Terry Godier
A new version of Current is rolling out now for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
The headline change here is that Feedly is now supported as a sync provider. Here’s the story of how that happened.
This has been, by far, the most requested feature since the app debuted back in February. I’m relieved that I can now offer it.
I had originally reached out to Feedly during the development period, well before the app was announced publicly. It’s clear that they’re one of the largest, perhaps the largest RSS aggregator/service.
But they’re also the only one who didn’t respond to my (numerous) requests for integration. As it turns out, they had closed their third party API to new apps some years ago, effectively grandfathering in a handful of RSS readers.
I was finally able to get a response from them after having numerous Current users (or would-be users) reach out to support to ask about getting an integration.
Their response, in full:
Hi Terry,
Thanks for reaching out about Current - it sounds like a great project! I appreciate you doing your homework on the integration options. I need to give you some disappointing news: Feedly isn’t currently onboarding new third-party sync partnerships, and the developer API situation has changed significantly from when apps like Reeder and NetNewsWire set up their integrations. Here’s what happened: The legacy developer API that those existing apps used has been retired. API access is now only available through our Enterprise plans (starting around $1,600/month), but that’s designed for companies using the API for their own internal purposes - not for third-party app integrations like what you’re describing. About existing integrations (Reeder, NetNewsWire, etc.): Those apps were set up under specific partnership arrangements that were established years ago when Feedly had an active third-party developer program. Those partnerships are grandfathered in, but we’re not currently expanding to new sync integrations. Why this is confusing: You’re absolutely right that the docs don’t make this clear - they’re legacy documentation from when the developer program was active. The fact that other apps still work makes it look like there’s an obvious path forward, but unfortunately that pathway is currently closed for new integrations. Your options: Alternative sync backends: You might need to focus on other sync options (iCloud, self-hosted solutions, etc.) for Current’s initial launch. I’m really sorry this isn’t the answer you were hoping for. If you’d like me to escalate your inquiry to the partnerships team, I’m happy to do that - just let me know a bit more about Current (user base size, timeline, App Store presence) and I’ll forward it along. Would that be helpful? 😊
This felt to me a lot like I’d be paying thousands per month if I wanted to integrate Feedly with Current. That’s not sustainable for me as Current is a one-time purchase, and the fact is that I’m not making any payments whatsoever to any other RSS sync provider. All have been happy relationships and easy to work with.
So, I started telling folks, naw, sorry, Feedly won’t be coming to Current.
And then a couple of days later, I get an email from an engineer at Feedly who was able to get Current added to the legacy program. I’m not sharing the contents of that email here, but this person has been fantastic to work with, and very thorough and technical, in the way that I (a fellow longtime engineer) can appreciate.
So, finally, Current has Feedly integration.
In addition, here’s the full changelog for v1.0.15
- Significant performance updates across the board
- Feedly is now available
- Most feeds that don’t work are blocking us with Cloudflare, so now we provide that detail when adding a feed, rather than “no feed found” (and are still working on being allow-listed w/ them)
- A11y Scrub has been extended and is now fully implemented
- Fixed an issue where linkblogs (daring fireball, etc) sometimes link to themselves and get suppressed.
- Adjust the feed picker to disambiguate each feed when a source has multiple.
- Blackholed a handful of “helper cards” that were indeed not helpful.
- Fixed an issue where if you don’t launch the app on the 2nd device within 7 days you could end up with orphaned stories that don’t expire.
- Fixed an issue where the source list could fall out of sync between two devices related to above.
- Fixed an issue where offline requests may clog up the queue once you go back online.
- Adjusted the reading time insights to account for when you leave an article open in a pane (iPad primarily) and aren’t actually reading.
- Fixed an issue where “Auto advance after release” would get reset by the cloud.
- Over 30(!) small visual and interaction fixes across macOS, iPadOS and iOS.
- Over 50(!) source fixes for parsing and identifying feeds.
