The social app Openvibe is adding a feature that its users have been clamoring for: RSS support. The company said that while RSS was always part of its long-term plan, the feature was so heavily requested by its user base that the team decided to prioritize it and build it sooner. Now, users can pull all their favorite news sites and blogs directly into the app.
Getting started is easy. You can add your favorite feeds one by one, pick from a list of suggested sites, or—for long-time RSS fans—import your entire list from another news reader using an OPML file. Once you’ve added your feeds, you can see all the updates in your main home feed or a separate, dedicated RSS tab. The app even has a clean, distraction-free reading mode so that you can focus on the content without all the clutter.
Openvibe also included a “Performance Mode” that turns off images in the timeline, which is great for saving data or speeding things up. For now, the feature is best for news and blogs. While you can technically add podcasts or YouTube channels, the experience isn’t great yet, as you’ll have to open those links in a separate browser.
The new RSS feature is available now on both iOS and Android. The app itself is currently free to use, but the company plans to introduce a subscription model in the future. Several venture capital firms, including Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and Tumblr back Openvibe.
