*Sigh*. Anyone got recommendations for good Android-centric RSS aggregators?

[jducoeur]

Once again, I am reminded that Google's throw-apps-at-the-wall approach leads to good applications that they then kill off. The latest victim, according to the news reports, is Google Reader, which I've been using for many years as my main way of following news online. Of course, like many Google apps, it's never had a business plan, and they appear to have finally realized that.

Okay -- anybody got recommendations? In a perfect world, I'd prefer something with the same level of capability as Google Reader, capable of both browser-based and phone-based reading, although the Android side is much more important. It's crucial for it to be able to manage multiple reading lists, so I can keep my "critical technical reading" and "random fun stuff" lists separate. Being able to import reading lists from Google Reader would be nice. A good UI on Android is essential. And, I should note, costing a little money is entirely acceptable: this incident reminds me once again of why I don't trust "free" apps. The Internet did not do away with the basic principle of TANSTAAFL.

Opinions solicited: I haven't even looked at this space in years. Wouldn't surprise me if something better has arisen in that time; certainly I hope so...

Comments

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

I've been testing out Feedly, it seems to be working pretty well. I have the ability to keep all my feeds in separate folders (it imports from google reader, and claims it has a plan to be google free when they turn it off) It still allows for keyboard navigation and the android app works really well on my Nexus 7.

The biggest drawbacks seem to be that it doesn't connect natively to Pocket, it requires a browser add on (A problem if you are on a network that doesn't allow installing anything) and it isn't entirely intuitive, but they did make a guide, which I highly recommend, for switching from google reader to feedly.

I'm trying to give some of the others a try as well, but they keep crumbling under the increased load (which is understandable)

[laurion]

One article I read uses ifttt to go straight from feed to Pocket.

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

yeah, I set that up, I haven't really had a chance to see how well it works. There's also a send to pocket button, but what it does is open the article in another tab and then it clicks send to pocket, so it works, but it clutters up my tabs.

[mneme]

Ug. Reader is going? That's...bad. I'll have to be researching this as well; I've been using greader since livejournal syndication became unreliable -- the ability to synch between work and home is crucial here.

[keshwyn]

I use feedr, but it's only android, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a backend when reader goes... :-(

[mneme]

I'm thinking my ideal is not "free" or "paid" but "I can host it where I'm already hosting webstuff" -- eg, "paranoid".

As such, a google for open source rss readers does come up with some things that look good. Tiny RSS looks solid, for starters.

[laurion]

Fever looks good if you are willing to pay, and follow the 'river of news' model of RSS consumption. Tiny Tiny RSS is a solid choice, but I'm also looking at selfoss as a strong contender in this space.

[mneme]

Hmm. Selfoss seems more mature/polished and to have less stringent requirements (doesn't say anything about requiring a dedicated webhost, much smaller list of needed modules). Thanks for the rec.

[laurion]

So far the big alternatives are feedly and newsblur, although I'm looking at a pair of 'run on your own website' options. None of them support mobile apps (although some of them have mobile interfaces or their own mobile apps), but the developer of Reeder, the number on RSS app on iPhone and iPad (which I use) which uses GReader as the backend has stated that he's working out a way for the apps to keep working even when GReader goes away, so I'm somewhat waiting to see what that option is. There is also the ability to use ifttt to harvest RSS feeds and drop them into an article reader like Readability or Instapaper, which may be the most interesting and ultimately useful workaround.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

I think you'll be really interested in this post that not only reviews the current alternatives but talks about why it's going to be hard to build anything just like it.

[aishabintjamil.livejournal.com]

I haven't looked at android-specific options, so this is more of a general comment. You might want to wait a week or three before testing out alternatives. Right now most of the web or cloud-based options that have been rated highly are choking and dieing under the sudden influx of customers. I signed onto theoldreader.com, which looks good from what I've seen, but right now feeds are essentially down, and their status page says they've had their user base increase by a factor of 7 in the past 24 hours, and they're trying to catch up on capacity to meet the sudden demand. Others seem to be in similar situations.

[jducoeur]

Makes sense, and I'm not in a *tearing* hurry. This is more about finding the best long-term solution than quickly finding something NowNowNow...

[asim.livejournal.com]

As someone who wants the unread counts pretty badly, and would prefer to not be locked into one client/set of solutions, Digg's announced interest in cloning the API, as well as this attempt (http://blog.superfeedr.com/google-reader-compatible-api/), seem most appropriate for me.