Aspects of the present disclosure involve a mobile or computer reader application that obtains articles or other computer files from a central database and displays the articles to a user of the device. The reader application may be customizable around one or more characteristics of the user of the device. In one embodiment, the type and number of articles provided to the device and displayed in the reader application may be based on the determination of a category or type of usage of the application is performed by the user. Further, the determination of the use of the reader application on the device is performed by and contained within the device such that usage information is not shared with overall article providing system. In another embodiment, the article providing system and/or device may determine recommendations to provide to a user of the reading application. These recommendations may be based on one or more selected interests or topics of the user of the reading application.