Today's Review
Today's Review brings back a few of the posts and highlights you saved, every day. There is nothing to grade: read the card, try to recall what it said, and move on. It is free, uses no credits, and is on by default.
Supported clients
| Client | Minimum version | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile app | 2.2.4 | Home row and drawer item, swipe through cards, recall questions, card actions, flashcards, reminder and digest settings |
| Desktop app | 0.6.10 | Review in the sidebar (⌘9), Home row, keyboard shortcuts, flashcards, settings, card preparation on the Mac |
| Obsidian plugin | 4.7.9 | Side panel, status-bar count, ribbon icon and command, timeline-style cards, daily review and email digest switches |
| Web | — | The email digest's landing page, which opens the app or Obsidian. There is no review screen on the web |
This guide follows mobile 2.3.7, desktop 0.7.13 and plugin 4.7.10 or later. Older versions have the same feature with an older layout.
Your account keeps one set per day, so every device and the email digest show the same posts, and the streak is shared between the apps and the plugin. Settings apply to the whole account unless this page says this device only.
How the daily set is chosen
Each day Social Archiver picks 5 items by default. You can choose 1 to 15: the mobile app offers 3, 5, 8, 10 and 15, and the desktop app takes any number in that range.
By default the set draws from:
- Inbox: saved but not archived yet
- Starred: anything you starred
- With notes: anything you wrote a note on
- From subscriptions: only subscription posts you opened or interacted with
Two more sources are off by default. Archived posts count as done once you file them, but their highlights still come back while highlights are on. Talked about adds the posts with the most likes, comments and shares on each platform in your library (social posts only).
An item is either a highlight, one card per highlight, or a post excerpt from a post that has no highlights. Highlights, starred posts and noted posts come up more often. The set rotates through your whole library day by day, with at most two cards from the same post or the same author.
These are never included:
- Posts saved in the last 24 hours
- Shopping product and map place archives
- Posts with no readable text
- Items you excluded, and authors or platforms you set to Never
Changes to what is included rebuild today's set right away. A new daily count applies from the next day's set.
Open today's review
Mobile app
- The Today’s review row at the top of your timeline. Tap it to start.
- Review in the drawer, with a badge showing how many items are left.
- A reminder or push notification, if you turned one on.
Desktop app
- Review in the sidebar, or ⌘9. The badge shows how many items are left.
- The Today’s review row under the library toolbar.
- The reminder notification, if you turned it on.
Obsidian plugin
- The book ribbon icon, or the command Social Archiver: Open today’s review.
- The count in the status bar. Click it to open the panel.
- Settings → Social Archiver → Review → Today’s review → Open.
- The URI
obsidian://social-archive?op=review.
The panel always opens in the right sidebar.
Email digest
The digest's Open in app button goes to social-archive.org/review.
- On a phone with the app installed, the link opens the app directly.
- Anywhere else, the page offers Open in Social Archiver, Open in Obsidian and the app store links.
The Home row
The mobile and desktop apps show a one-line Today’s review row above the timeline. It changes as you go:
| State | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Not started | Platform icons, the number of items, how far back the set reaches (for example 8 months back), and your streak |
| In progress | Resume 2/5 with a progress bar |
| Done | Done today, plus the time of the next reminder if one is on, and your last seven days as streak dots. × hides it for the rest of the day |
To remove the row entirely:
- Choose Hide from Home: long-press the row on mobile, or use its ⋯ menu or right-click on desktop.
- This turns off Show on Home for all your devices.
- To bring the row back, turn it on again:
- mobile: Settings → Review → Advanced → Show card on Home
- desktop: Settings → Review → Show on Home
Read a card
Each card shows the platform, the author, when you saved it (Saved 8 months ago), and why it came up:
| Chip | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Your highlight | A passage you highlighted |
| Your note | A post you wrote a note on |
| Starred | A post you starred |
| From Archive | An archived post |
A plain Inbox post has no chip.
- Recall question: some cards open with Try to recall and a question. The answer stays covered until you tap it on mobile, or choose Show the answer (Space or E) on desktop.
- AI gist: a long post (over 1,000 characters) leads with a short AI gist. Choose Show original to read the post itself. Shorter posts show the author's own words, with Read more to expand them.
- Highlights: a highlight card shows the surrounding text with your highlight marked, and your highlight note below it.
- Images: a post's photos appear on the card. On mobile, tap one to view it full screen.
Where gists and questions come from
The Social Archiver server writes a gist and a recall question for longer posts with Cloud AI. This is free, uses no credits, and is not an AI Comment job. The server writes them in the background after a day's set is made, so the first look of the day can still show the plain excerpt.
The server doesn't write them if you chose Local only under Settings → AI Execution in the mobile app. To keep the work on your own device instead:
- Mac: Settings → Review → Prepare cards on this Mac in the desktop app. It is on by default and uses Apple's on-device model, when that model is available on the Mac.
- iPhone: Settings → On-device AI → Prepare review cards in the mobile app. It is off by default and needs iOS 26 or later with Apple Intelligence.
Card actions
Mobile app
- The bottom bar has ★ (star), Read and Next.
- Read opens the archived post in the app's reader, not the original website.
- In E-Ink Reading Mode, a ‹ button goes back one card.
- Swipe left for the next card and right for the previous one.
- ⋯ More at the top right holds:
- Archive / Move to Inbox
- Tag
- Note
- Exclude from review
- Make a card
- Less from this author, Never from this author
- Less from this platform, Never from this platform
Exclude from review removes the item from future reviews. You get five seconds to Undo.
