Social media is undergoing a mass realignment. Millions have ditched platforms owned by tech giants but haven’t exactly landed in the same place. Also, the very idea of what qualifies as a social network is in flux – it’s more than ‘chatting with friends’ and now includes comment-rich communities built around shared interests.
This round-up aims to make sense of it all, with apps that let you engage with multiple networks from a single hub, along with other news and media sources, rather than bouncing between a dozen apps to keep up. But first, a couple of caveats. These apps are mostly read-only; to reply or post, you’ll still need native apps or a browser. And even if you can pull entire social media feeds into an app, that doesn’t mean you should. Curation is your friend unless you enjoy drowning in updates.
Reeder (free or $10/£10 per year)
The original Reeder, a pure RSS app, is now Reeder Classic. This successor is a different beast – a streamlined hub for all your reading and more, encompassing social feeds, news outlets, podcasts, videos, or web pages sent to the app from Safari.
It looks good, albeit animation heavy – and it ignores Reduce Motion. But there’s substance to match the polish, with key features like bookmarking and tagging items for later, swiping to open posts in native apps, and the means to export your data.
The free version limits you to ten feeds, but a subscription unlocks custom timelines with filters – and even the ability to load entire social network feeds (such as everything from your Bluesky account) if you must. (Probably don’t!) Either way, if you want an all-in-one inbox for your social media and reading, Reeder nails it.
Tapestry (free or $20/£20 per year or $80/£80 lifetime)
This app shares Reeder’s broad ambition – one inbox to read them all – but takes a more colorful approach. Created by design luminaries Iconfactory, it’s a visually arresting way to peruse blogs, social media, podcasts, and videos.
Feeds are differentiated by background colors, making individual sources easier to spot. And there are three feed presentation modes: Expanded (full), Collapsed (headlines), and Mini (just feed names – largely redundant). Handily, you can override your default setting on a per-feed basis. Tapestry also makes it easy to view a single source’s timeline, open a post in an app or browser, and mark items for later.
Generously, there’s no feeds limit in the free version, but people who want more control will appreciate what comes with the premium tier: removal of (admittedly unobtrusive) ads, and fine-grained controls for feeds, including colors, custom timelines, and – mercifully – keyword muting.
Feeeed (free)
The oddball of the bunch, Feeeed takes a more personal and yet also editorial approach to feed aggregation. You don’t get entire social graphs, but you can pick individual accounts from the likes of Bluesky, Mastodon, and Tumblr. However, it adds unexpected sources too: Google keywords, random Wikipedia articles, step counts, birthdays from Contacts, and random photos.
The thoughtful approach extends to the app’s design. The main feed almost feels like a smart magazine, with its grouped articles and bold cards. The All tab lets you drill down by topic. And there’s a reading list, which presents articles sent from Safari in a stripped-back, elegant layout.
Feeeed doesn’t replicate your entire social graph, but that’s the point. If you want something refined, precise, and lean-back rather than exhaustive, Feeeed gets the balance right.
NetNewsWire (free)
A longtime favorite of RSS advocates, NetNewsWire can, with a touch of coaxing, moonlight as a social feed consolidator. It lacks native social network integration shortcuts, which means you must copy/paste feed URLs. And with Bluesky, you’ll not be able to view feeds that require you to be signed in, which are supported by other apps in this round-up.
However, if you want a clean, distraction-free reader that blends news and blog articles, links to new podcasts and YouTube videos, and a handful of individual social feeds, NetNewsWire delivers. Much of that is down to how great the design is. The minimal, no-nonsense aesthetic gets out of your way, letting you focus purely on content. It’s fast, efficient, and effective. Just don’t expect too many bells and whistles.
Croissant ($20/£20 per year or $60/£60 lifetime)
Our final entry flips the script: it’s not for reading content across networks but for posting to them – simultaneously. You can broadcast to multiple Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads accounts at once from a clean, beautifully elegant interface.
You get all the expected features: image and video attachment support (with alt text), hashtags, threads, mentions, and content warnings. Although be mindful when cross-posting that they don’t all transfer across platforms cleanly. There’s also an on-screen count that shows how many characters you have remaining for each network. And you can stash ideas as drafts if your miniature missives require more thought.
In all, Croissant is an excellent example of an app that knows what it wants to achieve and executes it perfectly. It’s ideal for power users who are tired of copying and pasting posts to multiple social networks.