich films that feel more like meditations than entertainment, Max turns to MUBI. It’s a beautifully curated space where cinema lingers on mood, culture, and the quiet beauty of the everyday.
💬 From the Readwise group chat
Between concepts and frogs
Nothing tickles us like a bit of philosophical humor. Starting today, you’re a keeper of Ralph’s memory. (Stop reading now, and you’ll keep the little guy safe, but you’ll be the one left intrigued.)
See you next week!
Warmly,
the Readwise customer support team