The Stream on Mac: everything in one window

In channelBar for macOS, “Show Stream” in the channelBar icon opens the Stream: the messages from all your active channels in one window, newest on top. Each row shows the channel, the feed, the time and, if there is one, an image. A click on a podcast episode starts playing it right away; the video about podcasts shows you what comes next.

Checking off

Unread messages have a checkmark at the top right. Click it to mark the message as read. The number at the top counts everything unread in what you’re looking at. Click it, confirm, and it’s all read.

Channels and feeds

At the top center, you see what you’re looking at right now. Click it to open the navigation with your channels and their feeds. Pick a channel or a feed, and the Stream shows only its messages. The same way, “All Channels” takes you back to everything.

Unread only

With “Show unread only” at the top right, you see just what’s new from all your channels, starting at the bottom with the oldest. By default, the checkmark then sits at the bottom right of the message, so it stays under the pointer as you check off one message after another. Whatever you check off disappears. A second click shows everything again, with your earlier selection.

Details and compact rows

A right-click opens a message’s menu, with the link, sharing, “Consume Later” and more. “Details” shows the whole message right in the window. That helps most with feeds that send long messages the Stream only shows shortened.

The “Toggle row height” button at the top right makes the rows compact, without images. That fits more messages in the window. A second click brings the images back.

How the Stream looks

You set how the Stream looks in the settings under “Advanced”, “Stream” and “Appearance”. Under “Style”, you can choose “Side rail” instead of “Button”. The rail runs the full height of the message, and clicking it marks the message as read.

With “Tint new messages”, new messages get a color that slowly fades. You pick the color in the same row. How long the fade takes, you set right below with “Fade the tint over”: from 30 seconds to an hour, 5 minutes by default.

Browser and window

By default, links open in your browser. Under “Browser”, set “Open links in” to “Built-in browser”. Individual channels and feeds can differ.

Under “Window”, you turn on “Snap to screen edge”. Below it, “Auto-hide while snapped” lets the snapped Stream hide itself automatically, as shown in the “Getting Started” video. This works while the pin at the top right of the window, “Keep on Top”, is on, which it is by default.

At the screen edge

Drag the Stream by its top edge to the right edge of the screen. It snaps in there and uses the full height. Drag the left edge to the left, and the Stream gets wide; once it’s wide enough, the image sits next to the text. Snapping works the same way at the left edge of the screen, and you drag the right edge to make it narrow again. Drag it away from the edge, and it floats freely again.

The built-in browser

With the built-in browser, a click on a message opens the article right next to the Stream and marks the message as read. At the top, you can open it in your browser with “Open in external browser” or detach it from the Stream with “Detach from stream window”.

Search

With the magnifying glass at the top right, you search all your channels. If the Stream is showing just one channel or feed, it searches that channel. Search and podcasts get videos of their own.