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NetNewsWire Turns 23

2026-02-1118:06338102netnewswire.blog

NetNewsWire 1.0 for Mac shipped 23 years ago today! 🎸🎩🕶️ Here’s where things are on this particular February 11: we just shipped 7.0 for Mac and iOS, and now we’re working on NetNewsWire 7.0.1.…

NetNewsWire 1.0 for Mac shipped 23 years ago today! 🎸🎩🕶️

Here’s where things are on this particular February 11: we just shipped 7.0 for Mac and iOS, and now we’re working on NetNewsWire 7.0.1.

After a big release, no matter how careful we are, there are often some regressions to fix and tweaks to make right away, so we’re working on those. Here’s the milestone with the current to-do list.

Big picture: we still have a lot of bugs to fix, lots of tech debt to deal with, and lots of polish-needed areas of the app. With Brent’s retirement last year we’ve been able to go way faster on dealing with all this. We plan to keep up the pace.

Here are our current plans:

For NetNewsWire 7.1 we’re focusing on syncing fixes and improvements.

NetNewsWire 7.2 doesn’t have a focus yet. Could end up being UX fixes and polish, could be something else. Could be a potpourri, though we do prefer having a focus when possible.

We don’t have a NetNewsWire 7.3 plan yet — that’s too far out. Depends on what actually happens with 7.1 and 7.2, and it depends on what Apple adds to our to-do list at WWDC this year. (Touchscreen Macs? Folding iPhones? Big new Swift features? Who knows!)

Note that we do add and remove tickets from milestones at any time — none of this is set in stone, of course.

It’s NetNewsWire’s birthday, but that’s a day to look forward, not to look back. The very best versions of NetNewsWire are still to come!


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Comments

  • By buchanae 2026-02-120:301 reply

    I love the philosophy page: https://netnewswire.com/philosophy.html

    """

    We believe that apps should never crash. They should be free of bugs. They should be fast — they should feel lighter-than-air.

    We believe that quality is more important than just piling on features; we believe that quality is the most important feature. And we believe that high quality is transformative — it makes for an app you never hesitate to reach for. You can rely on it, and you do, again and again.

    This makes us slow to add features. We are adding features — but never at the expense of how it feels. Never at the expense of reliability and speed.

    • By eviks 2026-02-126:563 reply

      Their new version 7 implements the lower quality design of liquid glass while also blocking all ios versions below the latest (so you can't get bug fixes and slow features with the better design). How does that fit the philosophy?

      • By jxdxbx 2026-02-1210:271 reply

        I think it looks better (on Mac and iOS) than any other Liquid Glass app. And I can’t blame Brent for adopting it. One of the standout features of the app is just being native, not trying to re-invent the wheel with custom GUI, and taking advantage of built-in platform features.

        My favorite NNW feature is iCloud syncing: Not needing a separate RSS back-end (but of course you can use one if you want to sync with other clients).

        • By eviks 2026-02-1210:471 reply

          > think it looks better (on Mac and iOS) than any other Liquid Glass app

          what a weird comparison, the baseline is the previous version of the app

          > standout features of the app is just being native, not trying to re-invent the wheel with custom GUI, and taking advantage of built-in platform features

          Since the previous GUI isn't custom you don't lose your standout features

          • By jxdxbx 2026-02-1215:281 reply

            Well I think the iOS version is better! I don't like Liquid Glass on Mac though.

            • By eviks 2026-02-1216:051 reply

              Ok, to get back to the original point: does making one of your platforms worse jibe with the quality philosophy?

              • By jxdxbx 2026-02-1414:041 reply

                Yes, because it means that as Liquid Glass improves with Alan Dye out the door, NNW will automatically benefit from the improvements. Having an app that just follows the current standard native platform conventions is better for users and leads to apps that behave in a predicable way.

                • By eviks 2026-02-1414:30

                  Doesn't make sense, the improvements can still be worse than pre-glass, and it's not guaranteed they will be better. Also, what's the rush, why not implement it after it's improved? The predictability is the opposite - you've changed design, breaking predictable patterns. Also, cutting off users can't be better for users

      • By brailsafe 2026-02-127:301 reply

        That's a tough one, but considering it's only the 7th major version to come out in 23 years, I'd say that's a fairly safe place to demarcate backwards compatibility, considering that it's (probably) a fairly major UI overhaul on both iOS and Mac. Despite the poor quality of the OSes themselves, it's just a small studio, gotta pick your battles carefully. You can still use the version you're using, and if you ever upgrade to the new OS you can get the new version, seems reasonable enough to me

        • By eviks 2026-02-127:421 reply

          > gotta pick your battles carefully

          Ok, and how is wasting time making the design worse to follow the OS instead of spending that time implementing missing features a carefully picked battle? I thought the philosophy was prioritizing quality

          > You can still use the version you're using

          Which would be missing bug fixes and those slow features the may be added next year

          • By sherry-sherry 2026-02-1211:141 reply

            The app has always followed the masOS design language, because the app is built using the native macOS tools. It makes sense for it to match the OS it's on, apps built with stand UI components migrated to 'Liquid glass' much easier.

