Backread · Help
Help & questions
What Backread is
A library for everything you save. Bookmark a post on X and it is in Backread the moment you tap — sorted into your own niches, summarised, searchable, and kept forever, even if the original disappears. Share a YouTube video, a TikTok, an article or any link from your phone or Mac and it lands in the same library. X stays the place you find things; Backread is the place they stay.
What it reads from X — and what it never does
Backread never posts, likes, follows, replies or DMs as you. It reads your bookmarks (and your likes, only if you connect them) with the permission you grant at sign-in. The one write it ever makes to X is removing a bookmark from your X bookmarks tab — only when you run Bulk Cleanup, paced to X's limits, with a full day to undo.
Do you see my X password?
No. Sign-in is X's own OAuth screen; we receive a revocable token. You can revoke it any time from X → Settings → Security → Apps, or by deleting your Backread account.
Which likes come in?
When you connect likes, Backread files your latest 500 likes, then every new like as you go. Likes live in their own room so the library you built by hand stays deliberate.
The beta
Backread is invite-only while we learn from the first members. If you have an invite link, open it and sign in with the account you want your library under. If you don't, join the waitlist on the home page — we admit in small waves and you'll hear from us directly. Everything is free for beta testers during the beta; nothing you build here is lost when pricing begins.
What we ask of testers
Use it the way you already use X. Tell us what confused you, what you reached for that wasn't there, and what you'd miss. The feedback bubble in the app goes straight to us.
Pricing
- Free — the full intelligence on your first 100 imports, no card.
- Backread — $4.99/month or $49.99/year: your whole archive, likes and YouTube, real-time watching, the Vault, the Brief, your AI connected over MCP.
- Backread Ultra — the Second Brain, the Observatory and Books. Not yet on sale; join the waitlist to hear first.
Payments are handled by Lemon Squeezy (merchant of record) on the web — we never see card numbers, and the iPhone and Mac apps don't sell anything. Refunds within 7 days of a first purchase, per the Terms.
Signing in
- Sign in with X — the main door; this is what connects your bookmarks.
- Sign in with Apple or an email link — for people who save from YouTube, TikTok and the web and don't use X, and as a second way back into the same account. Link an X account later from the account menu.
I signed in and my library is empty
The first sync starts on your first sign-in and runs in the background; a few hundred bookmarks take a minute or two. If it's still empty after a sync completes, pull to refresh (or press R) and, failing that, write to us — include your X handle.
Using it
- ⌘K anywhere in Backread opens search and Ask; J/K walk the wall; ? shows every shortcut.
- The Brief is your daily page: what's new, what you saved and forgot, and a podcast version if you'd rather listen.
- Categories are yours to rename, merge and re-home; the agent files new saves into them and suggests homes for the rest.
- Vault a post to lock a signed copy forever; a Verified Snapshot adds a public proof page anchored in Bitcoin — see Trust & Verification.
- Bulk Cleanup files everything, then clears your X bookmarks tab. One tap to start, paced, a full day to undo.
- Export gives you the whole archive as Markdown, CSV, JSON or an Obsidian vault, any time.
- Connect your AI: Claude and ChatGPT can read your library over MCP — how to connect.
Your data
Your archive is yours. Export it whenever you like; delete your account from the account menu and everything — saves, Vault, Verified Snapshots and their public pages, tokens, derived data — is removed, with backups ageing out within 7 days. The full inventory is in the Privacy Policy; the trust model is on the Trust & Verification page.
Reach a human
- Anything about using Backread, your account or the beta: hello@backread.app — or the feedback bubble in the app.
- Privacy requests: privacy@backread.app.
- Security reports: security@backread.app · security.txt.
We're a small team in Cape Town; you'll hear back from a person, usually within a day.