Feeeed is a reader app that does more than just track RSS feeds

Over the past 12 months, reader apps have used artificial intelligence to change the way users consume news. The Instagram co-founder’s now-defunct Artifact introduced artificial intelligence-powered snippets and captions. Newer apps like Bulletin and Particle, by former Twitter engineers, have taken a similar approach. However, developer Nate Parrott’s app Feeeed (it’s four E’s), available for iPhone and iPad, is more focused on creating an algorithmic timeline to combine disparate sources.

the app

Like any reader application, Feeeed allows you to add RSS feeds to your timeline. But there are a range of other options, such as newsletters, YouTube channels, Hacker News, reddits, Mastodon profiles, Tumblr blogs, and Twitter accounts. You can also add birthdays, weather (US only), step count, photo flashbacks, personal reminders and flashbacks. The most unique integration is the way you track a portion of a web page.

Image Source: TechCrunch screenshot

Home page shows a combination of posts from the sources you follow. By default, these posts appear in card format and are not arranged in chronological order. Unlike other RSS readers, it has no read count as the idea is to discover content rather than having readers reach “inbox zero”. But if you want to keep up with the latest posts, you can pin the “Latest” tab to the bottom bar. Alternatively, you can change the feed ranking from Best to Chronological.

Image Source: TechCrunch screenshot

The main feed is empty until you start following sources in places like the Subscribe and Explore tabs. For better discovery, Parrott last year added occasional source suggestions and an AI-powered bot to the app. The bot can make suggestions for queries such as “What blogs or newsletters talk about football (soccer)?”

construction fee

Parrott told TechCrunch via email that the process of building the app began during the pandemic, when people had a strong urge to keep scrolling. He built something for himself using different sources.

“The urge to take out the phone flick It’s just that strong. I’ve tried numerous times to log out of various social media apps but never succeeded, so I thought: Why not embrace the urge to scroll and redirect it to something valuable? I wanted to provide myself with a news source on my own terms,” ​​he said.

“The whole idea Give yourself a news feed on your own terms I think that’s still the key to understanding the app. You select important content and Feeeed will remind you. You can choose icons, tabs, algorithms, layouts. “

Image Source: TechCrunch screenshot

Parrott said he didn’t build a recommendation engine in the first place. However, after launching the app in 2022, he realized that content discovery was a top user need.

“I think the idea of ​​a scrollable, infinite feed is very powerful. It’s habit-forming. You can look at it as a bad thing, or you can look at it as the reality of our relationship with technology and say, ‘Hey, if I’m scrolling through my feed while I’m waiting for the train, so can I at least be reminded that I should text my friend on his birthday?” he said.

What’s coming?

While there is room for AI-led implementation in the field, Parrott isn’t convinced that using the technology will get more news to people faster. Instead, he wants to explore ways to get people to follow more sources, including podcasts, local news and niche websites.

Feeeed is currently testing a feature that displays daily updates generated by artificial intelligence. In addition, Parrott also works on feed and notification customization.

Image Source: Nate Parrott

Parrott noted that in the long term, he hopes to help people discover personalized content without having to do too much.

“Feeeed’s big challenge is giving people a very personal feed without asking them to do too much work. Apple News is popular because it requires zero work to set up,” the developer said.