NewsBlur Reviews

Latest build 11.1 cleared all my crashing problems on iOS 15, this app is back to the five-star app it should be!

Excellent service, but the latest update seems to have introduced a bug with the preview images; I have them turned off but they’re still showing

NewsBlur just keeps getting worse. Showing the wrong feed when you click a feed. Lag. UI. UI. UI.

Disclaimer: I still use an ancient iPad Air that cannot get the latest iOS, so it might well be my fault. NewsBlur used to be great. Maybe it still is for those with modern hardware. I have no idea.

Works great and also cross platform.

Major API & UI changes to Google Reader that could greatly affect iOS news readers dependent upon the service, combined with Google's questionable privacy policies and advertising, left me feeling the need to seek an alternative to feed my RSS jones. All the non-Google services I tried were not ideally designed for mobile access & touch screens - until I found this app! It's an awesome new open source RSS reader with a very speedy (and free!) iPhone app.

You have to sign up at the website and the free version is limited to 64 feeds. There is a reasonable premium option that supports the developer and provides access to extras. The service does allow you to import Google Reader feeds if you choose, but appears to run independently of Google (i.e. no back-ending). Or you can search/add feeds individually. this app also has the ability to learn your preferences through the Intelligence Trainer.

The this app app is a s fast and as accurate as any of the numerous reader app I have used. It allows for sharing on Facebook, Twitter, & Instapaper.

Highly recommended for anyone who doesn't wish to depend on Google and, really, for anyone who uses apps dependent on Google Reader, as the upcoming changes may have a major impact on those apps. At the least, it is an excellent alternative and back-up to Google's service.

No support. No way to import personal, prized, well-loved collection of previously saved RSS feeds vis OPML file. Hence: “second rate.”

Ugly UI and almost painful-to-engage-with UX.

Just saying.

Reeder. NetNewsWire. Feedly.

All very viable and much better options.

Again, just saying.

Update: 5 stars! NewsBlur keeps getting better. It's updated for the iPhone 6+ and looks and runs great! I really recommend this for a news group reader!

This seems like a pretty good replacement for some of the google reader bound apps. I paid for a subscription as I'm done with google reader and need a replacement, and the this app service had to shut off free accounts due to being overwhelmed with new subscribers. NewsBlur itself is fairly barebones but works ok. I gave it 4 stars for one reason- please give me a way to read from the oldest article first. I like to start with the oldest and read chronologically until I have read them all. Otherwise you read news in reverse... One small nitpick would be to remove the "mark all as read" from the main reading window as I never use this and would hate to hit it by accident!

Very happy with this update. In this app I really missed the offline capability that I used to have with Reeder + Google Reader. This is one thing that I was really waiting for with this app and I'm happy that the feature has arrived. Now I can browse my feeds without interruptions and it will work fine in areas where I know my service is spotty (like in subways or on trains with intermittent connection losses). So far the feature is working fine.

I highly recommend this app with a premium account. The developer has proven to be very dedicated to his product and customers.

If you can get over the outrageously poor app icon this guy sports, then you'll find this is a relatively competent reader. It's intuitive and (mostly) fluid. Load times are annoyingly long when switching between feeds (presumably from the influx of new users). The built-in browser is speedy enough, however, and is a real joy to use when you want to see the actual story.

Devoted Google Reader-ers will grimace at the paid options NewsBlur offers, but the free version should be enough for most non-power users. The web app is equally usable, and it was a nice thing to see both were similar in feel and look.

The two criticisms I have relate to to the UX. Every button in NewsBlur is JUST big enough to hit with a finger (and my hands aren't really that large), so I could see people with larger hands or smaller screens having issues with accuracy. The second part is the fact that there's no real great way to skip to the next story. It seems destined to push you only to the next *unread* story (possibly to save time when looking for new news?); having been used to Reader's feed flow, this seems incorrect.

Aside from those two, there are some minor UX hiccups that could be addressed. Again, it may just be me getting used to a new app. Change those, update the color scheme, and drop the offensively poor icon, and you got a 5-star app.

I have used this app on my iPad for almost two years and I absolutely love it. this app has been absolutely perfect for my need. I recently got an iPhone 6 Plus because of how it operates so similarly to an iPad when in landscape mode (namely the two-column view present in many system apps). I was disappointed to see that there wasn't a two-column view in NewsBlur despite it being updated for the iPhone 6 Plus. If you added this feature, I would be absolutely thrilled and I would once again consider NewsBlur perfect. Plus, I don't think that any other RSS readers have implemented such a feature, so you could be ahead of the competition! Please strongly consider adding this feature, because I'm sure that many people could get use out of it.

In a post-Google-Reader world, two things are very important for an RSS reader: import of feeds and stories, and export. A good product allows you to come and go at any time, working on quality instead of lock-in. this app is fantastic at both.

