Stop using Feedly: I found 2 better RSS readers on Android

In my house, it plays out almost every morning. Eggs for breakfast, followed by a pot of coffee that goes straight into an insulated Fellow Carter mug so I can savor it forever. Meanwhile, I studied.

It used to be everywhere. I called it a multi-faceted study. News websites, Threads, YouTube, Mastodon, Google News—you name it. But I soon got tired of all the noise. Keep scrolling, jump through sources, avoid pop-up ads. The coffee was ready, but I was none the wiser. So, I’m back to RSS again, as I’ve been doing for over a decade.

Every morning, I take the light and reliable Pixel 9a to work (it doesn’t have a SIM card in it, so there’s no problem). In my search for the perfect RSS setup, I searched the Play Store a lot and found two minimal RSS readers that do the job – neither of which is named Feedly.

I’ve been using RSS for about half of my life on this planet. I survived the end of Google Reader and moved many services along with my trusty OPML file (the file that stores all the RSS subscription links, in a 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’ll keep coming back to it because I’m in control of my channel. I read independent blogs, major publications, and dedicated tech sites like Android Authority every day. I hit the sources and this is what I see.

And if you know where to look, you’ll find RSS feeds everywhere. I follow people’s Bluesky and Mastodon accounts via RSS, I keep tabs on YouTube pages, and for a while I even tried subreddits via RSS (it was so messy, but I had to give it a go). The thing is, you can create your own RSS feed. You can use a sync service if you want, or just keep updating and moving one true OPML file like I did.

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

But these days, Feedly is more of a content platform than an RSS reader. The app starts me off with a curated list of the day’s top events, rather than a real timeline feed (hidden in the sidebar). There are instructions that encourage you to upgrade and, of course, integrate the AI. In my testing, Feedly’s free plan does not automatically display a full-text view for condensed feeds. The app itself, while nice to use, looks outdated and isn’t as customizable as I’d like.

So what’s the alternative? Most days I go along Read you. It’s a free, open-source RSS reader with a minimal design based on the Material Design language. It looks beautiful with beautiful icons and airy interface with big themes. Plus, it supports Android’s dynamic colors, so when I change the wallpaper (which happens often), the Read You accent color automatically adjusts, which is a nice little touch.

I will be back for the learning experience. It’s the closest you can get to a paperback book without having to switch to an e-ink display. There is no chrome around the toolbar and buttons and they disappear when I scroll. It’s just text and a few pictures.

The reading interface is also customizable (I default to unread articles at startup). If you come from the iPhone world, you can switch to the Reeder theme (although I personally think the Material You theme is better). You can switch to another font or upload your own font file. You can customize the font size, text spacing and even padding if you want. For morning reading, the OLED black theme goes a long way (combined well with the Pixel’s advanced dark theme). For channels that display abbreviated articles, there is an automatic analysis of the full text of the website (hidden behind the gesture of long clicking on the name of the site).

Most of all, I feel at home when I use Read You. All RSS features work as you’d expect. I can get notifications of new articles, turn off badges entirely, organize channels into folders, and listen to articles if I want.

Although I use Read You every day with no problems, it’s still pre-1.0 and the roadmap shows why. Read You doesn’t have a widget that I really like, so Feedly syncing is still in the future. You can sync using Fever, Google Reader API or FreshRSS. Or, like me, import your OPML file.

Of the two apps, FeedFlow is the one I use less, but I would recommend to most Android users. It is available Play Store (With F-Droid) and unlike Read You, it’s a mature, stable RSS reader available on Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, and Mac. You can import your own OPML file or connect to services like FreshRSS, Miniflux, Feedbin, and BazQux. You can also manage synchronization between devices yourself using iCloud (Apple devices only), Dropbox or Google Drive.

While Read strives for a light and instant look, FeedFlow has a utilitarian aesthetic. The text-only layout options paired with the gorgeous OLED black theme go a long way to making morning reading sessions easier on my eyes. By default, FeedFlow pulls all website content and displays all articles in a cached reader view. If you disable this feature Parameters > study order, it will open the article in the browser. This means you will have the best learning experience without any changes.

Along with the black theme, this is the widget I use the most. An entire page on my Pixel Launcher home screen is dedicated to this scrollable widget. Every 30 minutes the widget will be updated with the latest articles (as long as background synchronization is enabled in the settings). I miss you so much in Reading You.

FeedFlow has a hidden feature that tells you that the developer himself is a prolific RSS reader. By using the blocked words feature, you can automatically hide articles with words you don’t want to see. Like the mute feature on social media platforms, but for websites. Very useful if you don’t want another Elon Musk update at 7:30 in the morning.

I look at Reading You, but use both

I use both RSS readers throughout the day, but my favorite option remains Read You. There is something about the learning experience that calls to me. When I want to quickly check the news, I prefer the FeedFlow widget and the slightly faster, text-only interface that I set up in the app. With the Read widget, you’ll probably change the scales in the future, but for now, I’m happy with my customizable, minimal news reading experience that’s completely under my control.