Press
Must Read – The Book Tracker
A book tracker with 60,000 classics and audiobooks inside it.
A reading app for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Track what you read, read the classics inside it, and get a recommendation worked out on your own device.
Latest: On iOS 27 day, 14 September 2026, the App Store put Must Read in eight of its launch pages, on all 175 storefronts. See where
In the press: “The real reason I like it, though, is the gorgeous visual bookshelf.” TapSmart, 16 September 2026. Every article
Everything here is free to use in coverage. For questions, a review build or a screen that is not in the bundle, write to [email protected]. Stan reads it, usually the same day.
Featured by the App Store on iOS 27 day
On Monday 14 September 2026, the evening iOS 27 came out, Apple’s editors put Must Read in eight of the App Store’s launch pages on iPhone and iPad, on all 175 storefronts, alongside Things 3, Goodnotes, Craft, Day One, Notability, Fantastical, Citymapper and Etsy. Each story is edited per region, so the position differs by country; the UK and US positions are given here, and the whole record, every storefront and every list, is kept in the open:
- Intelligence you can see · Today story, the Visual Intelligence list, with the icon in the artwork · #4 in the UK, #7 in the US, on all 174 storefronts that carry it
- See what’s new in iOS 27 · Today story · #14 on iPhone, #10 on iPad in the UK
- See what’s new in iPadOS 27 · Today story on iPad · #10 in the UK
- Level up your apps with Apple Intelligence · Today story, the Visual Intelligence section · #14 on iPhone, #5 on iPad in the UK
- The next generation of Apple Intelligence · Today story · #5 on iPad in the UK
- Refine your Liquid Glass settings · Today story · UK and US, 161 storefronts
- Great Apps Updated for iOS 27 · Apps tab collection · UK and US (#28 of 40)
- Great Apps Updated for iPadOS 27 · Apps tab collection on iPad · UK and US (#26 of 37)
The record: 1,518 placements read from the App Store’s own pages on 15–16 September, 860 of them inside a top 10, on every one of the 175 storefronts. The full readout, with Apple’s own numbers, is available to journalists on request. Screenshots from an iPhone on the evening, in the same bezel as the set below. Click any of them for the plain 1320 × 2868 PNG. Free to use in coverage.
What’s new
3.6, with Ask Rufus
Released 10 September 2026, four days ahead of iOS 27 · built for iOS 27 with Xcode 27
- Ask Rufus recommends your next book in a single tap: six cards, no chat box, nothing to type. It reads your shelf, your ratings and the genres you keep returning to.
- The app does the choosing, on the device, for everyone. No model is involved in the pick, so it works on every iPhone the app supports, in all 32 languages.
- Apple Intelligence writes only the sentence under each pick. On iOS 27 that runs through Private Cloud Compute, and a line beneath the picks always says who wrote the words.
- Siri understands loose phrasing, a typo, an author’s name alone or one word of a title, and answers with a card: cover, title, author, your rating.
- On the App Store now. A TestFlight build of the same version is available on request.
If you are reviewing it: add five or six books and rate a couple before you open Ask Rufus, because a brand-new account has nothing yet for it to read a taste from. The notes written through Private Cloud Compute need iOS 27; on iOS 26 they are written on the device, or by the app itself where Apple Intelligence is not available.
The app, in six screens
Unedited iPhone captures from the 3.6 build on iOS 27, shown in Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max bezel. The Siri commands and the Siri and Shortcuts screen also work on iOS 26, where Siri itself looks different. Click any of them for the plain 1320 × 2868 PNG.
The app, in three sizes
One sentence
Must Read is a book tracker with 60,000 classics and audiobooks built in, and a recommendation engine that does its choosing on your phone, not on a server.
One paragraph
Must Read tracks what you read: search or scan a book, shelve it, rate it, time your sessions, and watch the streak build. It carries more than 60,000 classic ebooks and audiobooks you can open without leaving the app, and hand-curated reading lists for 24 countries rather than one global chart. It speaks 32 languages and is offline-first: everything reads from the device, and sync catches up when the connection comes back. Since 3.6 it has Ask Rufus, which recommends your next book from your own shelf and does the deciding on the device.
The whole story
Most reading apps are a social network with a shelf attached, and most of them assume you read in English. Must Read went the other way. The catalogue is regional, so a reader in Mexico sees books actually sold in Mexico. The interface is in 32 languages, and more than a third of the people using it read in a language Apple Intelligence does not yet speak. That constraint shaped the newest feature: when Ask Rufus was costed as an AI-first product it would have reached fewer than a quarter of the app’s readers, so the recommendation was built to run on the device without a model, and the model was given the one job it is genuinely good at, which is writing a sentence. It is made by one developer in London.
In the founder’s words
A reading app has one job: get you back into the book. The timer, the streak, the lists and Rufus exist to make the next page more likely, and then to get out of the way.
Stanislav Rastvorov, founder of Must Read
Free to quote as written. More on request, by email, usually the same day.
