Why rely on the feeds built into your favorite websites and social media apps when you can create a custom one that combines them all? I like to read online using RSS services like Feedly and Inoreader for a true newspaper vibe. But as great as RSS is, it only works for articles. And like it or not, so much of our current discourse happens across multiple platforms, like YouTube, Reddit, Threads, and Substack newsletters. To keep up with everything, everywhere, you need something beyond RSS.

This is exactly why I’m so glad I found the Feeeed app (yes, with four “e”s), which is available on Apple platforms like iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with native design elements and a snappy interface. It’s a passion project from Nate Parrott, a designer for The Browser Company, who makes the Arc browser. Arc is known for its thoughtful design, and the Feeeed app brings that same design magic to your news feed. The app is free, gets regular updates, and Nate has even added quick AI summaries to articles.

In my experience, it takes time to build your own news feed in Feeeed, but it’s worth it in the end. When you first use the app, it offers to set up basic settings for you, but I recommend going the manual route. Like in RSS apps, the Subscribe screen has pre-populated feeds from various popular publications, and you can also search for and add any RSS feed (you can also import all your feeds with an OPML file).

But things get more interesting when you head over to YouTube and Reddit. Open the YouTube menu and you can search for and subscribe to any channel to add it to your feed. For Reddit, all you have to do is type in the name of the subreddit and the app will show you new posts out of the blue. With the demise of proper third-party Reddit apps, this can be a good way to keep up with certain subreddits without getting sucked into Reddit entirely. The same trick also works for Tumblr blogs, Substack posts, and TikTok creators. There’s also support for following Mastodon accounts, and it works for any Fediverse account, including Threads. Unfortunately, you have to search for each account you want to follow by its exact username. I wish Feeeed would add an auto-import option.