Any App Like Pulse?

[scottaboshia]

Hey all, Feedmesh developer here, thanks for the shout out! I haven't yet started development on the iOS app yet but it's starting soon. The API and other back end services (for Feedmesh) are 75%+ of the development effort, and since those are largely complete, I should be able to fly through building the app fairly quickly.

Stay tuned, and I'll try update this thread when I'm looking for beta testers!

Erick

 

[simmepi]

My app has now been submitted to Apple so now it is just waiting which remains (unless reviewers have some objections, of course)

sportsfrk214, thanks for the encouraging words! I'm actually pretty happy with the app now, having nailed down a few annoying things just before submitting. Including getting a nice icon from a friend of mine, so I'm all set there.

The app will be called Heartfeed, and it is very RSS-orange, indeed.

Edit: Whoops, missed the Feedmesh comment: Good luck, will be fun seeing your app as well!

 

[Iluvahill]

Hey all, Feedmesh developer here, thanks for the shout out! I haven't yet started development on the iOS app yet but it's starting soon. The API and other back end services (for Feedmesh) are 75%+ of the development effort, and since those are largely complete, I should be able to fly through building the app fairly quickly.

Stay tuned, and I'll try update this thread when I'm looking for beta testers!

Erick

[doublepost=1454442519][/doublepost]I used the app on Android and liked where it was going. I just switched to iOS and would beta test as needed.

 

[sford56]

Outstanding! Two app developers coming to the rescue. I'll be buying both, just to say thank you.

Just Please don't ever sell out to Linked-In

 

[BlackBisonAMG]

Thats is great news. I'm looking forward to the iOS version for sure.

 

[simmepi]

Ok, app has now been approved by Apple and I've released it to the store; it might take up to 24h for it to actually appear, just so you know

App name is Heartfeed, homepage with a little info is here: http://heartfeed.ozymandias.se

Unfortunately I only right now realized one drawback with making the app free for testing and using up to 3 feeds, using an in-app purchase for unlocking unlimited feeds: There is no way to provide promo codes for in-app purchases so I cannot give out promo codes to unlock the app for people here to use :-( Really sorry about that!

I have found one small bug which can cause the app to crash when you delete a feed from your feed list; will fix this ASAP. And then I'll start the work with adding support for multiple groups of feeds.

 

[trunten]

Ok, app has now been approved by Apple and I've released it to the store; it might take up to 24h for it to actually appear, just so you know

App name is Heartfeed, homepage with a little info is here: http://heartfeed.ozymandias.se

Unfortunately I only right now realized one drawback with making the app free for testing and using up to 3 feeds, using an in-app purchase for unlocking unlimited feeds: There is no way to provide promo codes for in-app purchases so I cannot give out promo codes to unlock the app for people here to use :-( Really sorry about that!

I have found one small bug which can cause the app to crash when you delete a feed from your feed list; will fix this ASAP. And then I'll start the work with adding support for multiple groups of feeds.

Thanks a bunch for your work on this. I hope your hard work pays off and you get more than just a handful of purchases.

 

[pacorob]

It seems the Heartfeed app (free, with 2.99 dollar in-app purchase) is in the App Store since Thursday February 4th.

 

[pacorob]

Ok, app has now been approved by Apple and I've released it to the store; it might take up to 24h for it to actually appear, just so you know

I just noticed the update.
I love the nicer font and the night mode option.

A few questions:
1) Is there a way to automatically switch between night/day like e.g. Tweetbot 4 does?
2) Can we have the option to show images with every article?
3) Is there a possibility to remove the person who create the article and only see the article subject?
4) an RSS search/database of certain topics (e.g. Tech / Apple / Media) would be nice instead of browsing to a website

Thank you very much in advance.

 

[simmepi]

I just noticed the update.
I love the nicer font and the night mode option.

A few questions:
1) Is there a way to automatically switch between night/day like e.g. Tweetbot 4 does?
2) Can we have the option to show images with every article?
3) Is there a possibility to remove the person who create the article and only see the article subject?
4) an RSS search/database of certain topics (e.g. Tech / Apple / Media) would be nice instead of browsing to a website

Thank you very much in advance.

Glad you like the update

1. Nope, not right now, but Ill keep this in mind!
2. I'm looking into it. It is complicated due to a lot of reasons but I hope to at least be able to get pictures into some of the feeds. Not soon, but at some point.
3. No, I'm afraid not. But I am thinking about the presentation and how to optimize it; I don't want there to be page after page of settings so it's a bit difficult to select the default options, what should be a setting and what shouldn't, and so on.
4. Definitely agree, but currently I simply don't have access to any. In the long run I could perhaps collect feeds for such a database myself, by checking what feeds users are using (if the users want to provide this information, of course), but that is far off. Especially considering there are not many users so far; so many RSS readers in the AppStore that a new one getting any traction is really hard.

