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zimmr is a way to find a paper, see what it found, and read it one short card at a time. You can open it and start. No account is required to look around.

Three tabs sit at the bottom: Search, Explore, and Library. The ? beside them opens this guide. You can also open it from Settings, and from the sign-in page.

The first time, zimmr may ask what you study and what you are curious about. That tunes Explore. You can skip it. Change it later under Settings, then Your interests, or from the tune-your-feed prompt on Explore.

Settings, then How zimmr works, is a short tour of the same idea: search, Explore, reading, and the library.

Each time you open the app, a greeting sits over the last place you were. It stays for a few seconds, then lifts. After that, a tap lifts it too. Switching tabs does not play it again.

A guest can search, open papers, and read Explore. The shelf stays on this device. Free accounts are unlimited. Guests get a small taster of 3 briefs and 3 searches. Nothing is sold.

Make a free account from Save my shelf, or from the sign-in page. You pick a username and a password. When this copy of zimmr has them switched on, a passkey, Google, or Apple sits above that form. Signing up from a guest session keeps the papers already on this device.

A recovery email is optional. Add one in Settings. zimmr keeps it after you open the confirmation link, so a password reset can be mailed there.

Forgot your password? On the sign-in page, Forgot password explains the ways back in. Email reset is not available on this copy of zimmr. Use a passkey if you added one, or write to hello@zimmr.ai.

Sign out is in Settings. Delete account is there too, and on the delete account page. Closing an account signs you out. The account and what it kept are held for 30 days so it can be restored if you write to hello@zimmr.ai, then removed.

An access code, if you have one from the waitlist, lifts a daily cap. Redeem it in Settings, or on the sheet that appears when a cap is reached. There is no subscription and nothing to buy in the app.

Type a topic, a question, or an author's name. A question in everyday words, such as 'does sleep help memory?', is turned into the terms a catalogue expects. The screen says what it searched, with a way back to the words you typed.

Paste a DOI, a PMID, an arXiv id, a link, or an abstract into the box. zimmr opens that paper.

Sources, under the box, chooses catalogues. Health and life sciences: PubMed and Europe PMC. Physics, maths, and computing: arXiv and INSPIRE-HEP. Education: ERIC. Every field: OpenAlex, CORE, DOAJ, and HAL. Crossref, the DOI registry, stays off until you turn it on, because its records are thin. Books: Standard Ebooks, Project Gutenberg, and Open Library.

A catalogue that fails is marked down on that row. The others still come back. With the box empty, Books opens free classics, read the same way as a paper.

Chips under the results keep one study type: meta-analysis, systematic review, RCT, trial, review, preprint, or other. Book appears when a book matched. Sort by relevance, evidence, newest, or most cited. The chips filter what is already loaded. The view switches between cards, a tighter list, and a table.

The top results can carry a one-line takeaway, with the abstract sentences it rests on. Load more asks for the next page.

Tick rows to save them to the library or a project. Export list writes RIS, for Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley, or a CSV that includes the takeaways.

Follow this search keeps that search. You can also follow an author from a result's menu (the first and last author) or by tapping a name in a paper. Up to 20 follows. New papers are looked up about once a week and show on Search, in Following, and in the morning note.

A brief is three lines: what they did, what they found, with the paper's numbers, and why it matters, including the main caveat. A tag says whether it was written from the full text or only the abstract.

A paper with full text is briefed twice. The abstract comes back first and is shown at once. The fuller brief replaces it when you are back at the start, so a page does not change under you. If the full one fails, the quick one stays.

On Explore, each paper opens on its brief. In the reader, Brief, or the B key, opens it as one page. Briefs written in an older shape still show as several slides.

The paper itself is a deck of short cards. That is the thing you swipe through after the brief.

Settings, Briefs, chooses what to dwell on: the whole paper, the methods, or the results. A note in your own words can name your field. That changes emphasis. Quotes and numbers still have to come from the paper.

