Hi!
As you probably know Google reader will shut down on July 1. You may wonder what this has to do with WP, since it is a Google product? Well, many RSS readers on Windows Phone rely on that service to provide the RSS feeds, and they will stop to work. For example Fuse an Feed Reader. Fortunately there are some good options now.
There are two main categories of RSS readers available, once that sync with a server, and stand-alone clients. I (and probably most of you too) prefer the once that sync with a server because I get the same feeds on all devices. That is good because if I add a new feed it will add that feed to all of my devices, and when I read a article it will be marked as read on all of my devices. That's why I will focus most on these readers in this post, and not as much on the stand-alone clients.
There are two big services that syncs your feeds with a server: Feedly and Newsblur. Unfortunately none of them have official apps for WP or Win8, but fortunately there are unofficial apps for both. They also have the ability to import your feeds from GR if you sign up before GR close.
Feedly
Feedly is a great free service for syncing your feeds. They have a great web version at www.cloud.feedly.com. They are also working on a official app for both WP8 and Win8:smile:
It requires a Google account to sign up.
Right now I think that it one app that syncs with Feedly, and that's Nextgen. It is available for both WP8, WP7 and Win8. There are both a free version and a paid version for all platforms. The free app lacks some functionality. I have tried the free version of the app for WP7 and Win8. It is a really good app with very many settings, Live Tile and Lock screen support (Not WP7 version). The only downside that I can see with Feedly is that you need a Google account to sign in.
EDIT: Flux is now updated with Feedly support. It is free right now, but I think it will get a price with a free trial soon, so grab it right now if you want it. It has almost everything that Nextgen has, but a little bit different UI. I think you should try them both and see witch one you like best.
Newsblur
Newsblur is also a good service, but it's not completely free. You can only have 64 feeds in the free version. That's enough for most people, including me, but if you want the full version its just $2 per month, so its not so much. It also has a great web version at www.newsblur.com.
It's more apps available that uses Newsblur than it is using Feedly. For WP we have Metroblur (Free, only WP8), Swift Reader (Paid with free trial), feed me (Paid with free trial), NewsSpot (Paid with free trial) and BlurryNews (Free, only WP8). I have tried the free version of all of the available once for WP7. All of them is ad-supported and some features are missing from the paid versions. The only one I didn't like was Swift Reader. The UI was not so good and the font was too small. you could make it bigger, bit it still wasn't big enough even though I don't normally have problems with that. Feed me and NewsSpot are pretty similar. They both have a great UI and good Live Tiles. I prefer NewsSpot though, because I feel like it is just a bit quicker.
When we get to Win8 it's not as good, we only have two apps and only one of them are working and that one is not so good, but it's better than the web page if you are using touch. The one that doesn't work is named Feed Reader (can't find a link to it...). I mailed the dev and he said that he had been blacklisted from Newsblur, and when he had fixed the things they asked about they didn't fix it
The one that works is Tafiti. Like I said it's not so good. The UI is not so good, it's pretty buggy and it doesn't have a live tile, but it is still a little bit better then the web page if you use touch.
So, the downsides with Newsblur is that it's not completely free, and there is no good Win8 app.
Stand-alone clients
Unfortunately I couldn't find any good stand-alone client, but I don't recommend using them either, because it's just so much better to use a sync-service and both Feedly and Newsblur works really well. EDIT: If you still want a stand-alone client Weave seems to bee a good option (for a source, see bellow). It is available for free with ads and paid without ads and it's for both WP7
and 8.
Right now I am using Newsblur with NewsSpot and Tafiti because the lack of a WP7 app for Feedly, otherwise I actually like Feedly better. EDIT: Now I am using Feedly and Nextgen instead because I think that works better. I am also trying out Flux now, and I will see witch one I like best :smile:
Hope this helps someone, and pleas post a reply if you have any other good options, suggestions or feedback on any RSS reader and I will update my post! :grin:
As you probably know Google reader will shut down on July 1. You may wonder what this has to do with WP, since it is a Google product? Well, many RSS readers on Windows Phone rely on that service to provide the RSS feeds, and they will stop to work. For example Fuse an Feed Reader. Fortunately there are some good options now.
