About two weeks ago, Google dropped the bomb on many of us who use Google Reader by declaring that they are going to shut it down this summer. Many of you have been looking at different alternatives to see what will work for you. I have been doing the same as well and although I am not convinced there is something that will replace it just yet, I was able to test out a web app that I thought had some similar qualities to Google Reader and could be a decent replacement.
Taptu has gone under the radar for a lot of people, but it’s an RSS app that’s actually been around since 2010. I played around with the app back then, but stopped because I knew that it couldn’t come close to what I was doing with Google Reader and not only that, I was used to what I was already using and it was working fine. Like the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” So that is what I had decided at the time, well now, Google Reader is not broke, but it definitely will get there. That is why I decided to revisit this app and give it another try.
Adding Content
What will be a welcome sight for us Google Reader people is that we can import content straight from our Google accounts into Taptu. Once we get them in, we don’t have to worry about them once Google Reader goes away. Secondly, we can browse the Stream Store, as Taptu calls it, where it is chock full of different news sites and social networks that we can add. You can browse by topic or search for a specific site that you want to add.
Adding feeds to Taptu
Reading and Interacting With Content
Once you have all of your content that you want in Taptu, now you can start to enjoy reading and interacting with it. Your homepage will show you all of the different feeds that you subscribe to with a few stories from each feed. You can click on a feed and see all of the stories from that particular site and you can read each story within the app. You also have the option to read the article straight from the website it came from.
Reading articles in Taptu
When you find an article that you think is worth sharing you have your standard options to share it with others. You can send them to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and email and you can also share specific sites that you want others to check out. Another option that you have with articles is that if you find one that is interesting or want to save it for later, you can bookmark it and then come back to it in its own section.
Sharing an article
Universal
One of the big selling points for me for any alternative that comes out for Google Reader is that it has to be universal, which means it has to work on multiple platforms. Since I mainly use my iPad Mini to read my news on, I wanted to make sure it would work there. Taptu not only works on my device, but on the iPhone and Android devices as well.
Solid Alternative
As you probably already have seen, there are a handful of Google Reader alternatives that are out there and ones that will soon pop up. Everyone will have their favorite and by no means do I think there is one app that will be the best. It all depends on what your needs are and what you like in a reader app. For me, I like that Taptu is not only web based, but also available for my iOS devices. That to me is one of the starting off points for if I decide to even check out an alternative or not. I like that it is simple and easy to use and I really like the importing of feeds from Google Reader. The one thing that I wish it had would be a unified reading stream, similar to Google Reader where I can just scroll through all of my feeds instead of going into each one individually.
Like I said, we are all going to have our own nuances as to what we want in a RSS app and what is going to work for us. Taptu I believe is great for the casual reader, who wants a solid and consistent reading experience. It may not come with all the bells and whistles that other apps do, but the bottom line is that it gets the job done. All of the apps are free to use and I do hope they come up with a revenue model so that they can continue to make it better and more polished. If you are searching for a Google Reader alternative, give this one a try and see what you think.