What is Magic sorting?

Magic is a sort order that puts the articles Inoreader readers engaged with most at the top of a feed, folder, tag or the Newsfeed. By default it also gives extra weight to the feeds you read most, and it shows articles from the last 30 days.

How Magic ranks articles

Every reader adds points to an article when they act on it: opening the original page counts most, then loading the full content, opening the article, marking it as read, saving it and summarizing it. Each action counts once per reader. The score is then divided by the average score of the article's own feed, so an article is ranked against the usual article of its feed rather than against the big feeds. Feeds with fewer than three subscribers get no score, and articles with the same score are sorted newest first.

Choose Magic

1. Open a feed, folder, tag or the Newsfeed.
2. Click the More (three-dot) button at the right of the header.
3. Under Sorting, choose Magic.

Inoreader remembers the choice for that feed, folder or tag, as for every sort order in What sorting options are available?. A notice above the list reminds you that only articles from the past 30 days are shown, so switch back to Newest first to reach older ones. Grouping By date isn't available while Magic is on. The video shows the menu in action.

Set how much your reading counts

Under Preferences > Settings > General > Personalization, Sort by Magic has three options: Not influenced by your reading habits, Moderately influenced by your reading habits, which is the default, and Heavily influenced by your reading habits. Inoreader tracks the feeds you read most and ranks their articles higher, so choose the first option if you'd rather see what's trending on Inoreader.

The popularity indicator

Separate from Magic and available on every plan, the popularity indicator marks an article that did better than its feed's average with an icon that grows from orange to a flame. Set it under Preferences > Settings > Article listing > More controls > Popularity indicator, next to the other options in Can I customize how articles are displayed?.

Magic sorting is a Pro feature, and the mobile apps can use it too.