It's been a couple of days now since the official launch of the new Reeder app for iOS and macOS. But actually my very first impressions were not at all different from the opinions I have about this app now. It's really hard for me to say when I loved a new app like that right from the beginning. The new Reeder app is exactly how I work and think in terms of news feeds of all sorts all across the internet. The app is glorious, capable, flawless and incredibly beautiful. It's been definitely the right move of the swiss developer Silvio Rizzi to go that route.

But let's start at the beginning. The new Reeder app follows the already highly praised ancestor Reeder 5, an app that is still around under the new name Reeder Classic and will continue to get updated alongside the new app. The new Reeder app is not just a RSS client app, it can also fetch your social media feeds (Mastodon, Bluesky, Micro.blog) as well as your podcast feeds and your YouTube channels. Also Flickr and Glass are supported, as well as some feeds for comic books. So the app positions itself right at the center of all the media you consume while browsing the internet. It's your central inbox, your central hub for all news. Of course the new Reeder app doens't want to replace dedicated apps that you already use like your Mastodon client or your podcast player but honestly looking at how polished and well integrated all these new features are, it easily could. Especially the new podcast player is really remarkable, actually almost too good for an all purpose inbox. Variable playback speeds, chapter support and syncing your playback position all across your devices are just some of its awesome new features.

Screenshot and logo of the new Reeder app

I understand reviews that don't like the new direction the new Reeder app is going here. I guess for people in the news industry that heavily rely on RSS syncing services, on automation and just getting things done within an ever growing inbox maybe the new Reeder app is too general, too broad. But especially this new focus feels very appealing to me. I don't earn my money scanning and browsing hundreds of news feeds everyday. On a regular basis I maybe focus on roughly 20 RSS feeds plus a handful of YouTube channels, some Substack subscriptions and also a handful of preselected podcasts that I sync and read or listen to with the new Reeder app. I'm still in the process of figuring out how much information is digestable for me that way.

The best new behaviour for me is the new Home Feed that includes all the news from all sources in just one unified chronological timeline. The behaviour of this timeline is like the ones you are already familiar with when browsing your social media feeds. In Reeder you scroll from bottom to top, your reading postion is always in sync all across your devices. So you can stop reading at any point and continue at another time on another device right at the same spot. Also there's no feed count anymore, it's just a constant flux of news in a very beautiful and calm environment.

This completely flawless sync is achieved by using iCloud as a backend. As a consequence all the old syncing services like Feedly, Inoreader or Readwise Reader are no longer supported. As I said before this might be a bummer or even a dealbreaker for some, but it's not for me. For me I'm very relieved that I don't need to think about or hassle with these additional services that usually demand monthly or yearly subscription fees as well. The solution to fully rely on iCloud feels very elegant and even superior to me. In my testings syncing was always super reliable and stable. The old Reeder 5, now Reeder Classic., was already experimenting with a feature like that but compared to the new implementation in the new Reeder app the experience feels just rudimentary.

So if you are like me, a casual reader who tries to stay informed, with just a few dozens of feeds, I think the new Reeder is a must have. There's nothing comparable out there, nothing as beautiful, nothing as seamless, nothing as uncomplicated. In many ways this app is designed to take friction away and highten your experience of today's internet. Something a simple ad blocker never could achieve. It stands in the tradition of apps like the free feeeed app (with four "e") which try to achieve a similar goal and use a similar approach. But none of these apps feels as polished and as streamlined as the new Reeder app.

Also in terms of pricing the new Reeder app enters new territory. The old fixed pricing is gone. A new subscription model takes over which is 1 USD per month or 10 USD per year. Compared to other apps which raised their prices and fees 2x, 3x, 5x or even 10x, and that's every year, this approach here sounds at least doable. It seems fair for both the developer and the users. I guess the quality of an app is also graspable in the way the developers ask for money. And in this case I actually feel like my money is well spent and well deserved. So I take the pill of a subscription model and just hope that this actually doesn't halt development but in contrast even supports it. For example the implementation of folders is planned for a new release in the near future. Also some customization options for the look and feel of the reader mode would be appreciated. Currently shortcut support is still missing and there are no widgets whatsoever. Also there seem to be no AI features like automated summaries or transcripts. That said, if you don't want to get yourself into another subscription immediately the new Reeder app is free for 10 RSS feeds but there's no additional support for media feeds and no OPML import.

If you're currently unhappy with your RSS solutions or feel overwhelmed because just too much stuff is floating around in your inboxes and feeds, give the new Reeder app by Silvio Rizzi a try. It's a swiss army knife for news, made in Switzerland. I'm sure you won't regret it.