Hello.
I'm a software engineer @_horotter.
Do you use RSS?
The history of RSS is old, starting from the 1990s, and it is still used today as a format mainly for news distribution and other web media. Many web media still distribute RSS feeds.
For me, who works as a software engineer, RSS is a relatively familiar term, and recently, I have been casually skimming through information obtained from feeds in Slack channels before starting work. If something catches my interest, I go read the full article.
And then I thought.
Hey, wouldn't it be nice if I could listen to this in audio? Then, just like listening to music during my commute, I could listen to it, right?
When I tried to find a tool that fulfills my desire to listen to RSS in audio, it seems that the desired solution is not readily available. The mainstream method seems to be saving articles of interest in Pocket from Feedly and listening to them using Pocket's read-aloud feature.
It seems there's nothing available that fulfills my desire to casually listen to RSS in audio and then dive deeper into articles later by reading the full text.
If anyone knows about such a tool, please let me know.
In today's era, social media such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc., have become integrated into daily life, and much of the daily information gathering seems to be done using them.
In my opinion, I feel that RSS is necessary precisely in this era.
Rather than saying RSS is necessary, I believe it's good to consciously prepare alternative routes rather than just passively consuming information.
I myself benefit greatly from the advancement of technology, as evidenced by the fact that I spend most of my day on Twitter, and the content shared by the majority of users I follow, who are mostly tech people, greatly aids in my daily information gathering.
YouTube is also very useful, and the information shared by well-known media, celebrities, and influencers there is valuable and meaningful not only to me but to everyone else, I believe. And before you know it, you might have spent about 3 hours watching YouTube.
Damn, what a thing.
Social media has a powerful ability to capture our attention, and even though we may feel like we are efficiently inputting information from all over the world, the reality is that it is often heavily biased information.
While social media is an indispensable tool for both information gathering and communication, it's important to use it while recognizing the negative aspects it brings.
Social media is good, but it's also important to actively seek reliable information ourselves.
Let's use RSS.
RSS is good.
Or let's read newspapers.
There are many services called audiobooks like Audible, and podcasts already existed around 2010, and some people might have listened to them on iPods. (I listened on an iPod touch.)
Around 2020, Spotify entered the podcast scene, and it seems like Amazon, Apple, Google, and other companies are putting effort into podcasting, and it's currently thriving with exclusive content distribution by each company.
(Personally, I have a negative impression regarding exclusive content distribution because it seems contrary to the simple and open specification of Podcasting, which originally distributed audio content via RSS feeds.)
Even though it's relatively easy to distribute content starting from text and moving to video, there are still services that deliver newspapers in audio, platforms that distribute content like radio, and audio content remains a unique and growing field.
Audio content seems to be an optimal choice since it doesn't require much concentration and can be listened to while commuting, working, doing chores, etc.
Wouldn't it be great if we could listen to RSS like a podcast?
That's what I think.
It seems that it's in the nature of engineers to create something if it doesn't exist, or even if it does.
I've created an app for Android and iPhone.
There are links to the respective stores on the webpage.
As for the user experience, it's a simple RSS reader app, plus, you can listen to it in audio.
We're currently developing a feature to convert article content into audio files so that they can be used in other podcast apps, and it's turning out quite well.
(It's still in testing and not yet released.)
The performance of Text to Speech has also improved, and it now gives a quite natural impression when reading longer texts.
I think there are many software engineers like myself who prioritize productivity by investing in high-quality keyboards and displays, and I would like such people to try using this app instead of their current RSS readers.
For those who haven't used RSS before, I hope you'll try it as a new tool for information gathering.
This app is developed and operated by an individual, and feedback from everyone, both positive and negative, motivates me.
Please try the experience of listening to RSS in audio.