As handy because the web is, when massive tech firms chase countless progress, that may imply bloat. These days, it seems like each firm needs to lure me into an algorithm lure, persuade me to make use of their AI companies, or attempt to make me pay a premium to browse like I used to. One in all my favourite instruments for combating again in opposition to these developments is Tapestry. It is a timeline app for iPhone and iPad that permits you to mix a number of feeds from blogs, YouTube, podcasts, and social media, then view them in chronological order, with a wonderful interface. Basically, you need to use it to make your individual curated model of (almost) your complete web.
Tapestry is designed by The Iconfactory, which additionally developed the superb (however now-defunct) Twitter consumer Twitteriffic.
What’s a timeline app?
Timeline apps are a brand new style of app that permits you to take again management from massive tech’s algorithms and resolve what you wish to see and once you wish to see it. These apps can help you create your individual customized timelines with posts from a number of web sites. You possibly can use these apps to comply with a weblog you want, a YouTuber you get pleasure from, and even a subreddit or social media feed that you just like seeing. It is like utilizing an RSS reader, however with help for content material from many extra kinds of sources.
Profiting from Tapestry in your iPhone
Putting in Tapestry will begin you off with a really helpful sign-up circulate. This reveals you an inventory of varied really useful feeds you possibly can add to your timeline with only one faucet, which lets you populate the app in file time. For those who’re massive on customization, you can too skip the suggestions and manually add your feeds to the app by going to the Settings tab and tapping the Add Feed button. After that, you possibly can simply paste the URL of the web site, YouTube channel, podcast, or Mastodon/Bluesky account you wish to comply with, and Tapestry will search for the feed and add it to your timeline. There is a bit greater than that occurring within the again finish, however Tapestry’s Feed Finder characteristic is fairly good at finding and loading feeds for you from a easy URL. As soon as your feeds are added, you can view all of them in a neat, chronological timeline.
The app’s free tier is sort of beneficiant. It permits you to add a number of feeds and comply with all of them on one infinite scrolling timeline. For those who like a put up, faucet the flag icon under the put up to mark it (aka bookmark it) or use the share button to ship it to your folks or social media accounts.
With no subscription, Tapestry will present you advertisements in your timeline. Nonetheless, these are among the least intrusive advertisements I’ve come throughout. They comply with the design language of the app, and a lot of the advertisements I noticed had been both asking me so as to add a feed to Tapestry or to put in one other app. The app is fantastically designed and jogs my memory loads about the very best of Twitteriffic. A unified timeline can simply get very messy, very quick, however Tapestry handles this nicely by color-coding posts from varied sources and prominently displaying a brand for every feed. It picked up the logos of two newsletters I loaded, too, which is a really good contact. You’ll be able to customise this expertise by going to the Look settings web page throughout the app, the place you possibly can change the font and the size of put up previews. This allows you to make your timeline look neater, and you can also make it even higher by tapping the three-lines icon within the bottom-left nook of the timeline. That allows you to select completely different sizes for every put up— I discover the collapsed view is greatest for rapidly looking, however the expanded view is best for skimming by means of newsletters.
Credit score: Pranay Parab
Every put up in your timeline is truncated by default, and even the expanded view solely reveals a couple of paragraphs at most. Nonetheless, you possibly can faucet the Learn Extra button on any put up to learn it in full in a brand new web page. This view is freed from advertisements and litter, masses rapidly, and the background retains the colour scheme Tapestry assigned to it in your timeline. Tapestry additionally has two kinds of filters that will help you clear up your feeds—muffles and mutes. Muffles will collapse posts containing particular key phrases and are helpful once you wish to keep away from spoilers from a brand new film or TV present. Mutes will conceal posts containing sure key phrases completely—nice for blocking politics, sports activities, or different topics out of your feed, for instance.
The largest limitation of Tapestry’s free tier is that it enables you to add simply the one timeline. You do have entry to sure timeline filters that allow you to view marked posts, solely posts from right now, or posts from a single feed at a time. Nonetheless, if you wish to create multiple timeline, you are going to must improve to the paid tier, which prices $2/month or $20/yr. There’s additionally a one-time lifetime unlock choice at $80, in case you wish to keep away from subscriptions.
As soon as upgraded, you may not see advertisements and you’ll create as many timelines as you want. I’ve used this to separate social media feeds, newsletters, and different kinds of feeds, however the excellent news is that you could craft a timeline to fit your wants.
Some individuals would favor to mix posts from Bluesky and Mastodon into one chronological feed, and Tapestry permits you to try this, too. One in all my largest complaints about Bluesky is that it does not save your studying place, which implies that it refreshes to the highest of the feed every time I open the app. I prefer it when apps keep in mind the place I ended studying after which enable me to scroll to compensate for all of the posts that got here after the final one I learn. Tapestry reveals you a pleasant counter within the top-right nook, which says what number of posts are above what you are studying, and it remembers the place I paused scrolling. That is nice for timeline completionists like me, and I have been utilizing Tapestry to learn my Bluesky feed in chronological order, and to comply with a couple of accounts from Bluesky.
Credit score: Pranay Parab
Notice that you could’t use Tapestry to put up something to social media, to love posts, repost, or work together with them straight. You’ll be able to faucet a button to open the put up within the web site it is hosted on, and work together with it there. Nonetheless, Tapestry is nice for making a timeline and studying, watching movies, or listening to podcasts. This app enables you to hearken to total podcast episodes with out leaving it if you happen to like, and it additionally masses YouTube movies within the firm’s personal participant. It is a pretty seamless expertise if you wish to comply with a couple of of your favourite creators. You are going to get pleasure from Tapestry essentially the most if you happen to’re cautious in regards to the feeds you add. For those who add a high-volume information feed, it may drown out low-frequency feeds, however if you happen to discover the proper stability, it may turn into your individual cozy nook of the online.
The Iconfactory has delivered a really polished app contemplating it is simply model 1.0 at this level. I am excited to see the place Tapestry goes and I hope that it heads to desktop sooner or later, too. In the meanwhile, there aren’t too many timeline apps that do the job that Tapestry does. One of the best different I’ve come throughout is Reeder, which is one other fantastically designed timeline app with the same characteristic set and pricing mannequin. Ideally, you may attempt each apps and resolve which one works greatest for you, and I think the choice will come all the way down to which design language you want extra. Tapestry’s shiny and colourful design appeals to me, whereas others might favor Reeder’s subtler tones and animations.
