My Quest for the Perfect RSS App
I remember the first time I learned about RSS. I was young, curious, and taking my first steps on the internet, exploring (mostly) tech blogs. I had this ritual: whenever I sat down at the desktop PC in the living room of my parentsā house, Iād move my mouse to the toolbar with my bookmarked websites and open them up, tab after tab, just to check each one for new content.
So when I discovered a technology that could get rid of this Sisyphean ritual, gathering all my favorite reads into one place and ensuring Iād never miss a thing? Mind blown.
Iāve been hooked on RSS for over a decade now. My first reader appāthe one that got me startedāwas the beautiful Reeder. I grabbed it for my iPod Touch, and it just felt right.
I stuck with Reeder for years, but eventually, I got curious about other options. No big reasonāI just like reevaluating my tech choices now and then (especially on Black Friday). Thatās when I tried Unread. I loved itātons of free features, large text, and a clean look, especially on my iPad, where I do most of my reading.
After a couple of years, I started thinking, āIs this still the best?ā Unread was solid, but the design wasnāt doing it for me anymore. I wanted more controlādifferent layouts, maybe another fontāand, honestly, I just like trying new apps.
So I began hunting for my perfect RSS app. Hereās what I was looking for:
- It had to be an iOS app (a macOS version would be a bonus but wasnāt required)āI donāt like web apps; I like the native feel and also prefer using separate apps for separate tasks.
- It needed to retrieve full text from sites that donāt include it in their RSS feedsāI subscribe to a few of these, and while I try to visit indie blogs directly, for larger sites I want to be able to read without leaving the reader.
- It had to be beautifulāI love apps where design reflects thought and effort; it makes my experience much better.
- It should be a classic reader, not a timeline readerāIām not sold on chronological āpersonalizedā timelines. I prefer reading feeds blog-by-blog, not sorted by date and also want to make sure i'm not missing anything because I scrolled without paying attention.
Alongside Unread, my current choice at the time, I settled on three other contenders:
- Reeder Classicāmy first love, now āclassicā since the new Reeder went timeline-style.
- News ExplorerāAt first glance, itās a powerful app (with features like pre-filtering articles to avoid unwanted contentāgoodbye, bad news!), polished but not as stunning as Reeder.
- lireāA middle ground, it felt like a modern take on Reeder, actively developed, with strong full-text retrieval support.
I also briefly tried the famous, free, and open-source(!) NetNewsWire, but its design didnāt click for me, so I passed on it.
To test them, I exported my feeds from Unread and imported them into each app. First, there was lireāI tried to import the feeds, but it seemed to almost freeze. The import was really slow, and the interface wasnāt responding. I couldnāt even finish the process. Sorry, lireāyouāre out.
Next up: News Explorer. I really wanted to love it, but its endless customization options backfiredāI wanted a relatively simple RSS reader, not something I had to tweak endlessly to feel right. I gave it a few days, but I just couldnāt adjust.
So, back to Reeder Classic? Iāll admit I was a bit worried about its maintenance, given the focus on the new timeline Reeder app, but if it works, it works. I started using it again, and the polished interface and design felt amazing. Iāve been on it for a few weeks with just one issue. But itās a big one.
The sync speed. Oh boy, itās slow. I use iCloud for syncing across all these appsāI see no reason to pay for an external service. Iām not sure if Reeder itself or iCloud was the bottleneck, but it was painful (and a quick search showed Iām not alone in this frustration). I told myself it was fine, that Iād adapt, but today I admitted itās not enough. Iād open the app and wait a minute or two for my feeds to load. Thatās not the experience I want.
Back to the drawing boardāI revisited News Explorer and lire. News Explorer felt the same, but lire? Something had changedāmaybe a bug fix?ābecause syncing was now blazing fast, and I finally got to explore its interface. Itās well-designed, and I loved features like Calm Feeds (for low-frequency-posting feeds) and author categorization. It offers enough customization (switching fonts!) without overwhelming me. For now, it looks like Iāll stick with lire (until the next adventure).