HeyNews features

Last Updated: 2026-09-16

A complete list of what you can do in HeyNews.

Account, setup, and dashboard

Get into HeyNews quickly and see what needs attention.

  • Flexible sign-in: Sign up with email, add a password, use magic links, or continue with Google.
  • Billing activation: Add a payment method during setup. If you connect an existing newsletter, the usual checkout starts a 14-day Trial. A no-trial offer starts a paid subscription instead. Where Newsletter Format setup is available, its Trial starts when you approve your Newsletter Format. The Trial includes 5 drafts total, unlimited AI Writers, 5 AI refinements per draft, and 1 publication.
  • Onboarding wizard: Connect your newsletter and review the available history. Continue to checkout if billing is not already active from an offer link. Depending on the offer, checkout starts a Trial or a paid subscription. HeyNews trains your AI Writer in the background. If you have no newsletter to connect, choose that option for the available setup path.
  • Dashboard overview: Check your training status, AI Writers, sources, and stories in a compact summary. Review recent issue performance below it, then open Analytics with View performance. Unavailable measurements show Not available; a measured zero shows 0%.
  • Background setup: Once your subscription or Trial is active, HeyNews builds your AI Writer from the newsletter you connected and lets you know when it's ready.

AI Writers

Your AI Writer learns your voice from past issues and writes new drafts that sound like you. You do not have to tune it by hand.

  • Automatic voice learning: Connect your newsletter platform and HeyNews reads your past issues to build a voice profile. It picks up your tone, vocabulary, sentence patterns, section structure, and signature phrases on its own.
  • Past issue history: See which history sources trained each writer, then request more old issues when you have another archive or export to add.
  • Multiple edition types: If your Monday issue is a deep dive and your Friday issue is a link roundup, each gets its own AI Writer trained on the right style.
  • Writing examples: Each draft refers to a few past issues to keep details such as humour, paragraph rhythm, emoji habits, and sign-offs consistent without copying old sentences or links. If your publication has several past-issue sources, one example can come from an older source that recent issues would otherwise hide.
  • Style Rules: Add up to 50 lasting preferences to an AI Writer without new Voice Training. Apply a rule to the whole issue or to one section. Pick individual rules and copy them onto another AI Writer, including one in a different Publication.
  • Archive a writer you no longer use: Retire a writer so it stops appearing in Compose and in scheduled newsletters, without losing anything it wrote. Archived writers move to their own section and can be restored at any time. Every publication keeps at least one writer you can compose with.
  • Reusable Links: Approve up to 20 standing destinations, such as a subscribe page or social profile, for the current AI Writer to use without new Voice Training. Individual links can be copied to another AI Writer the same way Style Rules can. Repeating Voice Training for the same Writer keeps its Style Rules and Reusable Links when there is one clear match. A new sibling Writer starts independently, and you can copy both settings lists from another ready Writer in a Publication you can edit after reviewing the source and target. Copying adds your selection and keeps existing settings.
  • Story count per section: Each section can have its own Story limit. Your AI Writer can use fewer when the selected material does not support that section, rather than adding unrelated content.
  • Learns from performance: If you connect beehiiv or Kit, HeyNews pulls open rates and click-through data after your issues have time to collect engagement, then uses those patterns to improve future drafts.

Compose

The main place where you create your next issue.