 

[pacorob]

Glad you like the update

1. Nope, not right now, but Ill keep this in mind!
2. I'm looking into it. It is complicated due to a lot of reasons but I hope to at least be able to get pictures into some of the feeds. Not soon, but at some point.
3. No, I'm afraid not. But I am thinking about the presentation and how to optimize it; I don't want there to be page after page of settings so it's a bit difficult to select the default options, what should be a setting and what shouldn't, and so on.
4. Definitely agree, but currently I simply don't have access to any. In the long run I could perhaps collect feeds for such a database myself, by checking what feeds users are using (if the users want to provide this information, of course), but that is far off. Especially considering there are not many users so far; so many RSS readers in the AppStore that a new one getting any traction is really hard.

Thank you for your feedback here and in my e-mail

1. Good that you will look into it. I don't know how Tweetbot did it but it doesn't need manually switching. When there is no light it switches to the darker theme. Let's see how it will be with iOS9.3 if it's still needed.
2. I hope you can have it added in a later stage
3. It would be much cleaner i think if the person who created the article is not mentioned (except if you want to and have an option in settings).
4. would be nice to have but no must.

 

[simmepi]

There is a workaround for approximating the light outside, to automatically switch between night/day modes: I can check the brightness of the screen. If the user has automatic brightness control switched on, this can be used (and checked by the app) as indicating night/day. But it is not ideal since someone manually controlling brightness will then also see Heartfeed switch between night/day when you change brightness. But, will think about it!

Working on 1.2 which will include feed groups, being able to customize feed names, and some polish; for those interested, I try to keep https://www.facebook.com/heartfeedapp up to date with what I'm doing.

 

[pacorob]

I look forward to the update! I will definitely also keep an eye out on your Facebook page but posting an update here would also be very handy.

 

[mcdj]

A Pulse-like app without thumbnail photos isn't very Pulse-like. The photos are a large part of what determines whether I tap to read.

I've said it before; I would pay $100 for a Pulse clone. I'd even pay a $50 yearly subscription.

 

[pacorob]

A Pulse-like app without thumbnail photos isn't very Pulse-like. The photos are a large part of what determines whether I tap to read.

I've said it before; I would pay $100 for a Pulse clone. I'd even pay a $50 yearly subscription.

It seems the developer is working on adding images see the Facebook page.

 

[simmepi]

It seems the developer is working on adding images see the Facebook page.

Yep, correct; image previews will definitely put a load on both CPU & memory but it looks as if the next version will have it. Currently, in my test build, it looks something like this (night mode):

 

[mcdj]

It's coming along! I would love to see as little wasted space as possible in the text box, in lieu of more space for the thumbnail, and I would axe the text box transparency...too busy.

Pulse kind of nailed it.

 

[pacorob]

I thought it would be a good idea to collect all best alternative Pulse News options out there or which can be expected. Unfortunately this topic isn't a wiki so therefore I post it here. These options are:

- Heartfeed (in iOS App Store) - just recently launched, images and layout still in the works but off to a good start!
- Yomu (in iOS App Store) - hasn't been updated since 2014, but developer said in response to my tweet that an update can be expected by April '16.
- Feedmesh (not yet available on iOS, expected, see tweet response) - actively developed. They already have an Android app.

To help out others in the search I've also added both Heartfeed and Yomu to the alternatives alternativeto website.

 

[yuvrajv5]

Feedly

 

[pacorob]

Feedly

Feedly in totally different in UI. The original topic starter and a few other here would like have a similar UI as the old Pulse News. See my previous options that do have a similar UI as the old Pulse.

 

[yuvrajv5]

Feedly in totally different in UI. The original topic starter and a few other here would like have a similar UI as the old Pulse News. See my previous options that do have a similar UI as the old Pulse.

Oh, I thought UI is not concerned here. Checked your options. I haven't tried any of them.

Would love to check it.

 

[mcdj]

Just updated Heartfeed. Looking really good! Great work. I paid for unlimited feeds.

A couple of ideas...

-Night mode is great for the thumbnails, but hard on the eyes when viewing the article. It would be great to have an option for a white background on the article view. Pulse was white.
-The in-app browser doesn't seem necessary. I would much prefer just opening Safari, at least have the option.
-An option or change that adds new feeds to the bottom of the list instead of the top.
-Refreshing the feeds should snap all the thumbnails to the left edge so we don't have to manually scroll to see new article thumbnails. This seems to work sometimes and not others.
-On the iPhone, a slightly smaller UI would allow 3 thumbnails across per feed, and 4 feeds down. As it stands, 2 thumbnails across and 3 feeds down means tons of scrolling to see anything. The scale was perfect on Pulse; still legible, but with 6 more thumbnails. Currently Heartfeed shows 2.25 thumbnails across and 2.25 down, which looks a bit sloppy and reduces glanceability.

More if I think of it...

 

[simmepi]

Just updated Heartfeed. Looking really good! Great work. I paid for unlimited feeds.

A couple of ideas...

