How Lense works

What is Lense?

Lense lets readers rate the political lean and the reliability of news articles and of each other's comments. Ratings come from readers like you — not from a panel of experts and not from AI.

Every article has a page with its link preview, how readers rated it, a weekly star count and the discussion. To read the article itself, use “Read on <publisher>” — Lense never copies article text.

Your account

Anyone can browse Lense without an account. To rate, star or comment you need to sign in. Lense is invite-only for now: there is no sign-up page. Use “Get in touch” at the bottom of any page to ask for an account, and you'll get an email link to set your password.

• Sign in with your email and password from “Sign in” at the top right.

• Forgot your password? Use “Forgot your password?” on the sign-in page and follow the emailed link.

• Pick your public handle in Settings. Other readers only ever see your handle — never your name or email.

• Switch between light and dark mode in Settings.

The two scales

Everything on Lense is rated on two seven-step scales. Lean is about political slant; reliability is about how factual it is. They are separate on purpose: a story can lean left or right and still be factual.

An average is shown as the step it rounds to, always with its label next to the colour.

Rating an article

On an article page, the Lean and Reliability cards show the average, a bar chart of how every reader rated it, and seven coloured squares. Tap the square that matches your view. Your pick is marked “(you)” on the chart.

• Change your mind? Tap a different square at any time.

• Tap your current square again to remove your rating.

• You can rate lean and reliability independently — rating just one is fine.

Rating a comment

Every comment shows two small chips with its average lean and reliability. Tap them to rate the comment on both scales. You can't rate your own comments. These ratings feed into each reader's profile.

Early ratings

An average from fewer than 3 ratings is labelled “early”. A couple of readers isn't a verdict, so early averages are left out of publisher and author scores and charts.

Your weekly star

Each week you get one star to give the article you think is most worth reading. Press “Star” on its page. The feed's Top sort ranks articles by stars.

• Already starred something this week? Lense asks whether to move your star to the new article.

• Press “Starred” again to take your star back.

• Stars reset every Monday morning. The “Your star this week” card shows where yours is and when it resets.

• You can only ever star a given article once.

General comments

The General tab under an article is for comments about the article as a whole. Write in the box and press Post. Replies nest under the comment they answer; tap the line on the left of a thread to collapse or expand it.

Passage threads

A passage thread is a discussion about one highlighted sentence or paragraph. On the web you'll find them in the Passages tab, each showing the quoted passage with a link that opens the original article scrolled to it.

New passage threads are started from the original article with the Lense browser extension or the in-app reader: select the text and choose “Comment on this”.

Citing sources

Press “Source” in the comment box to cite up to 5 links. Give each one a stance so readers know why it's there:

• Supports — backs up the passage or claim

• Disputes — contradicts it

• Context — adds background without taking a side

You can add a title and a short quote from the source so readers don't have to open it.

Images and GIFs

Press “Image” to attach up to 4 PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP images (1.5 MB each) to a comment.

Votes and sorting

Use the arrows to vote a comment up or down; press the same arrow again to undo. Sort any discussion by:

• Top — most upvoted first

• Newest — newest first

• Oldest — oldest first

• Controversial — the most evenly split votes first

Editing and removing

Use the pencil on your own comment to edit its text (it's marked “edited”), or the bin to remove it. A removed comment keeps its place so replies still make sense, but its text, images and sources disappear.

Sharing

Use Share on an article or comment page to post it to X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Reddit or LinkedIn, send it by email, copy the link, or use your phone's share sheet. The link icon on any comment opens that comment's own page.

Sorting and filters

• Top: most stars first.

• New: newest first.

• Controversial: readers most split on lean first.

Pick a time window (24 hours, week, month, year, all time), show only free or only paywalled articles, or search headlines.

Adding an article

Signed-in readers can press “Add an article” on the feed and paste a link to a news article or YouTube video. Lense reads its headline, image and byline and opens its page.

Publishers and authors

Each publisher and author has a profile with the average lean and reliability readers gave their articles, a week-by-week trend with a time-window toggle, a chart placing every rated article by lean and reliability, and their most-starred stories.

Only articles with at least 3 ratings count, and no single heavily rated article can dominate the average. Publishers known by several names or domains are combined into one profile.

Reader profiles

A reader's profile shows their handle, when they joined, their top comments, and how they come across: the lean and reliability other readers gave their comments, and how their own ratings compare with everyone else's. Strongly rated comments count for more than neutral ones, so a profile reflects what a reader actually says. Reader profiles are not shown in search engines.

Using Lense everywhere

The browser extension (Chrome, Edge and Firefox; Safari later) and the iPhone/Android app are coming soon. They use the same account, so your ratings, stars and comments appear everywhere. Sign in with the same email and password you use here; neither offers sign-up.

The browser extension

The extension brings Lense onto the article you are already reading on the publisher's site.

• Click the Lense icon in the toolbar: the popup shows how many passages and comments the page has, lets you sign in or out, and has “Open Lense on this page”.

• Opening Lense shows a side panel (a bottom sheet on narrow windows) with the article's ratings, your own ratings, the weekly star, and the Passages and Discussion tabs.

• Passages other readers discussed are highlighted in the article with a small count badge. Click one to open its thread.

• Where highlights overlap, Lense asks which thread you meant.

• Select at least a dozen characters and press “Comment on this” to start a thread on that passage.

• Tap a cited source to preview it inside the panel, and select text there to quote it into your comment.

• It never runs on email, banking, health, password-manager, sign-in or messaging sites, and it only sends an article's address to Lense when you rate, star or comment on it.

The phone app

The app has three tabs along the bottom: Feed, Browse and Account.

• Feed: the same feed as the website, with sort, time window and paywall filters. Pull down to refresh.

• Browse: paste a link to open (or add) its article, or search publishers and authors.

• Account: sign in, change your public handle, see where this week's star went and open your reader profile.

• On an article, “Read & annotate” opens the original page in the app's reader: discussed passages are highlighted, tap one to open its thread, or select text and tap “Comment on this”.

• Long-press a comment to collapse its replies.

Getting the most out of Lense

What Lense keeps

• Lense stores an article's link preview (headline, description, image link, byline, date and address) — never its text.

• Passage threads keep only the short quote a reader highlighted.

• Other readers see your handle, comments and ratings summary — never your name or email.

• Comment images you upload are public.

Terms

Lean

Political slant, from extremely liberal (−3) to extremely conservative (+3).

Reliability

How factual something is, from fiction (−3) to factual (+3).

Average

The mean of every reader's rating, shown as the step it rounds to.

Early

An average built from fewer than 3 ratings.

Distribution

The bar chart of how many readers picked each step.

Star

Your one weekly vote for the article most worth reading. Resets Mondays.

Passage thread

A discussion anchored to one highlighted passage of an article.

General discussion

Comments about the article as a whole.

Source

A link cited in a comment, marked as supporting, disputing or adding context.

Controversial

Articles whose lean ratings are most spread out, or comments with the most evenly split votes.

Handle

Your public name on Lense. It starts as a random one like @reader_k3x9qa; change it in Settings.

Publisher

The outlet an article comes from (for YouTube, the channel).

Trend

Week-by-week averages for a publisher or author, with the change over the last 90 days.