Read the paper before you cite it. A brief is a way in, and it can be wrong. If one cannot be written, the reader says so. A brief that fails is handed back to your allowance. Free accounts are unlimited. Guests get a small taster of 3 briefs and 3 searches. Nothing is sold.

Private mode, in Settings, writes briefs on the device. Searching still asks the catalogues.

Swipe between cards, or use the ticks along the bottom to jump. On a keyboard, the right arrow, space, or J turns forward. The left arrow or K goes back. C opens the contents, B the brief, L reads aloud, F locks in, and Escape leaves.

The speaker in the footer reads the card aloud and turns to the next card when it finishes, through to the end of the paper. The chip above the footer changes the speed. With a voice service configured, a recorded voice reads. Otherwise the phone's own voice does, and the screen stays awake, because a locked phone stops that voice.

Tap a word for a definition, or select a phrase of up to six words. Definitions come from Wiktionary, then MeSH, and only then a model, which is labelled as written by AI. Each one can search for papers on the term. Words you look up are listed in the contents.

Tap a result in the text, such as a hazard ratio, a confidence interval, or a p value. zimmr works out what the number says, including whether the interval crosses no effect. A model may then read it in the sentence. That part is labelled as written by a model.

Figures from papers with open full text sit on cards of their own. Tap one to enlarge it. If an image will not load, the card says so and links to it.

Select a passage and tap Highlight. It stays marked on the card and goes to the notebook, where you can add a note.

Contents lists the sections. Cite copies the reference in APA, Vancouver, MLA, and Harvard, plus BibTeX, RIS, and an APA in-text citation. The catalogues often omit volume, issue, and pages, so the DOI stands in for them.

Ask, in the footer, puts a question to this paper. Answer replies straight away. Teach me asks you a question back, then checks what you say. A guest is asked to make a free account first. In private mode the answer is written on the device, when the device can run a model.

The first time you open a research paper, zimmr may ask you to guess the finding before the result is on screen. Skip goes straight in. Turn off guesses stops asking on this device. At the end, three claims: two the paper supports, and one that goes too far. Books, stories, articles, and private papers skip both games.

A hard paper in an area you have not read may offer a review to open first. At the end of a paper, suggestions say what to read next.

The lock in the header starts a stretch of 25, 50, or 90 minutes. Leaving asks you first. When Spotify is connected in Settings, that sheet can play, pause, and skip in the Spotify app you already have open. Changing the song needs Spotify Premium. If Spotify is not set up on this copy of zimmr, Settings says so.

Minutes left are your minutes, from how fast you turn cards. A card you leave in under two seconds, one you leave up for three minutes, and figures are left out of that pace. Until enough cards are timed, zimmr uses a typical pace. The streak page says your words a minute.

Explore is a feed of papers you did not have to search for. It starts broad and drifts with your searches, your shelf, and the interests you named.

Swipe up and down between papers. Swipe left for a short preview, nine cards at most. The last of those opens the full reader, at the place you already left it.

Each research card is tagged Review or Study. Review is what the catalogues call a review, including a systematic review or a meta-analysis. Study is primary research: a trial, an original article, a preprint. A peer-review report stays with the studies. The feed deals them in turn.

Some cards say Something different: a topic from your fields that you have not picked. Those have a gold edge. Now and then one says Editor's pick.

A few papers in, Tune your feed asks the same two questions as welcome, if you have not answered them. Tap a word on a card for the same definition as in the reader.

Library is what you have added. History is the papers, with how many minutes are left. Saved is briefs you bookmarked. Projects are named sets: an essay, a chapter, a journal club.

An older version of zimmr had a map of papers. That screen has been retired. A link to /map opens Search.

Add a paper from a search result, from the plus on the library, or by dropping a PDF. File it into a project from a library row, from the reader's contents, or by ticking rows in a search.

A project can have the day it is for. It shows how many of its papers are still unread, and the minutes left. From three days before, the morning note counts down.

