Tether is a reader
for Android.
Closed testing on Google Play
Add an article, RSS feed, block of text, PDF, or EPUB. Tether strips out the usual web clutter, keeps original documents when they matter, and stores your library on your phone. There are no ads and no Tether account.
Read a clean page, keep a PDF or EPUB in its original form, listen to an imported document aloud, or use RSVP mode to show a few words at a time. Your place moves with you between the available views. Hold the screen to read in RSVP, lift your finger to pause, and swipe up whenever you want the full page back.
Tether is currently in a small closed test on Google Play.
Read one word at a time
RSVP stands for Rapid Serial Visual Presentation. Tether shows each word in the same place at a speed you choose. You can show one, two, or three words at once, and sentence and heading boundaries remain intact. Hold to read and lift to pause. There is no tiny play button to find halfway through a sentence.
When you pause, Tether shows the words around your current position. Drag left or right to move through the text one word at a time, or choose the exact word where playback should begin. Speed, punctuation pauses, word groups, and the optional center guide can all be tuned.
Make the page fit the way you read
Swipe up to see the complete article. The word you just read remains highlighted, and both reading modes use the same position. Tether keeps the structure of the text instead of flattening everything into one long paragraph.
- Choose a continuous scroll, measured pages, or a book layout.
- Keep headings, lists, quotations, code, tables, links, and image descriptions in their place.
- Search inside the text and move through the article contents.
- Add bookmarks, highlights, passage notes, or an article note.
- Copy or share a selected passage.
- Change the layout without losing your place in the article.
- Keep the current passage in view when switching reading modes.
Type size, width, spacing, padding, indentation, weight, alignment, and hyphenation update while you read. Tap any word to carry on in RSVP mode from that point.
Keep the document, not just its words
PDFs and EPUBs open in readers made for their original form. Tether also prepares a text version for RSVP, read-aloud, and shared reading progress, so changing the way you read does not mean starting over.
- PDFs keep their pages, links, selection, zoom, search, and exact page position.
- EPUBs keep chapters, contents, links, footnotes, and their own saved reading position.
- EPUB typeface, size, weight, line spacing, margins, alignment, hyphenation, and scrolling can be changed per book.
- Search a document without leaving the reader.
- Move between the original, RSVP, and read-aloud.
A document first opens to a quiet details page with its cover or artwork, progress, file information, and a clear choice between the original and RSVP.
Pick up where you left off
Tether remembers your place and the reading mode you used for each item. Articles and documents have their own preview page, so opening the library does not start a reader before you are ready. Search stays close to the list, while the rest of the library controls sit in a separate sheet so the articles have room.
- Filter by bookmarked, reading, unread, or finished.
- Sort by recent activity, date added, title, source, progress, or length.
- Group articles by reading status or collection.
- Switch between comfortable and compact rows.
- Use Read soon, Reference, and Archived, or make your own shelves.
- Put one item on more than one custom shelf.
- Select several items to pin, unpin, or organize at once.
- Highlights cover a passage without gaps, and notes stay attached to it.
- Article titles can be renamed without losing the original text.
- Export and import a backup of the whole library.
Covers, favicons, progress, pins, and bookmarks make a long library easier to scan. Saved files load in the background so the screen stays usable.
A quiet inbox for new reading
Follow an RSS or Atom feed and its new posts collect in Tether. Read a post there, mark everything as read, or add something to your library for later.
A Tendril Works feed is there on the first run, and you can add or remove sources whenever you like. Following is separate from the library, so an inbox does not have to become an archive.
See your reading rhythm
Tether records reading sessions on the phone and turns them into a simple view of the habit: words read, time spent in focused reading, pace, completed pieces, and the days you returned.
- Words read, focused minutes, sessions, pace, and completion.
- Current and longest reading streaks.
- Activity heatmaps and weekly word trends.
- Average words per active day and average session length.
- Best day, best week, and completion rate.
- An optional daily word goal, from off to 2,000 words.
- Vacation mode when a streak should wait.
The goal is optional. The statistics work without turning reading into a score.
Articles, text, PDFs, and EPUBs
Paste a URL, share one from your browser, or save a link for later. Tether tries several extraction methods to find the readable part of the page and offers recovery choices when a site does not cooperate.
You can paste the text itself, or open a PDF or EPUB directly from your phone. Imported originals are kept in Tether's private storage so they still open when you come back.
Set it up for your eyes
- One-tap presets for common reading setups.
- RSVP speeds from 100 to 1,000 WPM, with custom entry up to 4,000.
- Separate pauses for periods, commas, semicolons, and colons.
- Optional focus-letter emphasis in two strengths.
- Tint overlays in cream, blue, green, and peach.
- A reading ruler for staying on the current line.
- Lexend, Atkinson Hyperlegible, Literata, DM Mono, and OpenDyslexic.
- Dark, Light, high-contrast, Sepia, Solarized, and OLED Black themes.
- System, Full, Reduced, or Off interface motion.
- Choose whether new articles open in RSVP or the reading view.
Reading changes appear immediately and are saved automatically. RSVP and full-page text sizes are separate, so changing one does not make the other view awkward. The motion setting applies across the rest of the app, and System follows Android's accessibility setting.