A brand new app known as Tapestry promising to unify social media, information, and RSS in a single place, is nearing completion. Designed by Iconfactory, the identical staff that created the third-party Twitter consumer Twitterific again within the day, Tapestry was unveiled at first of the yr as a device that might higher set up as we speak’s fragmented on-line media, permitting customers to trace their favourite blogs, information websites, and social networks from a single app. This week, the corporate introduced an replace on Tapestry’s progress, saying that it deliberate to formally launch the app to the general public in “early 2025.”
“Obviously the earlier the higher, however there’s nonetheless some necessary work to be executed and bugs to be squashed,” the replace on the undertaking’s Patreon web page famous.
Instead of elevating from exterior traders, Iconfactory has been crowdfunding Tapestry’s improvement. To date, over 3360 backers pledged north of $177,800 to convey the app to life.
The app will enchantment to people who find themselves bored with attempting to maintain up with a number of websites, blogs, and social media companies by consistently opening new browser tabs and switching apps. It additionally capitalizes customers being pissed off that there at the moment are too many Twitter clones.
Following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, now known as X, there was an explosion of curiosity in new Twitter-like companies, together with apps like Mastodon and Bluesky, constructed on open protocols, and Meta’s Threads, which is working to combine with ActivityPub, the identical protocol powering Mastodon. (Other smaller apps like T2/Pebble, Post, and Cohost, have since shut down.)
As a results of these experiments in a extra open social net, there’s potential for brand spanking new person experiences designed to browse these totally different companies, app builders imagine.
Just this week Flipboard launched its personal tackle what a browser for the open net ought to appear to be, with the launch of an app known as Surf that permits you to observe RSS, Bluesky, and Mastodon content material in a single app.
It’s not the one firm eager about this.
Besides Iconfactory, the developer behind the favored Mac and iOS newsreader Reeder, Silvio Rizzi, reinvented his app to develop past RSS to incorporate help for different social companies, like Mastodon, Bluesky, YouTube, Reddit, and others. Another indie app known as Feeeed additionally expanded this yr to permit customers to trace RSS, newsletters, Mastodon, Tumblr, Reddit, and others. And this week, Feeeed added help for Bluesky, too. Plus, an app known as Openvibe allows you to browse Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads in a single place.
Despite their comparable premises, every app gives a special person interface and expertise. While Reeder nonetheless look and feels very similar to an RSS reader, others appear extra like social experiences of their very own.
Tapestry is fascinating because it tries to straddle each worlds, permitting customers to trace their favourite web sites and blogs, and even import RSS feeds en masse by way of an OPML file, whereas additionally connecting to a wide range of social sources. Today, the beta model of the app helps Mastodon and Bluesky, in addition to webcomics, social apps like Reddit, Tumblr, and YouTube in addition to sources for climate and earthquake alerts — occasions X remains to be usually used to trace.
However, Tapestry isn’t nearly cramming all the things into one interface. Its actual energy lies in permitting folks to create their very own customized feeds (or “timelines”) the place they’ll choose and select which sources — like social websites, web sites, blogs, podcasts and extra — are included. You may also use instruments like “mute” and “muffle,” borrowed from Twitterific, to configure whether or not or not posts with sure key phrases are blocked totally or collapsed (muffled) when proven.
There are quite a few different customization instruments that can enchantment to energy customers who wish to construct feeds, too.
However, one level of confusion with the present construct is that Tapestry separates sources (like RSS feeds or social apps) into two sections known as “feeds” and “connectors” — the previous to fill your timeline with content material and the latter to create different feeds to populate your timeline. Some companies, like Mastodon and Bluesky, can seem in each sections in case you add them. We’d choose a mixed part simply known as “sources.”
Still, it’s simple to see the way you would possibly use Tapestry to maintain up with a number of social companies alongside breaking information and new posts out of your favourite sources, as an alternative choice to searching X.
Iconfactory hasn’t but shared a precise launch date for Tapestry, however the app will generate income by means of month-to-month and annual subscriptions.
