Everything you need to know about Blogs Are Back. Can't find what you're looking for? Get in touch.
40 questions
3 questions
Blogs Are Back stands out in several ways:
4 questions
There are two ways to add blogs:
Tip: You can organize blogs using tags during the add process!
Most modern blogs have RSS/Atom feeds, even if they're not prominently displayed. Our feed discovery tool automatically checks common locations like:
If a blog truly doesn't have a feed, you can request one from the author or check out our guide for adding RSS to share with them.
Tags help you organize blogs into categories like "Tech", "Design", "Personal", etc. You can:
Tag filtering appears in the sidebar and lets you switch between "any tag" (OR) and "all tags" (AND) modes.
6 questions
Blogs Are Back uses a local-first architecture—your data is always stored locally in your browser first, with optional cloud sync when you sign in:
Everything stays in your browser's IndexedDB. Zero data on our servers. Perfect for maximum privacy, but no cross-device sync. If you clear your browser data, your subscriptions and read status are lost.
All reads and writes happen locally first for instant performance. Your subscriptions, read status, favorites, and read-later items sync to the cloud automatically in the background—changes push every 60 seconds, and pull from other devices every 5 minutes. Your reading history is protected with one-way SHA-256 hashing.
Feed content (the actual posts) always stays in your browser, regardless of sign-in status. Only metadata syncs to the cloud.
Storage depends on whether you're signed in:
If you're not signed in, nothing is stored on our servers. When signed in, your reading history is cryptographically protected with one-way hashing—we can't see what you've read.
No—and when you're signed in, we've gone further: we literally cannot see what you've read, even if we wanted to.
Here's how it works:
This is privacy by architecture, not just privacy by policy. Even our database administrators cannot see your reading history.
When you're signed in, we use cryptographic hashing to protect your reading history:
Instead of storing full post URLs like "https://example.com/my-blog-post", we store a 12-character hash: "a3f5d8c2b1e4"
SHA-256 is a one-way cryptographic function. You cannot reverse "a3f5d8c2b1e4" back to the original URL. It's mathematically impossible.
Your browser knows the original URLs (stored locally), hashes them, and compares with the cloud hashes to determine read status. The server never sees the original URLs.
Benefits: 77% storage reduction, zero performance impact (1.5 million hashes/second), and true mathematical privacy protection.
Impact depends on whether you're signed in:
Feed content is cached locally (up to 24 hours) for performance. When signed in, your important data is safely backed up to the cloud.
5 questions
There are two ways to unfollow a blog:
Unfollowing removes the blog from your subscriptions and clears its cached content.
Feed status indicates the health of a blog's RSS feed:
You can view error details and manually retry failed feeds from the feed health popover.
Several reasons a blog might not update:
Try clicking the refresh button in the toolbar. If the issue persists, check the feed health indicator for error details.
9 questions
Our Text-to-Speech feature turns any blog post into an audiobook using high-quality neural voices. It's completely free and supports 70+ languages & dialects.
To use it:
It can start streaming while it's being generated, so once the first chunk is ready, press play to start listening.
Audio is cached locally, so replaying articles is instant.
We support 70+ languages & dialects with multiple voice options per language. This includes:
...and many more including Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, and regional variants.
Yes, completely free. We use Microsoft Azure neural voices which provide natural, human-like narration at no cost to you.
However, be mindful that the service takes advantage of the Edge web browser's TTS service, which might get shut down by Microsoft at some point in the future — so please use it responsibly.
Open Settings in your dashboard and click the Audio tab. From there you can:
Your preferences are saved automatically and apply to all future articles.
Yes! Our TTS integrates with your operating system's media controls via the Media Session API. Depending on your browser, you can:
Skip forward/back jumps by a few seconds, making it easy to replay or skip sections.
Smart Views are pre-built filters in the sidebar:
Press Cmd/Ctrl+/ to see all shortcuts. Popular ones include:
3 questions
Visit the Submit Your Blog page and fill out the form. Submissions are reviewed regularly.
We look for:
We approve blogs that:
We aim to curate a diverse collection of independent voices across various topics.
Yes! Use the contact form to request changes to your blog's title, description, tags, or other metadata. Please include your blog URL and the specific changes you'd like.
5 questions
Modern browsers block cross-origin requests (CORS) for security. When a blog's feed doesn't have CORS headers enabled, our proxy fetches it server-side and returns it to your browser. The proxy only passes through the raw feed—it never stores or inspects your content.
We also offer a browser extension that bypasses CORS entirely, providing faster feeds with no rate limits. Learn more about the CORS dilemma and our solutions →
Blogs Are Back works in any modern browser that supports:
Recommended browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge (all recent versions).
5 questions
Try these steps:
Images might not display for several reasons:
Try clicking "Open in Browser" to view the post on the original site.
We appreciate bug reports! You can submit them through our contact form. Please include:
Still have questions? Reach out via the contact page — every message gets read.