One Feed to Rule Them All
If you've used Tot (on my homescreen) or Wallaroo or Frenzic back in the day or any number of other apps, you know The Iconfactory. Oh yes, and if you've used Twitter, because that team's Twitterific client way back when was responsible for things like the word "tweet" and the whole bird imagery motif. RIP, Larry. Anyway, team Iconfactory is back with a new project. And you should back it, because it sounds awesome. I just did.
Project Tapestry sounds like it will be a mobile app trying to unify all the various feeds we all regularly check and use now (especially with the death of Twitter). In a way, it reminds me a lot of FriendFeed back in the day. That was a different era, not quite pre-mobile, but pre-mobile-dominance. This is like that but for mobile.
Here's Sarah Perez writing it up on TechCrunch:
As described, Project Tapestry is meant to organize today’s fragmented online media into one interface, by allowing users to follow a variety of sources in one place. For instance, you could track your favorite blogs, news sites, social networks and webcomics, as well as critical updates that used to come via Twitter, like weather alerts or earthquake warnings.
This would involve working with any site that offers an RSS feed, which most blogs and news sites (without a paywall) already do. It would also integrate with the startups that are offering Twitter alternatives, like Bluesky, powered by the new AT Protocol, and Mastodon, which will be powered by another emerging web standard, ActivityPub. (The company isn’t planning on Threads support at launch, but would consider adding it, as well, if an API was made available, we’re told.)
One key element:
After setup, Tapestry would organize all your updates into one feed, displayed in chronological order. Plus, the app could remove duplicates to cut down on the clutter — like when someone posts a link to multiple social networks at once. In the new app, those mentions could be combined, so you only see the post one time.
I don't know about you, but with the move from Twitter, I'm now finding myself posting on three or four or five different networks. I just don't know where that formerly unified audience has gone. Some folks are on Threads. Some on Mastodon. Some on Bluesky. Some yes, on Xitter. A lot, randomly, on LinkedIn? Anyway, it's a mess. I feel weird posting to all those places because I don't want to spam you if you happen to be following me on two or more of those places. Tapestry, it sounds like, could help alleviate some of that.
They're closing in on their $100,000 goal now. And if they make it to $150,000, they'll work on more advanced functionality, like search. This almost reads like an ad, but it's not. It just seems like a worthy project.