Compare, on a project, sets two papers side by side: where they agree, where they differ, and why they might, including design, who was studied, and how the outcome was measured. Tick two rows, or use Compare. A point is kept only when a sentence from that paper is really in the paper.

The Draft tab writes related-work paragraphs from the briefs and the passages you highlighted, with your notes. It cites by number. Copy takes those paragraphs and an APA reference list. A retracted paper is left out and named. A correction or an expression of concern stays in, and the draft is told to say so.

A project can be shared with other readers. Whoever is in it sees the papers added there and what is said. One paper can be set as this week's journal club, with a day and time. On that paper only, everyone sees each other's highlights: blue on the card, beside your own. A tap says who marked it. Four to six questions sit under the paper, and at the end of the deck when you open it from the project. They quote the paper when the text is there. A PDF, a book, or an article gets questions from its brief, and only when it has one.

About once a week, papers on your shelf that have a DOI are checked for a retraction, an expression of concern, or a correction. The reader shows a banner under the contents, linking to the notice. The library marks the row. A retraction or a concern can lead the morning note.

Recall sits at the top of the library when questions are due: a few questions on papers you have finished, asked again after a day, three days, and a week. Following lists the authors and searches you follow.

On the phone, the plus on the library, or Add a PDF on Search, reads one PDF and opens it. You can also drop a PDF on most screens, or paste one.

On a laptop, upload takes a pile: drop them on the window, pick them, or paste. They are read one after another and wait in the library, so you can load them at a desk and read on the phone. The reader stays closed. With Zotero connected, a collection can be brought across from that page too.

A scan is read page by page when that is available. Private mode cannot add a scanned PDF, because that reading leaves the device. A PDF with no text zimmr can read is reported as such.

When a catalogue paper is only an abstract, the end of the deck can offer your university library proxy, set in Settings, or LibKey. Add the PDF brings the file back in.

Settings can give an account an address to forward a PDF or a link to, when inbound mail is set up. Guests do not have one. Add from anywhere, also in Settings, is a bookmarklet that sends zimmr the page you are on.

Settings, Zotero: make a key with library and write access, then paste it. It is checked with Zotero and kept on the server. Send a paper from its menu, or a whole project as a collection of the same name. Send every paper I add does that as you save. What has already been sent is remembered.

Import from Zotero, in Settings and on upload, lists your collections and the whole library. Import brings the papers onto the shelf, into a project of the same name, without opening each one. A paper with a DOI or PMID is read through the catalogues. One they cannot find is read from the PDF stored in Zotero, up to 40 MB, which needs file access on the key. Anything else is listed as skipped, with why. Importing again brings only what is new. Nothing is briefed on the way in.

Export list, on a search, writes RIS or CSV for the rows on screen, or the ones you ticked. Cite, in a paper's contents, copies one reference.

The notebook exports as Markdown: one file per paper, or a zip when there are several, for Obsidian or any notes app. Each file has the reference, the brief, and the passages you highlighted, with your notes, in the order they appear in the paper.

Export to Anki, on the notebook, a project's notes, or Recall, writes a plain text file, zimmr-anki.txt. In Anki, import that file. It uses the Basic note type and a deck named zimmr, or zimmr and the project name. A recall card asks the question, with the sentence it rests on. A highlight with a note asks the note. One without a note gives the opening of the passage and asks you to finish it. Importing the file again updates those cards. Links go to the DOI, PubMed, or the paper in zimmr. A private paper is left without a public link.

Read cards and the day counts. The first day takes 3 cards. After that, a day takes 10. A card counts when you turn to it. Opening a paper where you left it does not count until you turn the page. The same card of the same paper counts once that day. The flame by the ZIMMR mark on Search lights when today's goal is met.

You start with one freeze. Every seven days in a row earns another, and you can hold two. A missed day is covered when you have freezes enough for the whole gap.