  • Pick your stories: Start with Stories published since the selected AI Writer's last Draft, or the last 7 days when it has no Draft yet. Choose another preset, a custom rolling window, or calendar dates when needed. Rolling choices are remembered per AI Writer and shared with collaborators. Calendar dates last for the current visit only. Already-selected Stories stay visible when you adjust the filters.
  • Source bulk actions: Use Select all / Deselect all inside a source group to add or remove every visible story from that source.
  • Smart Select: Use the "Select Best" button to let AI automatically pick up to the story count you set for each section. If no Story fits a section, HeyNews leaves that space open instead of adding an unrelated Story.
  • Add stories from links: Paste up to 50 links from a spreadsheet, document, message, CSV, TSV, or plain text list. HeyNews keeps their order, reuses Stories you already have, and adds new links as one-off Stories. If the review is temporarily unavailable, your list stays in place so you can try Review links again.
  • Write a draft: Select an AI Writer, choose the stories you want to cover, and let it write a full draft in your voice.
  • Draft Brief: Give one draft a theme, angle, or special direction without changing your AI Writer. The brief clears before the next draft.
  • Background generation: Start a draft, then navigate away. HeyNews keeps generating in the background, auto-saves the result to Issues, and notifies you when it's ready. While you wait in Compose, you'll see the AI Writer, locked input summary, and draft generation context.
  • Refine with AI: Tell the AI what to change ("make it shorter," "add more humor," "rewrite the intro") and keep working elsewhere while it runs. Return to Compose to review the finished copy as unsaved changes. Free trial and Hobbyist accounts get 5 refinements per draft, Starter gets 10, Pro gets 20, and Team includes 100 AI refinements per draft.
  • 100 AI revisions per draft add-on: If your plan's revision cap isn't enough, raise each Draft's total allowance to 100 for $50/month or $420/year from Account settings > Subscription. Already included in Team.
  • One-click transforms: Shorten, expand, make formal, make casual, simplify, or make more persuasive with a single click.
  • Hot takes: Generate a bold, opinionated 2-3 sentence commentary on any story to add personality to your issue.
  • Subject line and preview text suggestions: Get AI-written options optimized for open rates.
  • Image search: Find and insert images directly from the compose view.
  • Save, copy, or create a beehiiv Draft: Save your work to Issues, copy the full issue for any email platform, or use a separate beehiiv publishing connection selected as your Sending Connection to create a post draft for review.

Automations

Automations create HeyNews drafts on a schedule so repeat issues do not require the full Compose flow every time.

  • Schedules per publication: Pick one or more Issue Days, such as every weekday or Tuesday and Thursday. Choose when HeyNews should create the draft, the time, timezone, and a cadence from every week to every four weeks.
  • Calendar preview: See the next five draft creation times beside their intended Issue Days before you save.
  • Fresh-story guardrails: Set minimum stories, maximum stories, date window, and whether used stories can be reused. HeyNews picks the best eligible stories when the automation runs. Standard automations do not lock drafts to one fixed source list; managed Company Newsletter automations may stay tied to the sources approved during setup.
  • Automatic draft creation: HeyNews runs Smart Select, writes the draft, creates the subject line and preview text, and saves the result to Issues.
  • Review before send: Automated drafts are never sent or published automatically.
  • Notifications: Get an in-app notification and optional email when a draft is ready or an automation needs attention.
  • Automatic retries: If a temporary service problem interrupts draft creation, HeyNews retries for up to 30 minutes. It reports one failure only if every retry fails.

Sources and stories

HeyNews checks your sources on a regular schedule and pulls in new stories automatically.

  • Content Desk: Start in Sources to manage recurring feeds, saved pages, social profiles, and source health. Open Stories when you want to choose content for the next issue.
  • Followed sites: Point HeyNews at any blog or news site. It discovers the RSS feed and starts pulling articles.
  • RSS feeds: Subscribe to any public RSS, Atom, or JSON Feed directly. HeyNews keeps checking the rest of your feeds even if one feed has a bad item or temporary error.
  • Curated feeds: Start from HeyNews-vetted feeds when they are available in the Sources tab.
  • Reddit subreddits: Follow a subreddit as a recurring source, or save one Reddit post as a story when you only need that discussion.
  • Profiles: Track thought leaders and accounts across social platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and more).
  • Newsletter history imports: Past issues from beehiiv, Kit, or a connected archive are imported automatically when you connect, and links inside past and new issues can help HeyNews find recurring sources too.
  • Paste any link: Add a feed URL, article URL, website URL, subreddit, or social profile and HeyNews figures out the right source type when it can.
  • Manual stories: Use Content Desk > Add > Add a story to save a one-off link, note, or idea.
  • Story selection from Content Desk: Open Stories, choose the stories you want, and click Use these to open Compose with those stories prefilled. Your selected stories stay selected if you refresh or leave and return before using them.
  • Relevance scoring: HeyNews scores fresh Stories against your Publication so you can see what matters most to your audience. A newly added Story may appear while its score is still being prepared.
  • Search and filter: Search stories and sources, then filter stories by All, New, or Saved.
  • Story history: Your story library goes back a full year on every plan. Older stories are removed automatically. Issues you already wrote keep their own copy of the stories they used.
  • Inactive unpaid Publications: Automatic source checks pause after 14 days without a visit to Content Desk or Compose. Open either page for that Publication to resume them. Paid Publications keep checking sources.

