Downread Blog

If you log in today, you will notice that Downread's Homepage has been completely overhauled. On a desktop, it looks like this:

And this is the mobile layout:

The new layout probably reminds you of podcast apps, and this is no coincidence. I am trying to move away from long texts on the homepage that hardly anyone reads, and replace them with an intuitive design that can get you reading instantly: click on one of the tiles, and you're immediately in the reader. No need to follow the feed anymore, no preview button, just jump right in.

This is what it looks like for a new user:

Again, not a lot of text, no onboarding process. Just a UI that feels natural to anyone who has ever used a podcast player or an ebook.

Add Feed

The Add Feed page also got a redesign. While it also uses tiles for the most popular feeds, its main features remain search and the feed catalog. The feed catalog has a new icon design, and like the homepage, viewing a feed means diving right in. No more preview popups with limited text.

The only thing that has not been touched yet is the search. This is planned for the next major UI update.

Usually, I only write here for major new features. This month, however, I've mostly been working on fixing bugs and improving things under the hood. But there were still some visible improvements worth sharing. Here are some of the more notable ones.

Feed catalog

RSS feeds contain a wide variety of content: from collections of links to full articles, book chapters, podcasts, and video feeds. It can be hard to know what you're getting into before you subscribe.

The feed catalog now shows a badge indicating what to expect. Downread analyzes feed content by examining text length and checking for images, videos, or audio. Based on this analysis, it displays a badge that gives you a preview of the feed's format.

Large Undo button when marking as read

When you mark a feed or folder as read, the Undo button was either missing or hidden in the toolbar. Now, a large, hard-to-miss button appears to let you undo the action.

Improved rendering of complex feeds

A lot of work has gone into rendering complex feeds—one of the most underappreciated improvements this month. Tables are now analyzed and rendered appropriately based on their content and layout.

Downread now also supports basic Tailwind styles and layouts, along with custom styles for complex feeds. I'll dive deeper into this in an upcoming post.

The Downread Beta is now officially open to everyone! And not only that. The blog you are reading is public. The first version of the website is public. And Downread itself is free, forever, for everyone who signs up in the foreseeable future.

Now you can skip a feed to jump right to the next one. The new button replaces the old 'keep all' button that required you to click on 'Next Feed' to get to the next.

The new solution is faster, and I think also more intuitive.

Downread just got support for reading folders. If you open a folder, there is a 'Read all' entry beneath it if there is more than one unread feed in the folder. On desktops, you can also click on the small newspaper icon next to the folder name, but it's hidden on mobile.

Unread folders can also be shown instead of individual feeds on the home page. Click on the Show Folders/Show Feeds badge in the header to switch.