Distill – data

Distill is a „read-it-later“ and knowledge inbox for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. You collect articles, links, text, images, and PDFs in one place, work through them at your own pace – reading, summarizing, categorizing, adding notes – and then archive or export them. Everything syncs automatically and privately through your iCloud across all your devices.

In Short

A calm inbox for everything you want to read later – articles, links, PDFs, images.
RSS feeds, sharing from Safari, and pasting from the clipboard – it all lands in one place.
Reader mode: clean article text, without ads or paywalls.
Summarize and categorize with Apple Intelligence.
Synced privately and automatically via iCloud across Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Export as Markdown for your notes app or your blog.

At a Glance

Inbox principle: Everything new lands in the Inbox; you process it, then it moves to the Archive.
RSS feeds: Subscribe to sources, and new posts appear automatically in the Inbox.
Share feature: Send web pages from Safari (or other apps) straight to Distill.
Reader mode: Clean article text without ads and paywalls – fast and battery-friendly.
Apple Intelligence: Summaries and category suggestions at the tap of a button (on supported devices).
Widget and badge: your inbox as a widget on the home screen or in Notification Center, and as a number on the app icon.
Markdown export: Get your processed content out as a file.
iCloud sync: Your data stays on your devices and in your private iCloud – no third-party server.

Adding Content

Subscribe to RSS feeds. In the feed manager, add the address of an RSS/Atom feed. Distill fetches new articles and places them in the Inbox. The feed list is the same on all devices.

Via the Share feature. Using the share menu (e.g., from Safari), send a web page to Distill – it appears immediately as a new entry in the Inbox. This works on Mac and iPhone/iPad.

Files, URLs, text. You can paste URLs from the clipboard and capture images, PDFs, and text files. On the Mac, you can additionally import files and use drag-and-drop.

Reading and Processing

Reader mode instead of ad clutter. Distill can pull the plain article text out of a web page. In Reader mode you see this clean text – it’s there instantly, without ads, without paywall overlays, and it saves battery. Using the toggle at the top of the view, you can switch to the Original (the actual web page) at any time. It stays calm there, too: Distill blocks ad networks and trackers – pages load faster and use less battery; content and consent dialogs remain untouched.

Extract text. For web pages, Distill pulls the readable text at the tap of a button. For images and PDFs, the text is extracted via optical character recognition (OCR). The extracted text is also automatically placed on the clipboard.

Summarize (Apple Intelligence). With one tap, Distill creates a summary of the content. It now captures the entire article rather than just the beginning, so even long texts are summarized fully and accurately. This requires the extracted full text, so for plain RSS excerpts, use Extract text first. For long texts Distill shows its progress (“Condensing section 2/5 …”), and you can cancel at any time. In the settings you choose the length: short, medium, or detailed. This feature uses on-device Apple Intelligence and is available on sufficiently recent, supported devices.

Categories and hashtags. You assign a category to each entry (the list is fully customizable). Distill automatically suggests a fitting category. You can also generate hashtags.

Your own notes. For each entry you can write your own notes and give it a custom display name.

Organizing

Read / unread. Entries you haven’t read yet are shown in bold. As soon as you open an entry, it counts as read and is displayed more subtly. You can also toggle the status by hand and move an already-read article back to the unread list: on the Mac, right-click the entry; on iPhone and iPad, swipe right. The read status syncs across all devices.

Inbox and Archive. You move processed entries to the Archive; from the Archive you can move them back to the Inbox if needed.

Search. You can search your entries in both the Inbox and the Archive.

Deleting and Trash. Deleted entries first go to the Trash (Mac/iPad: third segment in the switcher at the top, iPhone: its own tab). From there you can restore them or delete them permanently – individually or via “Empty trash”. Permanently deleted RSS articles are kept away for good and are not imported again.

Widget. A Distill widget shows your inbox right on the home screen (iPhone and iPad) or in Notification Center (Mac). The small size shows the number of entries in the inbox; the medium size also shows the next titles. Tapping the widget opens the app.