Also, the programmer, Samuel Clay, is a devoted and responsive. It is not uncommon for a feature request to be completed within 48 hours, if it's a good idea, or easy to do. He works always to improve, but not to bloat the features.

Well, well worth the annual sub for use of NewsBlur .

Lovely app that works well, but it could use a few features. First, an offline mode would really help my morning BART commute. The "unable to mark as read" error that pops up is really frustrating. Second, a setting to hide public comments in NewsBlur as you can on the website would be appreciated. Third, some little things: Pinboard support, tapping the article's title opening the web view, the web view button is the Safari icon even though it does not open the article in actual Safari, and the difference between Send To and Share is a bit murky.

I've been using this app for a few weeks as part of the testing process and am now happily using version 1.5 on my iPad and iPhone. It's a great companion to the web interface and I actually enjoy using the apps far more that the website. I love that everything syncs quickly, the feeds display nicely and NewsBlur is intuitive. The UI, while simplistic, is totally functional and mostly stays out of the way. I'd probably share a bit more if the sharing button for a story was more prominently displayed.

I've had a few crashes here and there, but not recently. My guess is that the backend is getting cleaned up a bit.

Overall, this is a great app and I'm looking forward to the continued development.

Thanks for fixing the scrolling issues in this latest update - Jan 2019!

What can I say? When Google Reader went down, I was fine because I was with this app. I love it. I can send stories to email or Evernote or Instapaper.

On my wish list is the ability to send the entire page to Evernote instead of just the web address. I'd like to do the same by email.

But the reason I gave it a 4 instead of a 5 is that NewsBlur promises the ability to read synced stories offline. This works on the iPhone but not at all on the iPad. When I can read stories offline on the iPad, I will raise the score to a 5.

... in the latest version of NewsBlur (10.1).

On my iPhone 8, running iOS 12.4.1, the story text now will occasionally be blank after I tap on a story from a feed. If I swipe back out and then tap the story again, the text usually appears. Or, if I toggle from Story to Text and back in the story display screen, that usually fixes it too. But it's a regression from the previous version of NewsBlur , which never caused this problem on my phone.

Otherwise NewsBlur is great and I use it every day.

Extremely good news reader. Can't login with Feedly to import, but you can import OPML files, which is a nice touch. Works more reliably than any other iOS news reader I've used. Site rendering and reading mode is superb. This is my favorite news reader right now. Keep up the great work!

Suggestion: Create and end of feed page when you are viewing articles, so it doesn't look like it won't go to the next article. That way I know I'm done.

I read a ton of RSS feeds and this app is easily the best RSS reader out there. The intelligence training and filtering is what sets this app head and shoulders above the rest. For instance, there are a bunch of feeds I read where I really care about some posts, but don't care about others. With Google Reader, I used to have to mark them as read to get them to go away. Now, I never even see them.

Samuel is also awesome. He's always super responsive on Twitter and GetSatisfaction.

Highly recommended.

this app is a great RSS reader. I like it better than Feedly because free push notifications are included. I read a paid IFTTT subscription is necessary for Feedly push notifications. The free push notifications in this app don’t show the full text of the article but the notification of a new article from any RSS feed is an awesome feature! The premium version gives better push notification options.

Like many others, I hopped on the this app train when Reader was cancelled. I initially found the idea of a separate app to be silly, but have come to really like this one. I don't use any of the this app-specific features (e.g. training) but still find the experience fluid and enjoyable. My only complaints are that it's a bit clunky to refresh the story list when starting from the story summary view (which is typically where I find NewsBlur when I switch to it) and it crashes with disturbing regularity. Otherwise, it's fabulous!

Update today has fixed the crashing problem and I wanted to give them credit for it.

This is an app I use daily and frankly several times a day. I am very disappointed that when I updated today to find out that it crashes every time I try to open it and I have tried all of the usual troubleshooting tips.

The article list with thumbnail generation works on half the feeds. NewsBlur and images don’t mix well.

The thumbnails that are generated are to small to even see on the left or right. There needs to be an under title option.

Also, there must be some sort of size limitation on images. On other rss readers all the article images come through but not on NewsBlur.

NewsBlur needs work.

I consult my reader several times daily (70 feeds) and news blur is very reliable and synchs across all platforms. The paid version is a genuine bargain. Love it!! Update: better than ever. Love that I can save articles.

Have used NewsBlur for many years and love how straightforward and reliable it is. Great privacy policy too.

However the iPad version for some time now is just really broken. It has trouble displaying the columns for selecting feeds and articles, and most of the time shows a blank article body. Not usable. Works great on iPhone on same iOS version.

The amount of and quality of development going into this project is incredible!

The iOS interface is a bit compact and cluttered for mobile usage right now but it's obvious NewsBlur will soon become a masterpiece.

Useful options galore!

Uninstalled for now, but "I'll be back" ...