5 Novel RSS Reader Apps to Change How You Get News Feeds and Updates
When it comes to RSS readers, the conversation usually boils down to Feedly vs. Flipboard. But there are several other new options worth checking out, as they enhance your feeds with AI summaries or algorithms to arrange data by your reading habits or give you minimalist and privacy-friendly options.
1.Readwise Reader(Web): Best New RSS Reader, With GPT-3
Readwise is one of the coolest services tosave and relearn highlights from Kindleand other ebook services, as well as web articles. With Readwise Reader, the service is expanding its scope with an excellent all-in-one reader for your RSS feeds, newsletters, and bookmarks.
The web app works seamlessly on desktop and mobile, with all the standard features you might expect from an RSS reader, like saving articles or highlighting portions for later, importing your existing OPML, and so on. Significantly, Readwise Reader also supports newsletters since they’ve increasingly become a part of the online reading experience, as well as Twitter threads, Twitter lists, PDFs, EPUBs, and YouTube channels. In fact, when you watch YouTube videos within the app, Readwise provides a full transcript.
The transcript is part of the smart AI features within Readwise based on GPT-3, called Ghostreader. You can ask it to summarize articles, define terms or look up information on Wikipedia, and use prompts and queries on your highlights and history.
Currently, the app is in beta mode and free, so try it while you can. Eventually, Reader will be part of the Readwise subscription service, which costs $7.99 per month.
2.The Apricot(Web): AI-Powered Summaries of RSS Feed Items
Frustrated with RSS readers feeling like to-do lists, and finding the standard social media timeline to be a more familiar browsing experience, developer Brian Kent made Apricot to blend the worlds. And he baked in ChatGPT to summarize all your feed items so you may decide whether you want to read it or not. The summaries don’t display by default, and you’ll have to click a button to activate it. But it’s a helpful feature that will make sure you stay in your feed without missing out on content.
You can easily import your OPML in Apricot, or add sources from RSS feeds, blogs, newsletters such as Substack, podcasts, subreddits, YouTube channels, and even get TV show updates by subscribing to shows on TV Maze. The AI was decent atsummarizing YouTube videosand podcasts but not as good as articles. You can use a chronological feed in Apricot, or ask the AI to prioritize items for you based on how you browse.
The Apricot believes in privacy and hence doesn’t track any of your data or clicks, and is ad-free. It also doesn’t include a reader, so if you want to go beyond the summaries, you’ll need to click and visit the original site.
3.YakRead(Web): RSS Feed Arranged by AI Based on Your Reading Habits
YakRead is a cool new RSS reader that changes the RSS reader experience by using machine learning to give you a feed that’s not chronological but based on what you’ll likely find interesting. Of course, this can go against what you want in an RSS reader if you want to stay abreast of every update on a blog, but it might work for those who use RSS readers mainly for news consumption.
The machine learning algorithm ranks articles based on what you read. So if you click articles from one source more times than others, you’ll see more pieces from that website in yourFor Youfeed. As the feed adapts to your preferences, YakRead also adds algorithmically curated articles that other users have read, which you might find worthwhile. It’s a different way of using an RSS reader, as you don’t have complete control over your feed.
You can bookmark articles to read later, which also will resurface in the For You feed at times when you haven’t read them. Separately, you can save read articles as favorites. YakRead is free and ad-supported, with a distraction-free Reader built-in. And you can import your full OPML feed.
It works seamlessly on mobile browsers and actually looks quite good. The developer says they are trying to recreate the experience of browsing a Twitter-like timeline.
4.Such Simple RSS(Web): No AI, Private, Grid-View RSS Reader
Most RSS readers focus on presenting a chronological list view of your feeds. Such Simple RSS (SSR) takes a different approach with a panel grid of all your subscriptions, each showing their latest updates. It gives you a quick overview of everything and looks organized too.
The web app puts a lot of emphasis on bucking the trend of AI or algorithms deciding your feed. It is also completely private, with no ads, cookies, or tracking of any kind. That said, you can choose to make your account public, i.e. anyone can see what you are reading. It’s a nice way to create a list of sites that you and a few others want to track together.
The free version of SSR lets you follow up to 24 feeds, which can be websites, podcasts, or video channels. If you want more than that, there are different pricing tiers, topping at 100 euros per year for unlimited feeds.
5.Vore(Web): Minimalist RSS Reader Ideal as Secondary App
Vore is a minimalist RSS reader that, in our opinion, should be a secondary RSS reader if you need one, not your primary. It doesn’t incorporate existing OPML feeds, so you’ll have to start from scratch. And it doesn’t have a lot of the features you want from a primary reader, such as saving articles for later, favorites and bookmarks, organized folders, etc.
But its minimalist, no-nonsense design lends itself as a great option to subscribe to a few blogs that you want to visit once in a while and read on mobile. Vore shows the headline, how many days ago it was published, and the original site. Clicking it takes you away from Vore to the original page, as Vore doesn’t include a reader. It’s really as simple as an RSS reader can get and more of a way to stay updated when a few blogs update, rather than a full-fledged RSS reading experience.
The developer Jes says that the site is free for use and will never be turned into a for-profit venture. Vore is apparently a love letter to RSS syndication and a way to keep the format alive.
The Case for Multiple RSS Readers
On the surface, using multiple RSS readers seems like missing the point of feed readers. After all, it’s supposed to be one place to get all the updates you want. And most of them have folders for organizing your feeds too.
But there are times when it makes sense to have a separate RSS reader to follow a few feeds. It can be for a shared set of feeds to follow, like SSR’s public accounts, or an app purely for NSFW subscriptions.
Searching for a good RSS feed reader? These free RSS feed readers offer new display methods, faster speeds, and better privacy.
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