What's new in Unknown 2.2
New in Unknown 2.2: the Mac app reads a lot more than PDFs and EPUBs. Paste a link to any web article, research paper or X post, send a page straight from Safari, or drop in a Word or text file, and Unknown turns it into an audiobook that highlights along as it reads.
Open any link
The Library has a new Open Link field. Paste a link and Unknown fetches the page on your Mac, lays the article out as a clean document with its images and charts, and narrates it like anything else in your library.
- Web articles come through without the ads, menus and cookie banners around them.
- Research papers from arXiv, journals and preprint servers open as the paper's PDF, with its real title and authors instead of whatever is buried in the file.
- X posts open with their text and photos, and long-form X Articles under their real title.
Documents opened from a link show where they came from: the library line reads the author and the site together, like "Lana Lam · bbc.com".
Share to Unknown from Safari
Reading something you would rather hear? Choose Share → Unknown in Safari and the page goes straight into your library. Links on unknown.ac/open do the same from any browser.
Word and text documents
Unknown now opens Word (.docx and .doc), RTF, OpenDocument (.odt), Markdown, plain text and saved web pages (.html), alongside PDF and EPUB. Drop one in and it is converted and narrated - no Word installation needed.
A trophy cabinet
Your reading now earns badges: 49 of them, from your first session to long streaks and marathon listens, collected in a new trophy cabinet. A badge you just earned takes the top spot on the session complete screen, big and animated. A document counts as finished when you have listened through it, not just skipped to the last page.
A timeline split into chapters
The reader's progress bar is now divided into the document's chapters, with the name of the current chapter above the part that is playing, and your recent listening sessions marked along it. Scanned PDFs without a built-in outline get chapters too: Unknown reads them from the printed table of contents.
Smaller touches
- Cleaner narration for papers. Numeric citations like [12] are skipped instead of read aloud.
- iPhone documents without opening the Mac app. Documents you send from the iPhone app are processed even when Unknown is closed. Turn it off in Settings with Process iPhone Documents When Closed.
- Closing the window keeps Unknown running. The close button hides the app, so processing and sessions carry on.
- Fewer permission prompts. Focus sessions pause other apps' audio instead of muting it, so Unknown no longer asks for System Audio Recording access.
- A clearer processing card. The progress bar spans the card and shows the percentage done.
How to update
- In the app: Unknown installs updates on its own, or choose Check for Updates from the Unknown menu.
- Fresh install: download the latest version from unknown.ac.
You have everything above if About Unknown shows 2.2 or later.
Unknown turns PDFs, EPUBs, Word files and web articles into interactive audiobooks - narrated by lifelike on-device voices, highlighted in sync, and on a Mac nothing is uploaded.
Download Unknown for Mac →7 days free on yearly and monthly · macOS 14.1 or later
FAQ
Which links work?
Public web pages: news and blog articles, arXiv and journal paper pages, direct links to PDF and EPUB files, and X posts. Pages behind a sign-in or a paywall usually can't be read, and Unknown tells you when that happens.
Is the page sent anywhere?
No. Your Mac fetches the page itself, and the narration is generated on your Mac like every other document.
Do I need Microsoft Word to open .docx files?
No. Unknown converts Word, RTF, OpenDocument and text files on its own.
Will updating change my library?
No. Your documents, narration, progress and settings carry over to 2.2 as they are.