Trying Timeline Apps

Last week saw the launch of Tapestry by Icon Factory, and with that, it solidified the term ‘timeline apps’.

Since the release, I have read a few articles about this new style of app, and at first, I sided with many on not really seeing the benefit in their existence. However, over the last 48 hours I have tried a new approach and so far, I think it is working, and it all comes down to how I was using them wrong.
To explain all this we need to set a scene, explain a few things a paint a lovely picture of the internet.

First off, the whole timeline app, what is it?

Fundamentally it is a way to consume content, in a way that we all know; a scrolling feed. Where these differ is that you can subscribe to various sources, and they all appear in one long timeline. Coupled with this, there is now really a concept of read and unread, just a point in a timeline.

For example, you could add an RSS feed along with a podcast, your favourite YouTube channel and a few Bluesy accounts. This results in a continuous timeline of all these items that you can scroll through.
So far, this sounds like a solution solved, no more moving around apps, just one app, one feed, one continuous source of content. But here is the catch, they are not native, so you cannot interact. If you want to reply to that Bluesky message you still need to launch the first party client, something that Federico calls out as the shortcoming of this genre.

Next in our journey is what is it I actually consume on the internet.
Well, I still have a Mastodon account, which I check on a somewhat regular basis. There are many newsletters I have subscribed to over the years, but my main channel is RSS.

I subscribed to my first RSS feed, back when Google Reader was a thing and Jon Hicks had styled it up. Since then, I moved my services around and the reader platform has changed, but I’m still checking in every day.

The longest running variable in that situation is the reader, or I should say Reeder. Silvio Rizzi’s app has been my goto for as long as I care to remember.

My daily routine is nearly set in stone. Around three times a day I check and note any interesting newsletter subscriptions. Then it is over to Reeder to see what is new in the RSS world. Finally, I might check Mastodon, just to catch up on anything I might have missed.
What I have found myself doing is just skimming over pretty much everything. The newsletters get my first bit of energy and then the RSS feeds. However, with over 130 feeds I tend to just ‘J’ my way through everything. Not really evaluating anything, just getting that red bubble down to zero unread. If by then I am on Mastodon, I end up muting more than I read and the whole process feels like I’m not truly consuming, just processing.

With that and the noise around timeline apps, I thought I would look into these again. Yes, I say again as I have tried one already; Silvio’s rather confusingly named ‘Reeder’ app.

Back in early 2024 I managed to get onto the TestFlight of a new version of Reeder, which was my first introduction to timeline apps. I tried it, I added a couple of podcasts and feeds but could never gel with it. My process was ingrained with the unread count, and not having a way to orientate myself on if I had items to read confused me.

12 months later and I tried again, I wanted to find a way to cut through the noise and just find content that I engaged with.

With both versions of Reeder installed; Classic and Timeline, I started a new journey.
I took all 138 feeds from Classic and added them. Then exported all my Overcast subscriptions. YouTube channels I subscribed to were searched for and added. Finally, I logged into Mastodon and added my home timeline.

I’ll be honest, this took a way but way less time for me to see that this did not work. This was not cutting through the noise, this was adding to it. All I had done was create an endless scroll of content that I could not interact with. Any content that I did want to read or comment on required me to go back to the native platform app, where I was once again greeted with another timeline or unread count that added to the anxiety building noise.

This experiment failed, and I was ready to stick to my old ways until I had an idea, one that required a true change in my habits.

So far, I feel in control of my content consumption. There is still the same number of channels and subscriptions, but there is less need to act. If I do want to engage, I need to make a considered action to do so. How has this come about? Rethinking what I really want to engage with.

Generally, my RSS feeds are a mixture of news and blogs. The blogs are from humans that write words that interest me. The news is hopefully still written by humans, but I only would like to keep abreast of these. So I have unsubscribed from all but the most engaging RSS feeds in my reader. These have been added to Reeder.
Likewise, I have added all those podcasts that I might want to listen to and the Mastodon users I can read and forget about to Reeder. Even YouTube got cut in half, I can add a channel that I might one day just want to watch that video, but not today.

All the noise has been added to Reeder, which has cut everything else back. Now my red unread bubble never gets out of control. I route all the newsletters into Reeder Classic along with the human blogs that I know I will want to take the time to read. Which leaves me with the Reeder, the timeline version, to have my endless scroll that I can quite happily flick through. There is no requirement to read it all, completionists be gone.

If there is something that catches my attention, I just bookmark it within Reeder and through the magic of the shared lists I can populate it back into Reeder Classic.
Again, if I really do want to reply to that person on Mastodon, I have to make the conscious decision to open Ivory and do so. Or generally, I just view the comment thread and move along as the urge to voice fades. It was never that important anyway.

So far, everything feels much more tidy and mindful. My lists are smaller and my time optimised. Best of all, I’m consuming that content I want to engage with a skimming the noise.