Support
How can we help?
The Lede saves an article, has it read closely, unburies the real story, files it by beat, and writes the strongest honest case the piece can make. Here's the practical stuff.
Need a person? Email support@theledeapp.com. We're a small shop. Expect a reply within a couple of days.
1The basics
What is The Lede?
A read-later app for iPhone and iPad with a research desk behind it. Save an article from anywhere; The Lede reads the whole piece, unburies what it's actually about, renames it plainly, files it by beat, and writes a short brief: the strongest honest case the piece makes. You're the editor. The Lede is your research desk.
What's a "brief"?
What the desk hands back for every article you save: a plain rename of the piece by its real argument, a beat (the topic desk it's filed under), and a few sentences making the strongest honest version of the case the article is arguing. Briefs are also the unit your free monthly allowance counts.
Why did my saved article come back with a different name?
Because the headline you clicked and the story underneath it aren't always the same thing. The Lede reads the whole piece and renames it for what it's actually about, so your queue reads like what you saved, not like what got you to click. It never touches the original: every renamed story carries a "RAN AS" line showing the real headline, exactly as it ran. Nothing is swapped behind your back; you can always see both.
What's Dig Deeper?
A deeper pass you can ask for on anything you save. The desk goes out and researches it, pulls in additional reporting and other angles, and writes a richer read: what others found, a few different takes, and an honest bottom line. It works in the background and lets you know when it's ready. Dig Deeper comes with Membership, and two a month are free so you can see what it does.
↑ Contents2Saving articles
How do I save an article?
From Safari or almost any app: tap Share, then choose The Lede. The article uploads in the background and the brief lands in your queue when it's ready. Usually that's quick, and it keeps working even if you leave the app.
I can't find the Share button. Where is it?
Look for the share icon: a square with an arrow pointing up. In Safari it lives under the ⋯ button at the bottom of the screen: tap ⋯, then Share. Other apps move it around: some put it at the top of the story, some only show it when you press and hold a link, and a few (Substack among them) tuck it behind their own menus. Wherever an app hides it, the destination is the same: find the share icon or the word Share, then choose The Lede. And if an app truly won't share an article, open the story in Safari and share from there. That route always works, and it's the strongest one anyway: the desk reads the page in your own signed-in session.
Can I save from Chrome, Brave, Firefox, or apps like Reddit?
Yes, from almost anywhere the Share button appears. When you share from Safari, The Lede reads the page exactly as you see it, signed in and all. From other browsers and apps it receives the link and reads the article on its own. If a page can't be read that way, the save is still kept; you'll see a card telling you exactly how to finish it (see the locked-door question below). Reddit is the one place this doesn't hold, and the next question explains why.
Why do Reddit links only work from Safari?
Because Reddit blocks everyone else, and that's worth being straight about: it's a Reddit problem, not a bug in The Lede. Share a Reddit thread from the Reddit app and The Lede tells you right there, then points you to the step that works. Open the thread in Safari and share it from there, and the desk reads it in your own signed-in session like any other site.
Reddit no longer lets outside tools read its pages, apart from one search engine it struck a deal with. We tested every honest route and they are all shut. The dishonest ones do exist: pretend to be a browser we aren't, pull the page out of an archive mirror, buy it from a company that scrapes on our behalf. We don't do those here or anywhere else. A page you can read should be readable by the tools you choose to read it with, and when a site breaks that rule, the fix isn't for us to cheat our way back in. So this stays broken from the Reddit app, and honest from Safari.
I subscribe to a publication. Can I save its articles?
Yes. Share them from Safari, where you're already signed in. The desk reads the page in your own logged-in session, so it reads exactly what you can read: nothing more, nothing bypassed. If a story can't be reached that way, The Lede tells you and keeps the save.
I got a card that says "Locked door." What do I do?
That card means the desk couldn't get into the article on its own: usually a site that wants a signed-in reader, or a link shared from outside Safari. Tap the card, then Open in Safari: the article opens inside The Lede, signed in as you. Read it, tap Share, and send it back to The Lede from there. The desk reads exactly what you can read, and the save stays in your queue either way.
A brief didn't show up. Where is it?
Uploads finish in the background, so a brief can land a moment after you've moved on. Check your connection and reopen The Lede; anything waiting will finish. If a save genuinely failed, it shows as a card that says so, never silence.
↑ Contents3Your queue, briefs & reading
Where are my saved articles?
In your queue, read or unread: nothing moves on its own. Swipe a story to archive it when you're done, and the section line at the top of the queue switches between Queue, Bookmarked, and Archive. Nothing is deleted unless you delete it.
What are beats?
The desks your stories are filed under: politics, technology, science, business, culture, world, design, health. The Lede files each save by what it's about, so your library reads like sections, not a pile.
Can I read the original article?
Always. The original is saved with the brief and rendered cleanly for reading, and there's a link to the source. The brief sits above the article, never instead of it.
Can I highlight and take notes?
Yes. Select text in a brief or a Dig Deeper read and highlight it, with a note if you want. Your highlights live in their own collection and sync with everything else.
Can I share a brief or send it to my notes app?
You can share the rename: a short text pairing the headline the piece ran under with what it's really about, through the standard share sheet. The full brief stays in the app. If Obsidian is installed, a Send to Obsidian action appears in the reader's menu and exports the brief as Markdown for personal use. Other notes apps aren't wired up yet.
↑ Contents4Free & paid plans
What's free?
Your first 10 briefs every month: no account, no card, no trial clock. Two Dig Deepers a month are free as well, so you can see the desk at full stretch before deciding anything. Both refresh on the 1st.