Integrations

Connect your newsletter platform, RSS feeds, and browser to HeyNews.

  • beehiiv: Connect with your API key to import past issues, update subscriber counts, and pull performance data. A separate OAuth connection can create post drafts in the beehiiv publication you choose.
  • Kit (ConvertKit): Approve the connection through Kit to import broadcasts and track performance.
  • Newsletter archive: Connect newsletters from Substack, Ghost, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Medium, or any platform with a public archive. HeyNews finds and imports your past issues so it can learn your voice, with no API key required.
  • RSS feeds: Subscribe to any feed. HeyNews also has a built-in feed discovery tool that tries multiple methods to find the right feed URL.
  • Browser extension: Save the current page as a one-off Story, or follow the site or profile as a recurring Source.
  • Connections & imports: Manage the selected publication's publishing platform, past issue sources, and file imports.

Analytics

See how your newsletters are doing.

  • Open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, bounce rate: All in one dashboard.
  • Charts: Grouped bar charts for recent performance, a dual-line trend chart with average reference lines, a color-intensity heatmap for best send times, and horizontal bars for top performers.
  • Flexible time ranges: View performance over the last 7, 30, or 90 days, or the past year. The full year view shows up to 52 weeks of trend data.
  • Recipient trends: Get a heads up if your subscriber count is declining.
  • Best send time: A heatmap shows which weekdays and hours get the best open rates for your audience.
  • Per-issue breakdown: Drill into individual issues to see what worked and what didn't.
  • Request a direct connection: If you connected with a public archive, you can ask us from the Analytics page to add performance tracking for your platform.

Issues

Your saved work in one place, whether it is still a draft or has since been published elsewhere.

  • Browse and search: See every draft with its subject line, preview text, AI Writer, stories used count, last saved time, and badges.
  • Quick actions: Open a draft in Compose or delete it.

Publications

Manage multiple newsletters from a single account.

  • Separate everything: Each publication gets its own AI Writers, sources, stories, and settings.
  • One Kit account, one Publication: Connect Kit from the Publication where that account belongs. A Kit account cannot be assigned to two Publications. Newsletter archives attach to your current Publication as voice history, so they do not create a new Publication or use another paid connection.
  • Quick switching: Jump between publications from the sidebar.
  • Publication-aware pages: After you switch, AI Writers, Past Issues, and other newsletter-specific pages follow the Publication you selected.
  • Per-publication settings: Set the name, timezone, language, and default send time for each newsletter independently.
  • Archive and restore: Retire a publication you no longer use from the Publications page. HeyNews clears its active setup, keeps saved issues available where expected during the restore window, and lets you restore the publication for 30 days before it is permanently deleted.
  • Collaboration Seats: Invite Members and Viewers from People & access. If the Subscription has no seat available, HeyNews keeps the unfinished invitation and points the Owner to the available recovery action.
  • Members and pending invitations: People & access lists everyone who has access now, plus any invitation still waiting. An invitation nobody accepted within 14 days is marked Expired and stays on the list, so you can see who never joined and invite them again.

Account and publication settings

Profile

Update your first name, last name, and App Language. App Language changes the HeyNews interface and account emails, while your newsletter content language stays in Publication settings.

Notifications

Choose which emails you receive and review important account updates from the in-app notification inbox.