Seven days in a row earns a keepsake: a card of that week, listed on the streak page, with a picture you can save. The streak page also shows today's progress, the last five weeks, your longest run, freezes in hand, and about how many words a minute you read.

The morning paper, in Settings, sends one note a day at the time you pick. It names the most pressing thing first: a project due within three days, recall questions, new papers that cite your shelf, a paper you are part way through, or a paper from your interests that is not on your shelf yet. If today's cards are already read, it stays quiet.

In a browser this is a web notification. On an iPhone, that needs zimmr on the Home Screen, and Settings shows the steps. The iOS and Android apps lay their own reminder on the phone.

When someone else does something covers a paper sent to you, a message in a shared project, or being added to one. Those are held to one an hour, and none is sent between 10pm and 8am in your own time.

Before a streak ends is its own switch, on with the morning paper. At 8pm, on a run of two days or more, it says the streak ends at midnight if today's cards are still unread. It stays quiet when the morning note is set for 6pm or later.

The digest, in Settings, is off until you turn it on. Daily or weekly, after you confirm the email address: three briefs from your interests, also as a notification. The email has a one-click unsubscribe. The first time you finish a day's cards, zimmr may ask once whether you want a morning nudge.

A few papers ahead are kept on the device so they open with no signal. Settings, Reading offline, chooses none, or the next 3, 5, or 10. Five is the start. The library marks the ones that are ready. Progress made offline stays on the device until you are back.

What an account keeps, and why, is on the privacy page. How the product is offered is on the terms.

In short: your username, how you sign in, an optional email, the papers and books you add, PDFs you drop in, how far you are through them, highlights, notes, projects, searches, and your streak. None of it is sold, or used to follow you across other sites.

A cookie keeps you signed in, including a guest session. zimmr does not set advertising or analytics cookies.

Private mode keeps PDFs you add in that browser only, with their progress and highlights. Briefs, answers, and definitions are written on the device. A word you look up still goes to the public dictionaries, without the sentence around it. Scanned PDFs cannot be added in private mode.

Other readers see your name and what you choose to put on your profile, papers you send them, and, in a shared project, the papers and messages there. A share link shows a title and the opening of the brief. It does not show a PDF you uploaded, or your notes.

To write a brief, answer a question, or define a word, the text or the word is sent to the model that does it. Searches go to the catalogues. They are not sent your username. The privacy page names each of these.

Delete account, in Settings or at /delete, asks you to confirm, then signs you out. The account is held for 30 days. Write to hello@zimmr.ai in that time if you want it restored.

No results: open Sources and check a catalogue is switched on. A question is rewritten, and the line under the box shows the words that were actually searched. Try the field's own terms, or paste a DOI.

A catalogue marked down had a bad minute. Search again, or leave it off for now. The rest of the list is still there.

A brief will not write. You may have used the guest taster, or today's cap when free accounts are capped. The sheet says which, and offers an account or an access code. If the model is unavailable, the reader says so. Free accounts are unlimited. Guests get a small taster of 3 briefs and 3 searches. Nothing is sold.

A PDF fails. It may be a scan, empty of text, or, from Zotero, over 40 MB. Private mode cannot read scans. Try upload on a laptop, where a scan is read page by page.

Read aloud is silent. Check the phone is not muted. Without a voice service, the device voice needs the screen to stay awake. The speed chip is the control above the footer.

Notifications never arrive. In a browser, allow them for the site. On an iPhone, add zimmr to the Home Screen first. The apps use the reminder in Settings. Notes from other people are not sent overnight.

You forgot the password and there is no recovery email. Use a passkey if you added one, or write to hello@zimmr.ai. The forgot password page says the same thing when mail cannot be sent.

You are offline. Papers already kept on the device still open. Search and new briefs wait until the connection is back, and the screen says so.

On a shared computer, sign out in Settings. A guest shelf lives only on that device.

Questions, a password you cannot reset, or an account you want restored: hello@zimmr.ai.

Privacy is at privacy. Terms are at terms. Deleting an account is described at delete account.