Blaugust 2022 – Trying Newsflow – Windows RSS Feed Reader
Posted on August 26, 2022 by Aywren
I’ve used some form of RSS feed reader for many, many years now. It’s how I keep up with all the sites and blogs I follow. Most recently, I’ve also been following YouTube and Reddit channels via feed reader as well.
I’ve had to move from several feed readers over the years, so I’m never really set on just one. I started to migrate a number of blogs I followed to WordPress for a time. But now that I’m not really looking to support WordPress, I was back to Inoreader, which works just fine for what I need it to do.
However, there is a limit on how many feeds you can subscribe to as a free user, and I have to use a blocker to block ads on it. So while it’s good, it’s not perfect.
Last week, I discovered Newsflow by complete accident.
It’s one of those “Windows Apps” that you can get for free in the Windows store. I’ve never fully been convinced of the whole apps idea within Windows, but it installed just fine and I’ve been using it well enough.
I did have to manually move over the feeds I wanted to add to my reader as there was no way that I could see to export/import from Inoreader. Looks like there’s some kind of Feedly add-on though.
So how has it been working?
Well enough for a feed reader – it does its job. It has a few more clicks to open something in a web browser than I’m used.
Aside from that, I had to disable the notifications – while they were helpful sometimes, Windows notifications are just too bulky in general. Popping up and consuming the whole bottom right corner of my screen when I’m trying game was a quick way to get turned off.
I do like that I can customize things about individual feeds such as how often the reader attempts to sync. So, for sites I know that don’t update often, or for sites that DO update a lot, I could scale back how many times a day the reader pulls in new articles.
I also like that it works with Reddit and YouTube.
I don’t see any limitations on how many feeds I can add to it – like there were in free browser feed readers. There might be, but I haven’t discovered it if so.
For now, I don’t see why I wouldn’t keep using it. Just thought I’d pass it along to any Windows users who might be looking into a new type of feed reader.