App icon badge. Like Mail, a badge on the app icon shows the number of unread inbox entries.

Exporting

You can export any entry as a Markdown file – ideal for your notes app, a wiki, or your blog. The file name is generated automatically from the article title (with hyphens instead of spaces). After exporting, the entry moves to the Archive.

Share and save. You can also share entries directly from Distill: links, PDFs, images, and text via the share menu. Images can be saved as an actual image to Photos, or on the Mac dragged and dropped into a Finder folder.

Settings

Appearance: System (follows the device and turns dark automatically in the evening), Light, or Dark.
Summary length: short / medium / detailed.
Default category: right-click (or long-press) a category to set a default category for new entries.
Manage feeds: add and remove sources.
Maintenance: clean up duplicate RSS entries, fix incorrect entry types, and compress stored images (saves storage and eases iCloud sync).

The Platforms Compared

Distill is a native app for three platforms, each adapted to its interaction model and the available space.

Mac

Three-column view: list, original content, and notes side by side – everything at a glance.
RSS is fetched automatically: at launch and then regularly (about every 15 minutes), plus via a refresh button. This way the Mac keeps the feeds up to date for all devices.
Toolbar with file import, feed management, and „paste URL“; settings in the classic Settings window.
Drag-and-drop of files.

iPad

Also a three-column / split view like the Mac, with plenty of reading space.
You fetch RSS manually via „pull down to refresh“ (pull-to-refresh).

iPhone

Optimized for the small display: the article fills the entire screen. Notes, category, and export sit in a pull-up panel at the bottom – push it down to read, pull it up to edit.
Quick delete while reading: a trash button in the navigation bar deletes the entry and takes you back to the Inbox.
Bottom bar with Inbox, Archive, Trash, and Settings.
You fetch RSS manually via pull-to-refresh.

Why does only the Mac fetch RSS automatically?

This is intentional: on mobile devices, constant background fetching would drain the battery. So the Mac (usually plugged in) fetches the feeds automatically, and iPhone/iPad receive the new articles via iCloud sync – without any background fetch of their own. Whenever you want, you can refresh manually on the mobile device – just pull the list down.

Sync and Privacy

Distill stores your content locally on the device and syncs it through your private iCloud database (CloudKit). There is no third-party server in between – your data belongs to you and stays in your Apple account. An icon in the app shows you the current sync status. Changes – new entries, deletions, read status, categories – appear automatically on all your devices.

System Requirements

iPhone and iPad: iOS or iPadOS 17 or newer
Mac: macOS 14 or newer
An iCloud account (your Apple ID) for syncing between devices
For the AI summary only: it requires iOS or iPadOS 26 or macOS 26 and an Apple Intelligence–capable device (e.g., iPhone 15 Pro or newer, Macs and iPads with Apple silicon). All other features work without Apple Intelligence, including on older systems.

A single app version covers iPhone and iPad – it’s a universal app.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Do I need Apple Intelligence?
No – for collecting, reading, categorizing manually, archiving, and exporting you don’t need Apple Intelligence. Only the automatic summarizing and the category suggestion use it and require a capable device.

Where is my data stored?
Locally on your device and in your private iCloud database. There is no third-party server – your content stays in your Apple account and is not shared with anyone else.

Does one app version work on both iPhone and iPad?
Yes. Distill is a universal app and adapts automatically: a compact layout on the iPhone, a three-column view on the iPad.

Why do new RSS articles sometimes appear with a delay on the iPhone?
To save battery, iPhone and iPad do not fetch RSS feeds in the background on their own. New articles arrive via iCloud sync (typically from the Mac, which fetches the feeds automatically). You can refresh manually on the mobile device at any time – just pull the list down.

What happens when I delete an entry?
It first goes to the Trash, from where you can restore it or delete it permanently – synced across all devices. Permanently deleted RSS articles are kept away for good and are not imported again.

Can I get my content out of Distill?
Yes – every entry can be exported as a Markdown file and used in other apps.