Openvibe, known for letting users follow multiple decentralized social platforms like Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, and Nostr in one place, has rolled out a major update: support for RSS feeds. This addition means users can now track updates from their favorite news outlets, blogs, and other websites without leaving the app.
RSS — short for Really Simple Syndication — is an open web standard that allows people to subscribe to automatic updates from websites. By integrating this technology, Openvibe is transforming from a purely social aggregator into a broader hub for information, eliminating the need to juggle between multiple apps, browsers, and dedicated news readers.
This move places Openvibe in more direct competition with other aggregation tools that merge social and news content. Rivals in this space include Tapestry, built by the team behind the well-known Twitter client Twitterrific; Feeeed, which combines RSS with social account tracking; and Surf, a new browser-meets-social-app from Flipboard’s creators.
According to CEO Matej Svancer, adding RSS was always part of Openvibe’s long-term plan, but user demand pushed the team to make it a priority sooner. To get started, users can manually add RSS links, pick from curated recommendations within the app, or import an OPML file from another reader. Over time, the company plans to introduce a “leaderboard” of the most-followed feeds to help users discover trending sources.
Once subscribed, RSS updates can appear either in the main combined feed, a separate RSS-only feed, or even in a user-customized feed. For those who prefer distraction-free reading, Openvibe opens articles in a clean in-app view, though there’s an option to load them in an external browser instead.
While RSS can also deliver updates from podcasts and YouTube channels, Svancer notes that Openvibe isn’t focused on optimizing for those formats just yet, as they require different handling for the best user experience.
To help improve performance, the app also offers a “Performance Mode” that disables image loading in previews, saving both bandwidth and battery.
Before launch, the new feature was tested with a small group of around 100 users, who collectively added more than 4,000 feeds. The updated Openvibe app is now available for both iOS and Android and remains free for the time being. However, a subscription plan is expected in the future.
The company is backed by investors including Czech Founders VC, Tensor Ventures, and Automattic — the parent company of WordPress.com, Tumblr, and other well-known platforms.