Desktop app
Every action has a single-key shortcut:
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| → or Space | Next. Space first reveals a covered answer |
| ← | Previous |
| Space or E | Show the answer |
| E | Read more / Show less |
| D | Not this one: remove from review, with five seconds to Undo |
| S | Star / Unstar |
| A | Archive / Move to Inbox |
| T | Tags |
| N | Note |
| O | Read the archived post in the app's reader |
| C | Make a card |
| Esc | Close Review. Your place is kept |
Shortcuts are ignored while you type in a field.
Obsidian plugin
- Move through the set with Previous and Next. The last card has Finish, which records the session and keeps your streak.
- Show the answer uncovers a recall card.
- If the post's note is in your vault, the card looks like your timeline card:
- Open in reader steps through today's posts in the timeline reader.
- Open note opens the note.
- Otherwise the card shows the saved text, with Open original for the source.
The plugin plays today's set but doesn't change it: exclude, star, tag and the inclusion settings are in the mobile and desktop apps. Your position is saved per vault and isn't synced, so another device starts from the first card.
From an archive's menu
While Review is on, the ⋯ menu of any archive in the mobile and desktop apps has:
- Exclude from Review / Include in Review
- Make a Card
- Cards in this Archive (N), once the archive has a card
To bring back something you excluded, choose Include in Review on that archive. On mobile you can also use Settings → Review → Advanced → Excluded items → Restore. The same sheet's Source frequency list holds the authors and platforms you set to Less or Never.
Finish a session
After the last card you see Done for today, with:
- how many items you reviewed and excluded;
- your streak as seven dots;
- Today's posts, a list you can open again.
From there you can:
- Choose Flip through again, swipe right on mobile, or press ← on desktop to look back.
- Choose Review N more for an extra round of N new items, where N is your daily count. Extra rounds don't change your streak and never include flashcards.
The streak counts the consecutive days you finished a session, shared across the apps and the plugin. Missing a day resets it.
After your first finished session, the app offers a daily reminder once:
- Mobile: A daily nudge? → Yes, remind me turns on Mobile push and a daily reminder at 08:00.
- Desktop: Get a daily nudge? → Allow notifications turns on the Daily reminder. It appears only if notifications aren't allowed yet.
Flashcards
Turn any post or highlight into a card you actively recall.
Make a card from any of these:
- Make a card in Review: ⋯ on mobile, C on desktop
- Make a Card in an archive's ⋯ menu
- Make a card in a highlight's popover on mobile
Choose a kind:
- Question → Answer: you see a question and recall the answer.
- Hidden word: the sentence appears with the answer blanked out.
The editor fills itself in:
- A highlight with a note becomes a question from that note.
- Other highlights become hidden-word cards.
- A post becomes a question with the post text as the answer.
An archive can hold up to 20 cards.
Cards that are due join the end of the day's set, up to half your daily count. For example, a daily count of 5 adds up to 2 cards.
- Reveal the answer with Show answer.
- Grade how well you remembered it: Forgot, Soon, Later or Someday. On desktop, 1–4 does the same.
- The card comes back after 7, 7, 14 or 28 days respectively.
On mobile, grading is how you move past a card. On desktop, → moves on without grading.
To edit or delete cards, open Cards in this Archive (N) from the archive's ⋯ menu. Deleting a card puts the item back into normal review. The Obsidian plugin doesn't show flashcards.
Settings
Find these in Settings → Review in each client.
| Setting | Mobile | Desktop | Obsidian | Default |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turn Review on or off for the account | Use review | Daily review | Daily review | On |
| Items per day | Posts per day | Items per day | — | 5 |
| What to include and how to review | What to review | What to review | — | See above |
| Platforms to include | What to review → Platforms to review | Platforms to review | — | All on |
| Home row | Advanced → Show card on Home | Show on Home | — | On |
| Local reminder (this device only) | Notifications → Daily reminder | Daily reminder, while the app is running | — | Off |
| Reminder and digest time | Notifications → Reminder time | Reminder time | Shown on the email row | 08:00 |
| Push to your phones | Notifications → Mobile push | Mobile push | — | Off |
| Email digest | Notifications → Email digest | Email digest | Email digest | Off |
| Status-bar count (this device only) | — | — | Show count in status bar | On |
What to review has the post sources described above, plus Review as: Highlights and Post excerpts. At least one source and one of these must stay on. Switching a platform off keeps its posts out of the daily set and the digest.
Reminders and digests
- Local reminder: fires at the reminder time on that device only.
- On mobile it works even when you're signed out.
- On desktop it needs the app to be running.
- Mobile push and email digest: sent by the server at your reminder time.
- They go out only on days when Review is on, today's set has items, and you haven't finished today's review yet.
- The email lists the day's items with their recall questions and has a one-click unsubscribe link.
- Time zone: the digest uses your time zone. Turning on a digest saves the device's time zone if your account doesn't have one yet.
Turn Review off
Turning Review off in any client applies to the whole account:
- It hides the Home row, the drawer and sidebar items, and the panel.
- It stops every reminder and digest.
Nothing is deleted: your exclusions, flashcards and streak are kept. If you only want the Home row gone, use Hide from Home instead.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| Nothing to review | Posts appear 24 hours after saving. If you archive everything, turn on Archived in What to review, or add highlights. |
| A new daily count didn't apply | A new count starts with the next day's set. Inclusion changes apply right away. |
| No gist or question | Short posts show the original text instead. Gists are written in the background after the day's set is made, and not at all with Local only. |
| The digest didn't arrive | Check that Review and the channel are on and that you're signed in. The email needs a verified account address. No digest is sent on days you already finished. |
| The Obsidian panel asks you to sign in or says Review is off | Sign in under the plugin's settings, or choose Turn on in the panel. |
| Exclusions and settings in Obsidian | Use the mobile or desktop app. The plugin follows the account's settings. |