How RSS works
If you open up an RSS feed in your browser it’ll largely look like nonsensical gobbledygook—that’s where RSS apps come in. They translate feeds into something comprehensible, and usually feature a bare-bones version of a story that includes a headline, the main image, and the first paragraph or two of the article. Depending on how the feed is built, sometimes you’ll be able to read entire articles inside your RSS app, while other times you’ll need to go back to the site to finish it. If you think RSS is just what you need, you’ve got several excellent apps to choose from as well. As well as the main feed featuring all-new publications, a lot of sites also offer dedicated RSS feeds for particular topics or types of story, like news, features, how-to guides, and reviews, for example. The idea is to give you the freedom to sign up only for the content that you want. Having all the content you want to consume in one place is not the only benefit of RSS apps. They also offer extras such as the ability to bookmark articles, sort your feeds into categories, and make browsing through the day’s headlines a more relaxing affair, without the clutter of ads and other noise. Sites usually display their RSS feeds quite prominently and make them relatively easy for you to find and subscribe to them. But if you can’t find them, a quick web search will often do. When browsing a site, look for a small orange icon with curved white lines inside—this is the RSS icon and will probably lead you to the feed you’re looking for. If you find your favorite site has not made an RSS feed available, some apps can generate it for you so you don’t miss out on anything.
