A new app called Tapestry promising to unify social media, news, and RSS in a single region, is nearing finishing touch. Designed by using Iconfactory, the identical crew that created the third-party Twitter client Twitterific lower back inside the day, Tapestry turned into unveiled at the start of the 12 months as a device that could better prepare today’s fragmented on line media, allowing users to tune their favorite blogs, news websites, and social networks from a single app. This week, the company introduced an replace on Tapestry’s development, pronouncing that it planned to formally release the app to the general public in “early 2025.”
“Obviously the earlier the better, however there’s nonetheless some crucial paintings to be performed and insects to be squashed,” the update on the assignment’s Patreon web page mentioned.
Instead of raising from outside 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 appeal to those who are bored with seeking to preserve up with a couple of web sites, blogs, and social media services by using continuously opening new browser tabs and switching apps. It additionally capitalizes customers being frustrated that there are now too many Twitter clones.
Following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, now known as X, there was an explosion of hobby in new Twitter-like services, along with apps like Mastodon and Bluesky, built on open protocols, and Meta’s Threads, that’s operating to integrate with ActivityPub, the equal protocol powering Mastodon. (Other smaller apps like T2/Pebble, Post, and Cohost, have seeing that close down.)
As a end result of those experiments in a extra open social net, there’s ability for brand spanking new consumer experiences designed to browse those distinctive offerings, app developers consider.
Just this week Flipboard launched its very own tackle what a browser for the open web should look like, with the launch of an app known as Surf that lets you music RSS, Bluesky, and Mastodon content in a single app.
It’s not the only company considering this.
Besides Iconfactory, the developer behind the popular Mac and iOS newsreader Reeder, Silvio Rizzi, reinvented his app to make bigger past RSS to encompass assist for other social services, like Mastodon, Bluesky, YouTube, Reddit, and others. Another indie app known as Feeeed also increased this yr to allow customers to track RSS, newsletters, Mastodon, Tumblr, Reddit, and others. And this week, Feeeed delivered support for Bluesky, too. Plus, an app referred to as Openvibe helps you to browse Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads in one region.
Despite their similar premises, each app gives a distinctive consumer interface and revel in. While Reeder still appearance and feels similar to an RSS reader, others seem more like social reports of their very own.
Tapestry is exciting because it tries to straddle each worlds, allowing customers to music their favourite web sites and blogs, or even import RSS feeds en masse via an OPML report, even as additionally connecting to quite a few social assets. Today, the beta version of the app supports Mastodon and Bluesky, in addition to webcomics, social apps like Reddit, Tumblr, and YouTube in addition to resources for climate and earthquake signals — activities X is still often used to track.
However, Tapestry isn’t pretty much cramming the whole lot into one interface. Its real energy lies in allowing people to create their personal custom feeds (or “timelines”) in which they can choose and select which assets — like social websites, web sites, blogs, podcasts and greater — are protected. You can also use tools like “mute” and “muffle,” borrowed from Twitterific, to configure whether or not or no longer posts with positive key phrases are blocked totally or collapsed (muffled) while shown.
There are some of other customization tools on the way to attraction to electricity customers who like to construct feeds, too.
However, one point of bewilderment with the present day build is that Tapestry separates sources (like RSS feeds or social apps) into sections called “feeds” and “connectors” — the previous to fill your timeline with content and the latter to create other feeds to populate your timeline. Some services, like Mastodon and Bluesky, can seem in both sections if you add them. We’d pick a blended section just known as “assets.”
Still, it’s easy to see how you would possibly use Tapestry to hold up with multiple social offerings along breaking information and new posts out of your favorite sources, as an opportunity to surfing X.
Iconfactory hasn’t but shared an precise launch date for Tapestry, but the app will generate revenue via manner of month-to-month and annual subscriptions.