Reeder‪.‬ 17+

First of all I need to say that I have bought every single version of this app and I’m more than happy being a loyal customer. I could pay even more for a tool that makes my day better.

However this is a version I can’t support (yet). And there two main reasons why.

1. I *need* to see what’s read and what’s not. With numbers. The pattern “there are x unread items” works extremely well and it must not change. In fact not know how many things are unread brings me an internal chaos I just can’t handle.

2. There is a reason why we tend to divide things into categories. For example my feeds under the category “Design” are completely different than the feeds under the category “Personal Growth”. Not having the ability to create categories in this version makes me even more uncomfortable.

There are also a few other things I don’t like e.g. settings regarding the typography but this app is always beautiful and well designed so I don’t care that much.

I love new features such as Video & Audio (You know why? Because they bring order to the chaos around us.). They work great, they look great, they are great.

The Saved area can become valuable too. I can see the potential.

I do care about this app and I want to see it thrive. That’s why I decided to write such an extensive review. Thanks for listening to me.

I’ve got a great deal of respect for Silvio Rizzi; He’s made what is probably the best RSS reader of all time: Reeder Classic. While I was excited for the new Reeder I’m struggling to find a proper use for it. I love the one place for all your feeds concept but in this early form I don’t think it’s there yet. I’ll start with the good: I like how video and audio is handled; (Though I’d like the ability to provide a like to YouTube videos). I understand the intended the flexibility and the expansion of the star concept to later/like/bookmark, I can see how that would be flexible, and of course the reading position across platforms is awesome (though it strangely doesn’t work for me). So while I’d love Reeder to become the one place for all my feeds I just can’t see it happen just right now. My key concerns are:
1. The lack of a read status is troublesome. I need to tell if I’ve actually previously seen something. I can simulate this with tags, but that’s clunky. I also need a clean slate, and a sense closure that the current app doesn’t seem to provide. All I see is several lists of endless “stuff”. (see the next point)
2. The categories and tags, while powerful, don’t convince me that Reeder won’t become a morass of “stuff” that takes time and effort to sift through. I don’t know how well search works, and while I could establish an elaborate tagging regime I want Reeder to simplify my life, not add to its complexity. The lack of item counts is good, but is Reeder a collection of things or a way of viewing what’s new? In reader Classic you had a very clear understanding of what’s new and what’s not; I lack that here. And I don’t think Reeder is currently well suited to be a kind of archive/log of all seen items.
3. The list of supported platforms needs to improve. I understand this is probably coming but for now I only find use for links, RSS feeds, podcasts and YouTube. This is true for me and the vast majority of people I know.

I have every faith that the app will develop over time and new features will be added. But while Reeder Classic feels like it’s protecting me from the firehose of online information, helping me spend _less_ time online, the new Reeder doesn’t have that quality as of yet.