Story angles
The AI that is not allowed to choose
Ask Rufus inverts the usual arrangement: the recommendation is computed on the device and the model only explains it. The decision came from a measurement, not a philosophy, and the measurement is quotable.
A book tracker you can read inside
More than 60,000 classic ebooks and audiobooks open in the app itself, so tracking and reading are not two separate apps.
Built for readers who are not reading in English
32 languages, hand-curated lists for 24 countries, and a catalogue that changes with the storefront rather than translating an American bestseller list.
Deep Apple integration from a one-person team
Siri and App Intents, widgets in every size, Apple Watch, Apple Wallet, visual intelligence and Live Activities today; Foundation Models and resizable windows on the Mac and on iPad since 3.6. All of it shipped by one developer.
What it does
| Tracking | Search, barcode scan or visual intelligence. Shelves, progress, ratings, reviews, custom lists. |
| Reading | More than 60,000 classic ebooks and audiobooks, opened in the app. |
| Timer | Reading sessions with goals, on the Lock Screen, in the Dynamic Island and on Apple Watch. |
| Discovery | Hand-curated lists for 24 countries, genre browsing, Ask Rufus. |
| Statistics | Streaks, calendar, reading pace, Reading DNA (a profile of what kind of reader you are), shareable cards. |
| System | Siri and Shortcuts, widgets on the Home Screen and Lock Screen, an Apple Watch app with complications, a Must Read Card in Apple Wallet. |
| Resizing | Built against the iOS 27 SDK: fully resizable in the iPhone Mirroring window on the Mac and as a resizable app on iPad. It never demands full screen. |
| Offline-first | Everything reads from the device first and syncs when the connection returns. |
App Store art
The current iPhone set; click for full resolution. The iPad set is in the bundle.
Price and availability
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch. iOS 18 or later. |
| Free | Up to 10 books, one custom list, one classic ebook and one audiobook, and the reading timer on one book. Search, Explore, the scanner, ratings, statistics, widgets and the Apple Watch app are all free, and so is Ask Rufus. |
| Pro | Unlimited books and lists, the timer on every book, and the whole classics and audiobook library. $4.99 a month, $29.99 a year with a seven-day free trial, or $79.99 once. Family Sharing on every tier. Regional pricing across 175 storefronts. |
| Languages | Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK, US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Singapore), Finnish, French (France, Canada), German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Spain, Mexico), Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese. 32 languages in 40 localisations. |
| Regional lists | Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada (English and French), France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States. 24 countries. |
What is new for iOS 27
| Private Cloud Compute | On iOS 27 Ask Rufus writes the reason under each pick through Private Cloud Compute; on iOS 26 it writes it on the device. |
| Extra-large widget | The extra-large Home Screen widget reached iPhone in iOS 27. |
| Resizing | Widen the iPhone Mirroring window on a Mac and a real sidebar appears. On iPad it runs as a resizable app. |
| Siri on screen | Siri can act on the book that is open on screen without being told its name. |
| Now Playing | The audiobook that is playing is handed to the system as a relevant entity, the route Apple provides for iOS to offer it back later. |
| Siri AI | The library is indexed into Spotlight with a paired open intent, the route Apple names for a third-party app to reach Siri AI’s personal context. |
Built on Apple’s own technologies
Foundation Models and Private Cloud Compute, App Intents and Siri, SwiftUI and SwiftData, WidgetKit, Live Activities, watchOS complications, Apple Wallet, visual intelligence, StoreKit, Sign in with Apple.
About the developer
Stanislav Rastvorov, Stan to everyone, has been an independent developer since 2015. Must Read began in 2016 because his sister was keeping track of her reading in the Notes app, having tried the book apps and liked none of them, so he built her one. The name was chosen together.
Ten years on it is still one person’s app. He writes the code, picks the curated lists for 24 countries, localises the app into 32 languages, answers the support mail and reads the press address himself.
He was born in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, and has lived in London since March 2022, which is why the app’s fox is a London fox: the city is full of them, and they are clever.
Portrait at 1969 × 1969, free to use with coverage. Photo: Yuliia Rastvorova, @radiojuliphoto.
Assets
One bundle, nothing gated, no form to fill in: the app icon at 1024, 512 and 256 px, the six unedited captures above at full resolution, plain and in the bezel, the current App Store screenshots for iPhone and iPad, the founder’s portrait, and a plain-text fact sheet. Screenshots in any of the 19 App Store languages, Apple Watch screens and a review build on TestFlight: ask, and they go out the same day.
Download the asset bundle (9 MB)Icon alone: 1024 · 512 · 256 px. Frameless captures: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6.
Logo
Also with the icon in its squircle: light · dark. PNG with transparency; the icon stays coral on both.
Brand colour
#DC4C42 app accent
#D1534F web
#171717
Press releases
- What’s new in Must Read 3.6 · 11 September 2026
Press contact
A person reads this address, not a form. Stan, Must Read, London.
This page was last updated on 11 September 2026. It changes with every release.