OpenVibe, an app that allows you to follow open social networks such as BlueSky, Mastodon, Threads, and Nostr in one place, has expanded its capabilities so you can now follow your favorite news sites and blogs. To that end, startups are adding support for RSS (aka very simple syndication or news feed), an open standard that allows you to subscribe to automatic updates from websites such as new articles and blog posts.
This addition makes OpenVibe more convenient to keep up with your interests and other important information without switching between multiple newsreaders, websites, or social networking apps.
This new feature also places OpenVibe in a more direct competition with other social media and content aggregators who track updates from across the open web. These competitors include Tapestry, the new app from the company that built the popular Twitter client once known as Twitterific. An RSS reader that supports tracking social profiles on Feeeed, Mastodon, YouTube and other platforms. New open social apps and browsers from the manufacturers of surfing, flip boards.
Image credit: OpenVibe
OpenVibe CEO Matej Svancer says RSS support has always been part of the app's long-term roadmap since its launch last year. However, the feature was frequently requested by the user base, so the team prioritized its development, he says.
To use this feature, you can either add RSS sources one by one, check out the app's proposed site and “follow” what you want to track, or choose to import the entire OPML file from another newsreader. After more people adopt RSS, OpenVibe introduces a leaderboard that shows the most added feeds that will help direct users to common sources.
Once added, you can track RSS updates in the app's composite home feed with a dedicated “RSS” feed, or add RSS feeds to your own custom feed.
RSS can also be used to track podcasts and YouTube channels, but OpenVibe is not focusing on these formats yet, Svancer tells TechCrunch. Today, it may be technically possible to add them to your app, but it will not offer a great user experience unless you need to open each item in your browser.
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Image credit: OpenVibe
However, when you use news or blogs, OpenVibe opens content directly within the app using a clean, distracting reading mode. If you want to access a website in your browser, you can change this setting.
Additionally, the app provides a “performance mode” toggle, turning off image loading in the timeline preview, further reducing the resource-intensiveness of the feature.
The company tested its RSS feature prior to its launch, with over 100 people adding a total of over 4,000 feeds added.
RSS support is now available on OpenVibe's iOS and Android apps. The app itself is currently free to download without in-app purchases, but the company plans to introduce subscription offerings in the future.
The startup is currently supported by small amounts of funding from Czech founders VC, tensorventure and Automattic.