The corporate behind the information app Flipboard , which is kind of like an RSS feed for the open social net. The app permits customers to create feeds that pull from the open social net, together with companies like Mastodon and Bluesky. It additionally sources content material from blogs, podcasts and YouTube movies.
Flipboard CEO Mike McCue calls it a “browser for the social web” and that description . Surf helps an entire bunch of open protocols, together with RSS, Bluesky’s AT Protocol and ActivityPub. That final one is used to energy decentralized platforms like Mastodon, Threads, Pixelfed, PeerTube and Friendica, amongst others. This follows , which allowed for full interoperability with Mastodon and different decentralized networks.
The app has been in improvement for practically two years and lets customers construct customized feeds utilizing a mixture of sources. If you happen to needed to comply with a distinct segment matter like, say, 3D printing, you could possibly add notable individuals to a feed, together with hashtags, particular RSS feeds, most well-liked podcasts and extra. As of the preliminary beta launch, Surf comes with 30,000 predefined subjects to discover. Customized feeds can even discover a number of subjects directly, to personalize issues.
The app’s house web page features a extensive swath of curated feeds to comply with which are organized into sections like Featured, Trending, Communities and Professional Voices. Feeds are configurable in quite a lot of methods, which lets customers embrace or exclude stuff like replies, reposts or mature content material. Fortunately, the order of the feed can also be totally adjustable, with an possibility for a Twitter-like timeline.
This sounds fairly cool proper? One of many foremost issues on this new period of the social net, wherein the , is the shortage of a centralized hub. This appears to be like to resolve that downside to some extent.
Now a spot of dangerous information. Surf is technically out there proper now, however solely as an invite-only, closed beta. If you happen to can come up with a kind of invitations, the app is obtainable for each iOS and Android, with a desktop shopper coming quickly.
