Quick verdict
- What it is
- Store information collected; independent summary not yet available.
- At a glance
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- Free to download
- In-app purchases
Categories and search queries
Official categories
- News
- Lifestyle
AppCorpus categories
Key functions
| Function | Availability | Access | Scope | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family Sharing | Yes | Unknown | App Store | Store published |
| Free app | Yes | Free | — | Store published |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Limited free | — | Store published |
Screens
App Store
13 store screenshots
Pricing & paywalls
App Store
- Extraordinary Tip — $9.99
- Generous Tip — $4.99
- Kind Tip — $1.99
- Premium — $5.99
Ratings & reviews
App Store
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5/5Great App, Nice Freebies
Been using this app for quite a while. It’s fast, looks great, and most importantly, still gives you a usable experience (respects OS font sizes, dark mode) without forcing you to pay for premium. Premium is strictly for quality-of-life improvements, an ideology I quite support (and thus got premium anyways). Thank you for a wonderful free HN app - Apple’s $99 a year can be tough, I know.
doabellll · 6 Aug 2026
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4/5Excellent overall, but search needs work
The UI is well designed, intuitive, attractive. It’s my preferred way to read HN. But I use the search a lot, and it’s very primitive. I typically have to switch to my desktop’s browser to find anything. The number one thing missing is a date filter. Preferably that allows selecting start/end dates, but even just a dropdown with common ranges would suffice. HN has a lot of content about topics that move quickly, so I often want to see results from the last X time period. But sort by date, and only see bad submissions that never got traction. Sort by relevance and see popular submissions from 12 years ago. And a hard cap on number of results, so I can’t dig deeper even if I wanted to. It leaves much to be desired.
dear.leader · 6 Aug 2026
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4/5Reall nice app, but writing replies is painful
One of the best iOS HN clients. Gladly paid a few bucks for the premium upgrade. The one issue I have is the interface for writing comments seems a little broken. If the comment I’m trying to reply to is long, that comment will occupy the screen and block/cover up the comment I’m composing (along with the on-screen keyboard). I’d like to see this fixed and then this will likely be my go-to HN app. In the meantime, I’ll probably stick to MiniHack or just the website if I intend to write comments. Either way thanks for all the work that clearly went into this.
nilkn · 6 Aug 2026
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5/5Incredible
Without a doubt, this is the best HN client on iOS. It’s sleek, fast, and there are plenty of settings to tweak if you so desire. And no ads! The developer also seems very responsive to feedback - I posted a tiny styling issue to Octal’s github and an update with a fix was pushed to the App Store in less than 72 hours. I’d love to see some custom icons in the Premium version down the line, but that’s about the only nitpick I can find, and I found it to be worth the price already without them!
probablynotben · 6 Aug 2026
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5/5Great app, daily user
Bought premium not because I like to comment but that the app is so great I felt like not paying was a crime. One feature request - please add a “swipe left to dismiss” when I click on a post. I click on a post and the post comes in from the right - after I am done reading my finger needs to go to the top of the screen to click the back button. I’d like to be able to just swipe LTR to go back to the posts list. Thanks!
AnthOlei · 6 Aug 2026
Privacy & accessibility
App Store
Privacy
- Data Not Collected Developer declared
Accessibility
No accessibility labels collected yet.
Versions
App Store
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4.10.3
Fixed an issue where favorites were not loading.
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4.10.4
Fixed an issue where links were not showing in Show HN posts.
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4.10.5
Fixed a minor favicon display issue.
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4.10.6
Fixed minor background color issue for devices in 2-column view.
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4.10.7
Fixed an issue where favorite comments were not loading.
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4.10.8
Fixed a minor layout issue where submission text could be covered by the notch in landscape mode.
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4.10.9
Users are now prevented from adding comments to submissions that are too old.
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4.11.0
• Added a new setting for enabling/disabling the 'Comment Jump' button. • Updated comment overflow options menu. • Updated story layouts with larger tap areas. • Fixed an issue where story 'Limit' filters were not immediately respected.
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4.12.0
• Share a HN link to Octal to open it in Octal. • Share a web link to Octal submit it to Hacker News. • Vastly improved accessibility (VoiceOver) support. • Long press the story link from the comments view to copy it to your clipboard. * Added 'Copy Text' action to the comment overflow menu. • Fixed a bug where the comments view dismisses when a device rotation causes the split view to collapse. • Fixed a bug where the comments header content could be hidden behind the Dynamic Island.
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4.13.0
• Slightly refreshed story layout. • VoiceOver label for comments now includes the comment's thread level. • VoiceOver label for stories now includes the story's URL. • Custom accessibility actions for comments now includes the 'Collapse' action.
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4.14.0
Prefer not to see the comment jumper button? You can now hide it in settings.
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4.15.0
Increased the touch target area for the upvote button and comments button in the stories view.
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4.15.1
• Updated 'Share HN link' option to share the URL only. • Restored story ranks when using the 'Compact' story layout.
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4.16.0
Updated app icon to support light, dark, and tinted appearances in iOS 18.
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4.16.1
Fixed issue where opening deep links would not navigate to the proper screen.
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4.16.2
Fixed issue where "No network connection" error could be incorrectly displayed.
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4.16.3
Fixed issue where "No network connection" error could be incorrectly displayed.
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4.16.4
Fixed issue where favorites failed to load.
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4.16.5
Fixed issue where login was not persisted across sessions.
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4.16.6
Fixed issue where operations appeared to error and favorites failed to load.
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4.17.0
Added support for Liquid Glass.
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4.17.1
Fixed issue with comments on iPads in landscape orientation.
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4.17.2
Fixed the tab bar not always respecting the appearance setting on pre-iOS 26 devices.
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5.0.0
Redesigned for iOS 26 with full support for Liquid Glass • Added a new 'Threads' view to see your recent comments and their replies in one place. • Refreshed iPad interface that utilizes an optional sidebar. • Refreshed Filters interface for a cleaner, faster experience. • Bug fixes and performance improvements.
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5.1.0
· 3 Jul 2026
• Added 'Split View' setting on iPad – toggle the two-pane interface on or off based on your preference. • Added tab tap behavior – tapping a tab scrolls to top at the root, refreshes if already at the top, and pops back when nested. • Fixed bug where opening the story URL from the comments view did not respect the Web Browser setting.
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Availability by market
- US
Data quality & evidence
- Page completeness
- Live store listing
- Last verified
- 6 Aug 2026
- Sources
- App Store
- Independent summary has not been published yet.