Subscription and billing

  • Four plans for different publishing volumes: Hobbyist ($39/mo, 5 issues), Starter ($99/mo, 15 issues, 2 publications), Pro ($299/mo, 45 issues, 4 publications), Team ($499/mo, 90 issues, 100 AI revisions per draft, 10 publications)
  • Yearly billing saves 30% on any plan
  • 14-day free trial after a payment method is added, with 5 drafts total, 5 AI refinements per draft, unlimited AI Writers, and 1 publication
  • Start your subscription early when you reach a trial limit. HeyNews shows the exact amount due for the plan you picked before you confirm. If a payment fails, your billing status stays accurate and HeyNews explains what to do next.
  • Pricing and offer links keep the selected plan, billing cycle, and discount code through signup and checkout when they are available. Some offers open checkout before newsletter setup. No-trial offers start a paid subscription at checkout; review the amount due before confirming.
  • Prices in USD stay the same across App Languages. Stripe may offer an eligible local currency at checkout, with the amount shown before you confirm.
  • Add-ons attach to paid plans: 100 AI revisions per draft ($50/mo or $420/yr), issue packs (+10/+20/+30 issues/mo), and publication packs (+1/+2/+5 publications/mo)
  • Monthly issue allowances reset on the subscription anniversary, including for yearly plans. Deleting a Draft does not return an issue to the current month.
  • Upgrade nudges: when your add-on spend nears the next tier's price, the app shows an upgrade prompt so you don't overpay for extras
  • Pause, resume, cancel, or keep a paid subscription from Account settings > Subscription, with email plus in-app confirmations for billing changes
  • A card-backed Trial becomes the selected paid subscription unless you cancel first. If it ends without active billing, source checks and generation pause until you restore your subscription.
  • Change plans, switch billing cycles, add or remove add-ons, update payment methods, and view invoices from Account settings > Subscription

Security

Change your password, check whether User Email changes are available, or request a data export from Account settings > Security. One export covers every Publication you own and stays available for 7 days.

Security

Security in HeyNews covers three things: account access, connection details, and the content inside each publication.

  • Passwords stay private: HeyNews does not store your password where our team can read it.
  • Connection details are encrypted: beehiiv API keys and Kit connection tokens are encrypted before storage and never shown back in the app.
  • No platform passwords required: Kit lets you approve the connection without sharing your Kit password. Newsletter archive connections only need a public archive URL or RSS feed.
  • Newsletter connections: Standard beehiiv and Kit connections read your history and performance. A separate beehiiv publishing connection can create and update post drafts after you approve it. HeyNews never sends those drafts or changes your subscribers.
  • Publication separation: Each publication keeps its AI Writers, sources, stories, drafts, integrations, settings, and analytics separate from your other publications.
  • Your data trains your writers only: Your past issues, sources, stories, and drafts are used to generate and improve your own HeyNews drafts, not another user's AI Writer.
  • Connection control: Disconnect beehiiv, Kit, archive, RSS, and source connections when you no longer want HeyNews to check them for new data.
  • Data exports: Publication Owners can request one ZIP containing their profile and data from every Publication they own. The archive includes organized data files, a readable index, and readable copies of Issues and Drafts.
  • Data cleanup: Archive a publication from the Publications page when you no longer need it. You can restore it for 30 days before it is permanently deleted.

Referral program

Earn rewards by sharing HeyNews with other newsletter writers. Open Rewards > Refer & earn to get your personal link, track conversions, and see your earnings.

Browser extension

A Chrome extension for saving articles on the go, available on the Chrome Web Store.

  • Save as story: Add the current article directly to your Stories library with one click. After it saves, you can add it to an open Compose session or start a new one. The extension remembers an open session for 30 minutes while you clip related articles.
  • Copy page as Markdown: Copy the captured page text. When a Compose session is available, you can also save the page as a Story and add it to the draft.
  • Follow this site: Add the site's homepage as an ongoing source so future articles get picked up automatically.
  • Clean article text: The extension grabs the article content and turns it into clean text.
  • Clear error messages: If a page can't be saved (unsupported layout, network issue, expired session), the extension tells you exactly what happened.
  • Dark mode: Follows your system theme.
  • Quick links: Jump to your HeyNews dashboard from the extension popup.

Growth audit reward

Once your subscription is active, leave an honest review of HeyNews on G2 and earn a free growth audit. Open Rewards > Free Growth Audit, upload a screenshot of your review, and we'll review your submission within a few business days. If the HeyNews team has granted plan access to your publication, that counts too. Use Remind me later if you want to hide the dashboard prompt for a week.