I've been using Miniflux for a couple years now, per the recommendation of one of my favorite bloggers, Kev Quirk, and I genuinely thought I'd keep using it until the end of time. It's the perfect minimal, and (accurately) self-proclaimed "opinionated" RSS reader. It only costs a few bucks per year to host yourself, or you can subscribe directly on Miniflux's own instance for $15 a year. It's one of those things that "just works."

But holy shit we need to talk about Skyreader.app.

It came out of nowhere for me; I wouldn't even know it existed if I didn't see some random skeet about it on Bluesky, which I've totally lost by now and can't remember who posted it in the first place. But I'm here now and this is the most excited I've been about a web app in a long time.

Aside from the obvious things like being your standard newsreader that can import your feeds via OPML and pull the full text of (most) sites you're subscribed to, it has a wealth of other cool features.

Like a built-in link blog you can directly share posts to — right from the article list. It features a little re-blog button that, by default, pushes your link and whatever commentary you want to add directly to a Standard Site publication that gets created for you when you set up an account. You can also point it to your Leaflet publication instead, which sounds perfect for my blog here, but it really works better as its own thing. Mostly because it would create an entire post for every little link I want to share, instead of appending them to a draft that I can later edit and publish as more of a compilation post like I usually do.

The link blog is by far my favorite part, and to be completely honest, it might play a role in shifting this blog away from link posts. I'm thinking I'll start using text-based media for more occasional essay-style stuff. Having a link blog built into my RSS app eliminates virtually all of the friction of posting to a normal blog every day, and I really like that.

There are also some really good discovery features here, too — both for users themselves and all the different publications they might be hosting across the Atmosphere.

There are well thought out, fully functional bookmarklets that work on desktop, Android and iOS browsers. You can subscribe to any webpage with a feed and also save stories to Skyreader right from the share sheet.

It has integration with Semble and Margin for bookmarks, but for the sake of simplicity I just use the stock bookmarking feature.

Another thing I'm really liking about Skyreader is how it implements "Channels." This is huge for me — it's one of the main features I've always wanted in an RSS reader but can rarely find: dynamically generated categories based on different conditions. You can generate a channel for longreads, low frequency posts you don't wanna miss, categories for existing folders in your feeds, social feeds that filter everything written by people you're following in the Atmosphere... so many possibilities.

Out of everything being built on ATProto — hell, out of everything being built on the web, this is my absolute favorite right now and I feel like it has more potential to catch on than any new project I've come across in months.

Maybe I'm blowing it out of proportion or simply having a manic spell, or maybe I'm just being overly optimistic, but this thing has so much goddamn potential. I truly hope it gets a massive user base and sticks around for years to come.

If you're an RSS nerd who doesn't need a native mobile app for your feeds, I promise you this is worth checking out. It's just as opinionated as Miniflux, albeit in different ways, but it's also just as polished with the right amount of functional minimalism. There is a subscription fee if you need over 100 feeds, but it's on par with the pricing you'd expect for a good RSS app; it's $7 a month or $60 a year.

There's so much cool shit being built on ATProto right now I'm always a little worried I'm putting all my eggs in one basket, you know? Instead of using one thing for social media, another thing for RSS, something else to host my blog, a bookmarking service, etc., there are so many viable options, all in the Atmosphere. I hope this place is truly in it for the long haul ❤️

If you wanna follow my link blog on Skyreader, you can find it at linkblogs.skyreader.app/moldyringwald.bsky.social