Getting Started with Feed Readers
What's a Feed Reader, why use one?
Feed Reader apps let you subscribe directly to websites, not to their social media accounts, not to their email newsletters, but to their websites.
You're in control of your feed, and publishers don't have to cater to a platform's algorithm or content guidelines. And nobody's tracking you.
There are many different feed reader apps and all of them work with all websites that provide feeds, so you can pick whichever app you want. You can export and import your subscription/feed list, so it's easy to switch to a new app later.
Remember: You learned how to use the internet, email, smart phones, microsoft word, and so many other things that have enhanced your life. Email made it easier to send documents to your coworkers and friends, and now it's second nature. Feeds make it much easier to access written news, in exactly the way you choose.
Setup your first website subscription
Do your first subscription to learn how it works, then you can add other feeds later as you please.
- Download a Feed Reader App
- In your mobile browser, visit NPR.org or AllSides.
- Go to a category page you're interested in, like "National" news on NPR. (The home pages also work)
- 'Share' the page from your browser's menu, and choose your Feed Reader app.
- Select one of the feeds listed.
- Add a tag to stay organized, like 'News' or 'US News', and click 'ok'. Don't worry about any extra settings right now
Good work! You've added your first feed. Now go open the feed reader app, and read an article or two!
There's still a little bit of a learning curve to get comfortable with everything. Just learn a little at a time. You'll figure out how you want to use feeds as you get more comfortable with it. You can play with settings later. You can try different feed reader apps later.
Tip: If a page does not have a feed, put openrss.org/ in front of the url. For example, APNews's feeds are broken, so for the health page (https://apnews.com/health), change it into openrss.org/https://apnews.com/health.
Suggested Feeds / Outlets
- GovTrack.us News - Legislative summaries
- AllSides Unbiased Feed - Overview of hot national stories with summaries of reporting from various outlets.
- Your local news outlets - They might not have feeds, but you should check!
- NPR for your state - State NPR websites should have their own feeds.
- U.S. Congress Bills - If you visit an individual bill on GovTrack, there is a button to "Track" the bill. At the bottom of the popup is an 'RSS' link you can use to subscribe to updates about a particular bill.
Pro Tips
Add your first feed, and try reading news in the feed reader before you get onto anything extra. Don't overload yourself on day 1.
- Mark EVERYTHING as 'read' so that you know how many actually new articles there are. There should be a menu option to mark all as read. Don't try to read the backlog. Just keep moving forward. It's okay to take a week off from the news, or two, or three.
- Set your reader app to update once a day, while your phone is plugged in AND connected to wifi. Disable notifcations. My feeds update while I sleep, and I check them when I feel like it.
- DO NOT try to read everything. If you're not using a feed, delete it. If you don't like an outlet, remove it. You want this to be a sustainable way to consume news of your choice. Learn to say "no" to headlines/stories that you don't really need to know about.
- If you see
RSS, they're talking about feeds. Websites are HTML. Feeds are RSS. - Most blogs support feeds. Use Feed Reader apps for fun stuff too!
- If a website does not have a feed, just put
openrss.org/in front of the URL, and Open RSS will try to generate a feed for that site. - Search "Feed Reader" or "RSS" on any app store to choose from apps you like (iPhone, Android, Chrome or Firefox extensions, Windows Store, Linux app stores, etc). Feed Readers are available on every platform.
- You can copy+paste urls into the 'Add Feed' menu on your feed reader app instead of using the 'share' feature. Sharing is easier usually.
- YouTube Channels support RSS. Ex: visit TLDR News's Channel and 'Share' it with your feed reader app.
- I have different tags/categories for 'Woodworking', 'Trackmania', and 'Rocket League' YouTubers. This is the best way I've found to follow a bunch of different creators. I don't keep up with all of them, but when I want Trackmania content, and I forgot what creators I like, I go check Feeder.
- Most of the time, if a website has feeds, you just share the home page and/or category pages with your feed reader app to access the feed(s). SOMETIMES, you have to hunt them down.
- For example, Steam supports feeds, but you have to hunt them down by visiting a game's news page, then clicking the 'Links' dropdown, choosing 'RSS', THEN sharing with your app. It's a pain & Steam should do better.
- If you are a publisher or want to advocate for better feed reader support, see What Good Feed Reader Support looks like, and my subscription page for an example.
Once you get comfortable with feeds, please advocate for your local government offices to publish feeds for you. Journalists will use them, and you can too!