Current is a new RSS reader that’s more like a river than an inbox
Source: TechCrunch
Current – A New Take on RSS Reading
A new app called Current is rethinking the RSS reader, aiming to offer a reading experience that feels more like dipping into a stream of news and less like a task to be completed. In doing so, the app could make using RSS feeds to consume news and information a more approachable experience for those who aren’t consuming news for work or consider themselves information junkies.
The Problem
Current’s developer, Terry Godier, said he always felt guilty when returning to his feed reader after a few days away. He attributed his feelings to how most readers were built to resemble email inboxes, with unread counts and bolded text for new items.
“Email’s unread count means something specific: these are messages from real people who wrote to you and are, in some cases, actively waiting for your response. The number isn’t neutral information. It’s a measure of social debt,” Godier wrote in a blog post about how he came to create Current, which is a side project he worked on during his free time.
“But when we applied that same visual language to RSS…we imported the anxiety without the cause,” he added.
Image Credit: Current
What Is RSS?
For those unfamiliar, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format that allows users to access updated information from websites in a structured way. New headlines and articles from your favorite news site (e.g., the TechCrunch feed) appear as new, unread entries in the RSS reader of your choice.
The format was hugely popular in the early 2000s until the 2006 arrival of Twitter shifted people to another platform for real‑time news and information sharing. Within a few years, people were ditching Google’s popular RSS reader (TechCrunch article, 2009) in favor of Twitter’s 140‑character posts. A few years later, Google Reader shut down for good (TechCrunch, 2013). (We still miss it.)
But RSS never died. In addition to being the underlying tool for podcast distribution, you can still use the format to syndicate from websites through apps like Feedly, NetNewsWire, Inoreader, Reeder, and others.
Current’s Approach: The River
Current proposes a different RSS experience. Instead of structuring feeds as lists to be processed—or chasing unread counts to zero—the app’s main screen is a river.
Screenshot – Image Credit: Current on the App Store
“You’re not watching content drift past like a screensaver. It’s a river in the sense that matters: content arrives, lingers for a time, and then fades away,” writes Godier in his Current overview.
Each piece of content ages differently:
| Content type | Visibility duration |
|---|---|
| Breaking news | Bright for ~3 hours |
| Daily news | Visible for ~18 hours |
| Essays | Remain for ~3 days |
| Evergreen tutorials | Up to 1 week |
As you scroll through the river, you keep up with what’s new and interesting without the pressure of marking things as read.
When you set up Current, you pick one of five speeds per source: Breaking, News, Article, Essay, or Tutorial. To clear an item you simply:
- Long‑left swipe to push the card off the screen, or
- Tap the release button at the end of the article, which returns you to the river.
An undo button is also available.
Image Credit: Current
Clever Features for RSS Enthusiasts
- Full‑text extraction – The app fetches the complete article even when the original feed truncates it.
- Webcomic mode – Mark a source as a webcomic to unlock an image‑first reader experience.
- Mute & pin – Mute a source for a week or pin must‑read feeds to the top of the river.
- Intelligent throttling – If a site floods your feed, Current prompts you to quiet or rate‑limit it.
- Personalized suggestions – The app notices which content you skip or devour and suggests removing or pinning feeds accordingly.
Voices
Current lets you follow individual writers in a space called Voices, separating blogs or newsletters written by individuals from larger news publications. Tap any Voice to filter the river to just that author’s content.
(You can potentially follow individuals within larger publications if their writers have individual RSS feeds. Here’s mine: Sarah Perez on TechCrunch.)
Image Credit: Current
Godier is interested in identifying the voices behind the news, having authored a specification called Byline that adds author context to RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds.
Organization: Currents
“Voices” is just one of three built‑in categories, which Current calls currents (hence the app’s name). The other two are:
- River – the main feed.
- Read Later – items you want to revisit.
You can also create custom currents (e.g., “tech,” “design”) or let the app suggest some based on your reading patterns.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Current uses subtle touches—font choices, gestures, themes, and intelligent fading—to make the reading experience feel less stressful. Even the most dedicated news junkies can appreciate a calmer, more fluid way to stay informed.
Current is available as a one‑time purchase costing $9.99 on Apple’s App Store for iOS, iPad, and Mac, and includes iCloud Sync and OPML import. There are no in‑app purchases or subscriptions. A web version will be available in the future.