-Night mode is great for the thumbnails, but hard on the eyes when viewing the article. It would be great to have an option for a white background on the article view. Pulse was white.
-The in-app browser doesn't seem necessary. I would much prefer just opening Safari, at least have the option.
-An option or change that adds new feeds to the bottom of the list instead of the top.
-Refreshing the feeds should snap all the thumbnails to the left edge so we don't have to manually scroll to see new article thumbnails. This seems to work sometimes and not others.
-On the iPhone, a slightly smaller UI would allow 3 thumbnails across per feed, and 4 feeds down. As it stands, 2 thumbnails across and 3 feeds down means tons of scrolling to see anything. The scale was perfect on Pulse; still legible, but with 6 more thumbnails. Currently Heartfeed shows 2.25 thumbnails across and 2.25 down, which looks a bit sloppy and reduces glanceability.

More if I think of it...

Many thanks for the feedback, greatly appreciated, and for buying the app!

- Night mode: I actually like the "really dark everywhere" feel of the night mode, but I do see your point. I'll think about it, for sure (I don't want the preferences to explode so I try to strive for making things work good, without requiring manual tweaking by the user).
- In-app browser: Jumping out to Safari for reading on the web makes going back to the feeds a bit harder; the "Back to Heartfeed"-option would be quite small. But, again, point taken (and this is another of those cases where a setting would solve it, but then, yet again, we have a new setting...)!
- I chose to add to the top since a new feed might be more interesting than the old ones -> it is added in the place where it is easiest to see it. Also, it makes it easy to check if the feed address was good.
- Refreshing: Yep, agree 100%! The first version didn't keep the position for individual feeds at all, so when you scrolled up/down, all feeds appearing were always scrolled to the left. This was ugly so I added "remembering" where you were. However, I forgot to make sure that when you refresh, feeds should of course be scrolled to the left. Will fix this in a coming version.
- This one is also a bit tough to get right. At the moment I've selected to make sure each preview "box" is equally large on all iPhones, i.e. you see more boxes as you go up in screen size from 4s -> 5 -> 6 -> 6 Plus, and the same on iPads with regular iPad -> iPad Pro (although iPad & iPhone "boxes" are differently sized, compared to each other, and also slightly different with respect to font sizes). But I will revisit this, to try to get it right; as you can imagine, it's a matter of legibility vs data density. Personally I think everything looks good on iPads of all sizes, but on iPhones, I don't think I've gotten it exactly right just yet. So very likely something will change here (including, potentially, a preference setting).

So that's about what I think, at the moment; hope it clarifies some stuff

 

[curropb]

Hi simmepi, congrats for your app.

I was looking for a Pulse app alternative for a long time. Thanks for satisfy my wish!

Sorry for my english, I'm spanish...

I would like to give you some ideas to improve your app:

-If you accidentally tap the top-left mark, all items appears read. However, you don't have the ability to revert this situation. My idea: if you press a long tap on the mark (top-left), all items appear unread again...(must have)

-Ability to watch the article images in full screen (for example double tap). In the same way, ability to save the images into your iOS photo library, while a long tap on the image you want to save (contextual menu: Save image)...

-"Saved for later" tab. Ability to save stories into a new tab, accessible across devices (iPhone/iPad). This is a must have feature.

-Ability to refresh individual feeds (for example swiping from left to right) instead of refresh all the feed.

-Clear images cache.

-Gif support, now you have to open in-app browser to watch gifs...

-Sync read feeds across devices, if you read a feed in your iPhone, in the iPad should be marked as read (via iCloud sync).

-Ability to change the articles fonts and size.

-Polish body text article: different styles between title font vs article font. Centre images alignment (landscape mode, no issues with portrait mode).
Here you can compare the same article with "Heartfeed iPad landscape capture" versus "Newsfy iPad landscape capture" and "Feedly iPad capture", I honestly think the Newsfy and Feedly style is more polished than yours.

Heartfeed landscape capture (image not centered/alignment, underlined title not necessary, poor layout)

Newsfy landscape capture:

Feedly landscape capture:

Here you can check portrait captures comparatives:

Heartfeed portrait capture

Newsfy portrait capture (I honestly think this rss reader has the best style, article signature with another font style, tabulations, better and clean layout ...)

Feedly portrait capture

However, your app is great, congratulations. Keep the support and your app will be soon a reference in the App Store. Thanks

 

[pacorob]

I really like the update with images. I also bought the Pro (paid) version.

I posted a few of these things also on the Facebook page of Heartfeed but I post it also here. I did also receive response from the developer on Facebook.

Images:
Looks very nice and two out of three websites indicate the images. For some reason the images for emerce.nl news feed (http://www.emerce.nl/nieuws/feed ) don't show although they do indicate images.

Sharing:
I also noticed that when I want to to share a message on Twitter via the Share sheet it only indicates the URL of the link and that it's shared via Heartfeed but a pretty important thing which is missing in the title of the news messsage.

Night mode + sharing color:
The color buttons to share a message show in orange are difficult to read.

URL scheme:
As said before please also try to add URL scheme heartfeed:// in the next update.

Layout:
Would love to see more feeds (4 instead of 3) on my 4inch iPhone 5s screen which could be done by reducing the space between two feeds. Similar to Pulse News originally had.