What happens if I save more than 10 articles in a month?
Every save is kept: nothing is ever lost or turned away. Past 10, a save stays buried: filed in your queue, original readable, but its brief withheld. Upgrade any time and the desk goes back and unburies everything you've saved.
What are the paid plans?
One: Membership, $9.99 a month with a 7-day free trial. The desk reads it all, and 150 Dig Deepers a month. The yearly plan is $99.99, which works out at $8.33 a month: the same 150 Dig Deepers a month, and two months free. If demand spikes, new briefs may queue briefly; this rarely affects everyday reading.
How does the free trial work?
Membership starts with 7 days free, and the trial is the full product: the desk reads it all, and the full 150 Dig Deepers a month, from the first minute. When the trial ends it automatically becomes a paid subscription at $9.99 a month, or $99.99 a year if you chose the yearly plan, unless you cancel first, in which case you pay nothing. You can cancel any time in Settings → your name → Subscriptions.
How do I subscribe, change plans, or cancel?
Everything runs through Apple. Subscribe, or switch between monthly and yearly billing, inside the app; manage or cancel any time in Settings → your name → Subscriptions → The Lede on your iPhone. The Lede never sees your card; Apple handles all of it.
I subscribed but the app still treats me as free.
Tap Restore Purchases on the subscription screen; that also brings an active subscription to a new iPhone. If it still doesn't take, email support@theledeapp.com with the purchase date and we'll sort it out.
Is there a limit on how much the desk reads?
One, and it sits far past everyday reading: each device has a monthly ceiling on how much reading the desk will do for it, whatever the plan. If a device reaches it, every save is still kept and the originals stay readable, but new briefs stop for that device and resume on the 1st. This is separate from Membership's 150 Dig Deepers, which are a shared monthly allowance across all your devices.
Can the allowances change?
As the product evolves, what the free tier includes and what Membership includes can change. One floor doesn't move: for a subscription term you have already paid for, we will not reduce a metered allowance below what was advertised when you purchased that term. Buy a year with 150 Dig Deepers a month, and that year keeps at least 150 a month, whatever changes later.
↑ Contents5Privacy & your data
Do I need an account? What do you collect?
No account: no name, no password, and the app never asks for your email. Your library lives in your own iCloud. We collect a small amount of usage data, keyed to a random per-device identifier rather than your name, to run the service and set fair pricing. No ads, no third-party trackers, nothing sold. The exact details are in the Privacy Policy.
What happens to an article's text when I save it?
It's sent to our server just long enough to write the brief: passed to our AI provider, Anthropic, where our contract bars model training on your text, and which deletes the text within 30 days unless it flags a piece for safety review or the law requires a longer hold. We never store it ourselves. What we keep is limited and self-deleting: a short, one-way fingerprint of the text so the same article isn't processed twice, the brief itself for a brief window, and a hash of the article's web address, never the address itself and never its text. We don't keep the raw address. It goes to Anthropic when you ask for a "Dig Deeper" or when the piece is opinion or commentary, and otherwise passes only briefly through our host's operational logs. The Privacy Policy has the binding detail, including every provider involved.
Do you keep a record of what I read?
Not a readable list of the specific articles you read. Your saved articles, briefs, and highlights live in your own iCloud, never on our servers. To run the service we keep limited usage signals (tied to a random per-device identifier, never your name), such as a story's publication and a keyed fingerprint of its address (a one-way code we can't reverse without a secret we hold). We don't store the web addresses themselves. The Privacy Policy spells out exactly what's retained.
Can I delete my data?
Yes. Deleting the app and its iCloud data removes your library. Email support@theledeapp.com and we'll delete the usage records tied to your device. We may keep one Apple-issued transaction identifier tied to a recent subscription where we need it to handle refunds and billing disputes; it carries no name or payment details. Full detail in the Privacy Policy.
↑ Contents6Sources & standards
Does The Lede block or favor certain outlets?
No outlet is blocked, filtered, or down-ranked for who it is. The desk holds one editorial standard: steel-man everything, applied to every source the same way. The full standard is written down in How The Lede sources.
What happens when I save an opinion piece?
The desk briefs the argument at its strongest, like anything else. When a brief needs the underlying reporting (what actually happened, beyond the columnist's account), it reads from solid accounts of the same events and says so in the brief. Nothing is swapped silently, and it works the same for every outlet's opinion pages alike.
Is it politically biased?
Its job is the opposite of a take: make the strongest honest case for what you saved, whatever its viewpoint. There's no list of approved or banned outlets; there's a standard, published for anyone to read at How The Lede sources.
↑ Contents7Devices & sync
What does The Lede run on?
iPhone and iPad. Built for the phone in your hand, where the reading actually happens, and on iPad it's a real iPad app, not a stretched-out iPhone layout.
Does it sync?
Your library (articles, briefs, highlights) lives in your iCloud and follows your Apple ID. Delete the app and reinstall, and your library comes back.
Is there an Android or web version?
No. The Lede is an iPhone and iPad app.
↑ Contents8Accessibility
Something doesn't work with my setup. How do I tell you?
Email support@theledeapp.com and mention what you were using: VoiceOver, Switch Control, larger text, a braille display, anything. That detail is what lets us reproduce the problem and fix it.
↑ Contents9When something goes wrong
A save failed or a site won't read. What now?
The save is kept either way: a failed read shows as a card, and most fix with the open-in-Safari, share-it-back move (see the "Locked door" answer above). If a particular site never works, tell us: support@theledeapp.com. Fixing sources is ongoing desk work.
How do I reach a human?
support@theledeapp.com. We're a small shop; we aim to reply within a couple of days.
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