There are two main categories of RSS readers available, once that sync with a server, and stand-alone clients. I (and probably most of you too) prefer the once that sync with a server because I get the same feeds on all devices. That is good because if I add a new feed it will add that feed to all of my devices, and when I read a article it will be marked as read on all of my devices. That's why I will focus most on these readers in this post, and not as much on the stand-alone clients.
There are two big services that syncs your feeds with a server: Feedly and Newsblur. Unfortunately none of them have official apps for WP or Win8, but fortunately there are unofficial apps for both. They also have the ability to import your feeds from GR if you sign up before GR close.
Feedly
Feedly is a great free service for syncing your feeds. They have a great web version at www.cloud.feedly.com. They are also working on a official app for both WP8 and Win8:smile:
It requires a Google account to sign up.
Right now I think that it one app that syncs with Feedly, and that's Nextgen. It is available for both WP8, WP7 and Win8. There are both a free version and a paid version for all platforms. The free app lacks some functionality. I have tried the free version of the app for WP7 and Win8. It is a really good app with very many settings, Live Tile and Lock screen support (Not WP7 version). The only downside that I can see with Feedly is that you need a Google account to sign in.
EDIT: Flux is now updated with Feedly support. It is free right now, but I think it will get a price with a free trial soon, so grab it right now if you want it. It has almost everything that Nextgen has, but a little bit different UI. I think you should try them both and see witch one you like best.
Newsblur
Newsblur is also a good service, but it's not completely free. You can only have 64 feeds in the free version. That's enough for most people, including me, but if you want the full version its just $2 per month, so its not so much. It also has a great web version at www.newsblur.com.
It's more apps available that uses Newsblur than it is using Feedly. For WP we have Metroblur (Free, only WP8), Swift Reader (Paid with free trial), feed me (Paid with free trial), NewsSpot (Paid with free trial) and BlurryNews (Free, only WP8). I have tried the free version of all of the available once for WP7. All of them is ad-supported and some features are missing from the paid versions. The only one I didn't like was Swift Reader. The UI was not so good and the font was too small. you could make it bigger, bit it still wasn't big enough even though I don't normally have problems with that. Feed me and NewsSpot are pretty similar. They both have a great UI and good Live Tiles. I prefer NewsSpot though, because I feel like it is just a bit quicker.
When we get to Win8 it's not as good, we only have two apps and only one of them are working and that one is not so good, but it's better than the web page if you are using touch. The one that doesn't work is named Feed Reader (can't find a link to it...). I mailed the dev and he said that he had been blacklisted from Newsblur, and when he had fixed the things they asked about they didn't fix it
The one that works is Tafiti. Like I said it's not so good. The UI is not so good, it's pretty buggy and it doesn't have a live tile, but it is still a little bit better then the web page if you use touch.So, the downsides with Newsblur is that it's not completely free, and there is no good Win8 app.
Stand-alone clients
Unfortunately I couldn't find any good stand-alone client, but I don't recommend using them either, because it's just so much better to use a sync-service and both Feedly and Newsblur works really well. EDIT: If you still want a stand-alone client Weave seems to bee a good option (for a source, see bellow). It is available for free with ads and paid without ads and it's for both WP7
and 8.
Right now I am using Newsblur with NewsSpot and Tafiti because the lack of a WP7 app for Feedly, otherwise I actually like Feedly better. EDIT: Now I am using Feedly and Nextgen instead because I think that works better. I am also trying out Flux now, and I will see witch one I like best :smile:
Hope this helps someone, and pleas post a reply if you have any other good options, suggestions or feedback on any RSS reader and I will update my post! :grin:
Last edited:
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