I have a bigger challenge: build an email (IMAP!) client like Current! Haha. All of the things he describes in the landing page are things I want from email. ![]()
Challenge accepted ![]()
We’re 2 days in, give me a little time!
Marking things from point of discovery is wrong and that’s a bug and I’ll get that fixed. Which sync service are you using, local? Also, is your UI / UX (re: NNW) feedback for desktop? Ought to try ipad or iphone ![]()
One feature that I’m prototyping is a transient / temporary river where you can collect things that only stay for that session. It feels pretty nice!
Cool! I’ve only tried Current on iPad so far, with local sync. Most of my NNW usage is on iPad as well.
If I’m struggling to read everything in my RSS reader, I’ve added too many feeds. Or the wrong ones. The same approach I used with Twitter. (I was a completionist.)
Good to see new ideas in (very) old categories, but I sometimes wonder if people don’t create problems for themselves.
Glad I moved to self-hosted Miniflux (from Feedly Pro Lifetime):
Those Feedly Pro Lifetime accounts are worth a lot of money. I was a free user when they launched and I have more feed limits than the new users. I do wish I bought lifetime when they were selling for $99.
Feedly are going towards enterprise hard. I use them currently but I am also looking for alternatives.
Back to the app, I bought it to support the developer but unlike a lot of people, I prefer the email layout of the RSS apps.
I started using Current about two weeks ago.
My experience: the website is beautiful, the presentation there is top-notch. The iPhone app is looking similar to the website. The iPad version is okay. The Mac version is… confusing to me. And not nice: Key presses sometimes do not do anything on the Mac (Current is current (1.0.6), all updates are installed
). Sometimes it helps to click into the article window in order to make ‘j’, ‘k’, ‘r’ and whatnot do their thing. Unfortunately, this does make the navigation using keys not very useful.
“River” as a default view is nice when I am okay with having Current taking over for me. I am still not sure if I like the behavior of stuff fading in and out automatically. It is an interesting concept. Then again, there is “Sift Mode” which equals a more classical reading interface like in Reeder Classic (still the reader I like the most).
I like the UI. I am impressed by the number of updates since it launched. I am confident that the app will mature more and more. ![]()
P.S. Regarding services like Feedly. If you can, just use a self hosted software.
I am using FreshRSS.
You peak my interest, which service did you move from?
I use Reeder today, the new, and what I like is that it captures more than just news/blog rss. Combining YouTube, Bluesky and Mastodon in the same app is nice.
Well, I started with Google Reader. They started to neglect and finally kill their reader. I switched to Feed Wrangler (hosted, not free), also not very alive these days. From there, I switched to Fever (paid for it, self-hosted). I gave Feedly (free version) a short try and finally (a few years ago) I discovered FreshRSS. I am a happy FreshRSS user on an instance that is running on my web server. That is the backend history of the last 20 years. ![]()
Regarding RSS apps: I have always been and still am using Reeder Classic. The new Reeder is not for me. What you are describing as “nice” is not for me.
But, I get that we all have different preferences. Apart from Reeder Classic, I have been trying almost every other app out there, especially because I am not sure if Reeder Classic really will be around in the long run. Yes, I know, but I doubt it. Reeder Classic’s UI and its design are perfect for me. Current is the first reader that looks promising to me when it comes to design. Its concept is - like I said - interesting, but I am not 100% there (yet).
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I think Unread is the alternative I might go to, if Classic stops working.
(The free tier seems to be much more generous than in the past under a previous owner?)
I tried Current and after a couple of days I felt… incomplete. The idea appealed but the actuality didn’t match. I felt like I was missing something.
I’m a long time RSS user (more than 20 years at this point). I can’t remember all of the reader apps I’ve used over that time, but post GoogleReader’s termination, I used Mr Reader with _DavidSmith’s feedwranger as the back end for a while and then moved on to Reeder with iCloud sync’d status. I’m still on Reeder Classic and only on my MBA, it used to be only on iPad.
I don’t want a social feed like using Tapestry (which I backed), or sadly like Current (Which I bought).
I add feeds I want to read into reeder, and add them into a Folder so that they’re grouped with similar feeds.
I open Reeder once a day and skim everything, reading the articles I want to or saving them to read later. Before I close Reeder, all are stories are marked read. this is helped because as I use the arrow keys to scroll through the stories in each folder they are marked as read (or if I actually read them).
I don’t have an unread count badge on. it’s all on my terms. I go to Reeder when I want to, um, read.
@metroid I don’t know why Current didn’t stick. I loved your blog post explaining your thinking and the app seems lovingly crafted (which tends to be the case when someone uses what they’ve built) and I wish you the best of luck for the future with it.
Edited I just remembered something else I loved on Google Reader that no-one else seems to have added that work reliably.
Search Folders.
This allowed me to highlight content I am very likely to want to read, and to also setup Search folders for content I’m highly unlikely to want to read. The first allows me to pay more attention to the content, then to skim the second set quite quickly before marking all in it as read. I could then spend some time looking at anything left.
This is everything I need from an RSS reader. Everything I have ever needed. Beyond that, it has to be easy to use and look nice.
Thank you for trying it
you’re absolutely right, I do use it. Many times a day.
I appreciate you buying it but honestly you are likely still within your return period and if it’s not for you I personally encourage you to file a return and get your $10 back!
Thanks, but it’s fine. I like supporting Independent devs, especially for a one off cost.
I like it when people try to bring a new view on an established idea. I’ll be keeping an eye on Current to see how you do.
I’m interested in this app and definitely want to try!
Wondering if it supports fetching articles behind paywall? I subscribe to Economist and WSJ.
It does! Feel free to let me know if you have any problems ![]()
I hope this isn’t uncouth @metroid. have uptake of Current matched your expectations?
I’m not looking for figures here, I’m genuinely interested to see if I’m in the minority of how people wish to read RSS.
Not uncouth at all - I’ve got no secrets ![]()
It’s hard to say definitively whether MOST people love it or hate it. I don’t have any metrics, the app collects no data, so all I have to work with is the first party analytics that Apple provides for folks who opt-in to sharing data when they set up their device.
My sense is that Current really works well for a good amount of people who end up using it. I’ve seen the reviews around the web and the emails I get and I can see that there are several thousands of people who use the app daily (in those Apple analytics) multiple times across each platform. My churn (users not using it after 28 days or whatever) is very small.
I continue to experiment with it to see if it suits my needs.
I’m usually pretty good about clearing my RSS feeds 2-3 times per day, saving what I want into Goodlinks for a read later. But I’m giving Current a try in parallel to see if I’m still catching the same stories or missing any that are important to me (I read Current first and then follow up with my “normal” workflow to see if I missed anything).