February 20, 2026
HN on Mac: productivity panic!
Show HN: A native macOS client for Hacker News, built with SwiftUI
Slick Mac app for Hacker News lands—excitement, panic, and 'but Windows?'
TLDR: A new open‑source Mac app for Hacker News brings a polished reader with ad blocking and easy install. Commenters are thrilled but joking about addiction, debating how to handle ad filters, asking for font zoom and follow/block features, and grumbling that it’s Mac‑only—proof that convenience sparks both joy and FOMO.
Hacker News just got a slick, native Mac app—and the comment section immediately split into cheers, pleas, and playful panic. On paper it’s a clean win: browse stories, read with a built‑in browser, collapse comments, log in to your account, and enjoy built‑in ad and pop‑up blocking. It auto‑updates and installs with a simple drag‑and‑drop. It’s open source under MIT and runs on macOS 14+. Sounds dreamy, right?
Cue the chaos. One user joked they’re already too addicted and begged the developer not to make it more convenient, before pivoting into a very real request: please let me change the font size—even Command+Plus doesn’t zoom. Another asked for the spicy feature HN never has: follow/block users, pointing to a Chrome extension as inspiration. Meanwhile, a veteran reader shrugged, saying the experience feels a lot like reading HN via RSS in Reeder, which set off the classic “new app vs. old workflow” rumble.
The nerdiest skirmish? Ad blocking. The app ships with a fixed list of ad networks, but a commenter pushed for tapping uBlock Origin’s community lists to avoid maintenance headaches. And of course, the platform wars flared: non‑Mac folks showed up to say, basically, “cool—call me when there’s Windows or Linux.” Drama level: comment section.
Key Points
- •A native macOS Hacker News client built with SwiftUI is available.
- •Features include browsing all main HN sections, built-in WebKit reader, ad/pop-up blocking, comment threads with collapsible replies, and HN login/session management.
- •The app supports automatic updates via Sparkle and presents a native macOS interface.
- •Installation is via a DMG from the Releases page; requires macOS 14.0+ and no developer tools.
- •Source code can be built by cloning the GitHub repo, opening the Xcode project (Xcode 26+), and building; dependencies resolve automatically, and the license is MIT.