u/Old_Foundation4446

For the past couple of years, I’ve been building an app called Petal Feed. On the surface it’s an RSS reader, but over time it grew into something more. Today it brings together RSS, Reddit, Bluesky, and Mastodon in one native app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac because that’s how I naturally consume information. To me, they’re all simply different ways people publish things worth reading.

The reason I started building it is a little different than most. I’m blind, I have cerebral palsy, and I rely on VoiceOver every day. I was constantly moving between apps that all worked differently, had different navigation models, and often treated accessibility as an afterthought. Every unnecessary gesture, every unlabeled control, and every awkward workflow added friction to something I do for hours every day.

Eventually I stopped looking for the perfect reader and decided to build it myself.

What surprised me during the process was that designing around accessibility didn’t make Petal Feed into an app only for people with disabilities. It pushed me to make every interaction simpler, faster, and more intentional. The result is an app that I believe is just a better reading experience for everyone, whether you use VoiceOver or never turn on an accessibility feature in your life.

Petal Feed lets you keep RSS feeds, Reddit, Bluesky, and Mastodon together in one place instead of scattering your reading across multiple apps. It automatically detects duplicate stories that appear in several RSS feeds, includes AI powered summaries when you want to get through a lot of content quickly, and is designed to stay out of your way so you can spend your time reading instead of navigating.

I’m not posting this because I think I’ve built the perfect reader. There are already a lot of excellent RSS apps out there, and I’ve learned something from many of them. I’m posting because I genuinely want feedback from people who read a lot. If you use RSS every day, what frustrates you about your current reader? What feature have you always wished someone would build?

If you’re interested in trying Petal Feed, I’d love to hear what you think, whether that’s praise, criticism, or ideas for making it better. Some of the best features in the app today came directly from conversations with users, and I’m always looking for the next great idea.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been building an app called Petal Feed. On the surface it’s an RSS reader, but over time it grew into something more. Today it brings together RSS, Reddit, Bluesky, and Mastodon in one native app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac because that’s how I naturally consume information. To me, they’re all simply different ways people publish things worth reading.

The reason I started building it is a little different than most. I’m blind, I have cerebral palsy, and I rely on VoiceOver every day. I was constantly moving between apps that all worked differently, had different navigation models, and often treated accessibility as an afterthought. Every unnecessary gesture, every unlabeled control, and every awkward workflow added friction to something I do for hours every day.

Eventually I stopped looking for the perfect reader and decided to build it myself.

What surprised me during the process was that designing around accessibility didn’t make Petal Feed into an app only for people with disabilities. It pushed me to make every interaction simpler, faster, and more intentional. The result is an app that I believe is just a better reading experience for everyone, whether you use VoiceOver or never turn on an accessibility feature in your life.

Petal Feed lets you keep RSS feeds, Reddit, Bluesky, and Mastodon together in one place instead of scattering your reading across multiple apps. It automatically detects duplicate stories that appear in several RSS feeds, includes AI powered summaries when you want to get through a lot of content quickly, and is designed to stay out of your way so you can spend your time reading instead of navigating.

I’m not posting this because I think I’ve built the perfect reader. There are already a lot of excellent RSS apps out there, and I’ve learned something from many of them. I’m posting because I genuinely want feedback from people who read a lot. If you use RSS every day, what frustrates you about your current reader? What feature have you always wished someone would build?

If you’re interested in trying Petal Feed, I’d love to hear what you think, whether that’s praise, criticism, or ideas for making it better. Some of the best features in the app today came directly from conversations with users, and I’m always looking for the next great idea.