The folks astatine Iconfactory, which erstwhile made a awesome Twitter customer called Twitterrific, launched a caller app connected Tuesday. It’s called Tapestry, and it’s a transverse betwixt a societal app and a news reader. The app tin ingest feeds of each kinds: someone’s Bluesky posts, your favourite YouTube creator’s videos, a blog’s caller posts, each your go-to podcasts. You adhd the feeds, and Tapestry shows them to you successful chronological order. No recommendations, nary algorithms, conscionable what Iconfactory calls a “personal, unified timeline” of contented you attraction about.
Tapestry has a bunch of clever ways to select your content, too. You tin prime keywords to “Muffle,” which will make their introduction successful Tapestry overmuch smaller, aliases you tin shut up them and region them from your timeline entirely. You tin hunt crossed each your feeds astatine once, too, and create timelines wrong your timeline — I group 1 up for my podcast feeds, for instance, and now Tapestry is simply a passable podcast player. Tapestry syncs some your contented and your spot successful the timeline crossed devices, and it gives you tons of power complete really things look.
I’ve been utilizing Tapestry successful beta for a while, and I rather for illustration the app. It’s reasonably basal truthful far, though, and a batch of the champion customization features are locked down a $2 monthly aliases $20 yearly subscription. But Iconfactory’s colorful artistic is each complete this app, and there’s a batch of Twitterrific creation DNA successful Tapestry.
What I for illustration moreover more, though, is the thought down Tapestry. There’s really a full genre of apps for illustration this one, which I’ve taken to calling “timeline apps.” So far, successful summation to Tapestry, there’s Reeder, Unread, Feeeed, Surf, and a fewer others. They each person somewhat different interface and characteristic ideas, but they each person the aforesaid basal premise: that beautiful overmuch everything connected the net is conscionable feeds. And that you mightiness want a amended spot to publication them.
Timeline apps are benignant of a belief successor to RSS readers for illustration Google Reader and Feedly
Timeline apps are benignant of a belief successor to RSS readers for illustration Google Reader and Feedly. (Some of them, for illustration Reeder and Unread, are conscionable updated versions of longtime RSS readers.) Years ago, RSS readers were designed to thief you support each your blogs and websites successful order, backmost erstwhile maintaining your blogroll was a batch of work. Now the occupation is vastly much difficult. You’re pursuing creators connected TikTok and Instagram and YouTube, keeping up pinch your favourite memes connected Tumblr and each the news connected Bluesky, refreshing your favourite subreddits complete and complete each day, and checking your favourite news sites a fewer times, too. None of these platforms interoperate because their business incentives are to make your life miserable, but erstwhile you boil each those things down, they’re conscionable feeds of content.
You can’t quite replace your full net beingness pinch a timeline app because truthful overmuch of each of our net beingness is interactive. You tin publication Bluesky posts successful a timeline app, but you can’t for illustration aliases reply; you tin watch a YouTube video, but you can’t wade into the comments. Maybe you’ll beryllium capable to someday — open, federated societal networks make that interoperation possible, which is why I deliberation Surf, which lets you for illustration and reply and remark successful summation to conscionable reading, is specified a cool and eager idea.
Even successful the worst cases, though, I for illustration timeline apps arsenic shortcuts; it’s really overmuch faster to unfastened Tapestry and find the latest MKBHD video than to unfastened YouTube, pat connected Subscriptions, and sidescroll until I spot the logo.
In Reeder and different timeline apps, you tin adhd almost immoderate type of provender you tin deliberation of.
The biggest situation for timeline apps is that they are fundamentally required to beryllium each things to each people. A awesome timeline app has to connection a top-notch reference acquisition 1 swipe distant from a full-featured podcast level and 1 much swipe distant from a beautiful video player. So far, Reeder is the app I’ve tried that does this the champion — it lets you select by contented type aliases by source, tin play almost thing successful line, and is conscionable really bully to look at. Even it has a agelong measurement to go, though, and astir of these different apps are moreover further behind.
These apps tin besides return immoderate getting utilized to. If you’re coming from an RSS reader, wherever everything has the aforesaid format — headline, image, intro, nexus — a timeline app will look hopelessly chaotic. If you’re coming from social, wherever everything moves impossibly accelerated and there’s much to spot each clip you propulsion to refresh, the timeline you curate is guaranteed to consciousness boring by comparison.
But I fishy timeline apps are precisely the point we request for the net we person now. Maybe someday we’ll get afloat interoperable everything and life will beryllium magical. Until then, there’s thing powerful successful taking each your favourite worldly — and I really urge picking only your favourite worldly — and putting it into 1 place. Build a timeline you tin decorativeness each day, possibly moreover each clip you unfastened the app. Scroll only what you’ve chosen to scroll. And past adjacent the app, assured successful the truth that you’ve seen the worldly you cared about, and spell do thing else. There’ll beryllium much to drawback up connected adjacent time.