Goodbye, Feedly
I have been using Feedly for a long time to keep up with various RSS feeds. I tell myself I started using it around the time Google closed Google Reader, but can it really be 9 years? I guess so. In any case, I am done with Feedly.
Feedly is getting worse. I started using it because of its simplicity and minimalism. I could follow RSS feeds in my browser. Nothing more, nothing less. Over the years, Feedly has introduced a series of new features that I am not interested in. The challenge for Feedly is that there is not a lot of money in providing an RSS reader, and for that reason they introduce more and more non-RSS related services on top of the relatively simple product.
I did not mind this situation. It was relatively easy to ignore new features. My problem is that it has now reached a point where I can no longer follow the RSS feeds I want to follow. For example, I recently wanted to add an RSS feed for a Reddit user, but it was not possible in Feedly. In order to do so, I had to connect to Reddit with my Reddit user, i.e., allow Feedly to access my data. No way, no thanks.
I have done everything I could to turn off features that I do not need, but this is still relatively cluttered. I do not need to access Leo, Feedly’s AI engine. I do not need to UPGRADE to ‘Pro’. I do not need two separate vertical menus.
