RSS is a format that lets a site publish a list of its new articles. You subscribe to the feed address, and new articles arrive in Readine with no algorithm and no recommendations.
A site generates the feed automatically. Everything the site publishes goes into it, usually with a title, a link, a date and the text or a teaser. Sites often mark the address of such a feed with an icon link.
A reading app is a program that regularly checks feed addresses and pulls new articles from them. You do not need to visit every site. Readine checks the sources itself.
How much of the text you get depends on the site. If a site provides only a teaser, the app will show only the teaser. But Readine is designed to fetch the full text from the page itself, so publications arrive complete, with images.
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Source | a site or a channel you follow |
| Feed | the address where the site publishes its list of articles |
| Reading app | an app that checks your feeds and shows new articles |
| Update | the check frequency, configurable |
There is nothing in the feed except the sources you have added. Publications are sorted by date, not by an algorithm. The feed is not endless: you read to the end and close the app.
| Property | How it works |
|---|---|
| Only what you chose | there is nothing in the feed except your sources |
| Recommendations | none, the app does not decide what to show you |
| Read marks | one per article, so you don’t have to remember what you’ve read |
| Favourites, notifications and notes | reading plus the tools to work with what you read |
| Tags | with tags you can find articles on the same topic across different sites |
| The feed is finite | you have read it — and closed the app |
| not needed: nothing lands in your inbox |
Many large sites, blogs and magazines provide a feed. We won’t claim that the app can build a feed from any page.
Some authors grant access only after payment — that is a different mechanism altogether, and Readine has a password-protected feeds module for it.
Q: Is RSS still alive?
A: Yes. The format is old but still handy for people who work with information rather than just scrolling.
Q: How is RSS different from social networks?
A: RSS has no built-in social interactions and no recommendations: you manage your own subscriptions and your own attention, and you depend less on the algorithm and the platform’s rules.
Q: Do I need an account?
A: Not for the feed itself, no. Readine needs an account to sync between devices, because it is a cloud app.
Q: Is this free?
A: In Readine, 3 feeds are free with no time limit. Beyond that, the subscription is a set of modules. You choose only what you specifically need and pay only for that.
3 feeds are free, with no time limit and no ads. Beyond that, you pay only for what you need.
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