A Free Thread Reader App Alternative
Unroll X threads and save X Articles as PDF, Markdown, EPUB or text — free, no bot mention, no ads, no login.
Unroll X threads and save X Articles as PDF, Markdown, EPUB or text — free, no bot mention, no ads, no login.
Thread Reader App is a well-known way to unroll threads:
you mention @threadreaderapp unroll under a thread, or paste a link on its website. It works well for reading.
The friction starts when you want to keep what you read:
Xtracticle focuses on exactly that part: turning threads and long-form X Articles into files you own — for free.
| Xtracticle | Thread Reader App | |
|---|---|---|
| Unroll threads | ✅ Paste any post of the thread | ✅ Mention the bot or paste a link |
| X Articles (long-form) | ✅ Headings, lists, images, videos | ❌ Not supported |
| ✅ Free | Premium | |
| Markdown / Obsidian | ✅ Free, with YAML front-matter | ❌ |
| EPUB / Kindle | ✅ Free | ❌ |
| ZIP with images (offline archive) | ✅ Free | ❌ |
| Batch download | ✅ Up to 20 links | ❌ |
| Ads | None | On the free plan |
| Posting in public / tagging a bot | Never needed | For the bot method |
| Author alerts & auto-archiving | ❌ Not yet | ✅ Premium |
| Open source | ✅ MIT | ❌ |
Checked against Thread Reader App’s Premium and Help pages in September 2026. Features change — let us know on GitHub if something is out of date.
If you want to unroll a thread for other people right inside X (replying with the bot so everyone in the conversation gets a readable link), or you want automatic alerts and archives for your favorite authors, Thread Reader App does that and Xtracticle doesn’t. Many people use both: Thread Reader App to read in the moment, Xtracticle to keep a copy.
On any post, change x.com to xtracticle.com in the address bar and press Enter: x.com/user/status/123 → xtracticle.com/user/status/123. The post opens here, ready to download.
Drag this button to your bookmarks bar, then click it while reading any X post: ⬇ Xtracticle
On Android you can also install Xtracticle (Add to Home screen) and share posts to it straight from the X app.
Add the Xtracticle shortcut to the Shortcuts app, then in the X app tap Share → Xtracticle. Run from the Home Screen, it opens the link on your clipboard.
Yes. Every format — PDF, Markdown, EPUB, ZIP and text — is free, with no ads, no login and no usage limits. The code is open source.
Yes. Xtracticle converts X’s long-form Articles with their headings, lists, links, images and videos. This is one of the main differences from Thread Reader App.
No. Paste the link on Xtracticle; nothing is posted on X.
Not directly. You can paste the original X links (up to 20 at a time in Batch mode) to rebuild them as Markdown files.