I’ve used Feedly for a decade, but these 2 minimal Android apps finally replaced it

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Almost every morning plays out the same in my home. Eggs for breakfast, and then a pour-over coffee that goes straight into the insulated Fellow Carter mug so I can stretch the flavors out for eternity. And while doing that, I read.

It used to be all over the place. I called it multi-pronged research. News websites, Threads, YouTube, Mastodon, Google News —you name it. But I soon got tired of all the noise. The incessant scrolling, jumping through sources, avoiding pop-up ads. The coffee was done, but I was none the wiser. So yet again, I went back to RSS, just as I’ve done for over a decade now.

Every morning, I pick up my lightweight and trusty Pixel 9a for the job (it doesn’t have my SIM in it, so no disturbances). In my search for the perfect RSS setup, I looked way beyond the Play Store and found two minimal RSS readers that do the job — and neither of them is called Feedly.

I’ve been using RSS for almost half of my existence on this planet. I survived the end of Google Reader and moved through many services with my trusty OPML file in tow (the file that stores all my RSS subscription links, in the folder structure that I like). I’ve tried so many services and apps that my OPML file is more important than any RSS sync service.

I keep coming back to it because of the sheer control I have over my feed. I read independent blogs, large publications, and dedicated tech sites like Android Authority daily. I punch in the sources, and that’s all I see.

And if you know where to look, you’ll find RSS sources everywhere. I follow people’s Bluesky and Mastodon accounts via RSS, keep tabs on YouTube pages, and for a while I even tried using subreddits via RSS (though it got so chaotic I had to let it go). The point is, you can make RSS your own. You can use a sync service if you want, or, like me, keep updating and moving the one true OPML file.

After the untimely demise of Google Reader, Feedly emerged as a spiritual successor. I’ve used it many times over the past decade, and even now my Feedly sources are up to date. If you have never used an RSS service before, Feedly is a good place to start.