            The app is open source (https://github.com/Ranchero-Software/NetNewsWire), feel free to back-port any features or bug-fixes you would like to spend your time on.

            • By eviks 2026-02-1211:271 reply

              It doesn't make sense because the previous version also matches the OS it's on, liquid glass degradation isn't mandatory and "much easier" is still harder than doing the better nothing.

              Your suggestion is just as senseless: among the many things wrong with such a "write the app yourself" approach, you forgot about iOS, even though it's mentioned in the original comment, where you can't freely backport anything due to distribution being locked down

              • By sherry-sherry 2026-02-1214:421 reply

                It makes sense. Like you said, previous versions used the macOS design language at the time, and the current version does the same. The developer has chosen to no longer support older versions of macOS, they aren't required to. The old app still works, and anyone else can work on it if they want.

                > you forgot about iOS, even though it's mentioned in the original comment, where you can't freely backport anything due to distribution being locked down

                Yes you can. You can create an app today that is compatible with iOS 15.

                • By eviks 2026-02-1215:582 reply

                  > You can create an app today that is compatible with iOS 15.

                  You forgot to address the point, which was about distribution, not creation

                  The previous paragraph is similarly irrelevant, for example, "aren't required to" - who said anything about requirements??

                  • By sherry-sherry 2026-02-1223:061 reply

                    You create a backport just for yourself for your own device without needing the store, no distribution/App Store is needed.

                    You don't like some of the Liquid Glass stuff... fine, make something else. The old versions still work, I don't really know what you are complaining about. This level of support and polish in a free app is amazing.

                    • By eviks 2026-02-134:381 reply

                      > You create a backport just for yourself for your own device without needing the store, no distribution/App Store is needed.

                      It is needed, you can't install a custom app permanently on iOS. By the way, what if you only have iOS and not a Mac? How would you compile your backport?

                      > The old versions still work

                      I've already addressed it, come back with something meaningful rather than repeat

                      > I don't really know what you are complaining about.

                      I've explained it to you several times, maybe you can get that knowledge by reading the conversation carefully?

                      • By sherry-sherry 2026-02-1314:20

                        I know what you’re complaining about, I just think it’s silly at this point.

                        Old versions work still, you can create your own. The app has had lengthy and good support — which you can extend if you choose.

                  • By jamespo 2026-02-1217:271 reply

                    We get it, you don't like liquid glass, neither do I. But the source is available and there are alternatives to both MacOS and netnewswire.

                    • By eviks 2026-02-1217:321 reply

                      No, you don't get it, otherwise you wouldn't repeat/add irrelevant points to a thread filled with them

                      • By jamespo 2026-02-1222:30

                        Sure, keep whining pointlessly then.

      • By busymom0 2026-02-1317:411 reply

        Sooner or later, they needed to adopt the Liquid Glass design. While Apple allows developers to temporarily add the UIDesignRequiresCompatibility flag to disable Liquid Glass in current iOS version, they are very clear that that flag is temporary and will go away next version. So they had to adopt it either now or next year even if they didn't want it.

        https://developer.apple.com/documentation/BundleResources/In...

        > Temporarily use this key while reviewing and refining your app’s UI for the design in the latest SDKs

        • By eviks 2026-02-1318:03

          > sooner or later ... design in the latest SDKs

          Or don't use the latest SDK and don't be forced "next year", but continue for many more years. Also "later" is definitely better in such cases because there is some change the design will be improved. Either way, there is no good reason to rush to be worse and cut off users if you proclaim you're into quality

  • By cosmic_cheese 2026-02-1119:234 reply

    Hands down the best RSS reader I've used. It's fast, tiny, built extremely well, and has no flab. It sits in a certain class of application along with Alfred and a handful of others in being a standout example of craftsmanship that's reminiscent of the golden era of OS X. More apps should strive for this standard.

    • By pavel_lishin 2026-02-1121:161 reply

      I wish it had a more accessible scripting API - I use it locally, and back up saved stories, but I have to directly hit their sqlite database to extract data out of it :/

      • By Dracophoenix 2026-02-123:10

        That's the issue with most RSS client I've used. The feeds are portable but the data and metadata aren't. I wish there was a permanent solution to this problem.

    • By leokennis 2026-02-1213:101 reply

      With so many apps introducing either paywalls (requiring either login or circumvention measures) or terrible RSS feeds (with content missing, images missing etc.) I have found it necessary to use a feed reader that you can configure per-feed to open either:

      - The feed item (read the XML)

      - The site fulltext

      - The original site (in case of login required)

      For me that app is https://www.lireapp.com/

      • By geoffeg 2026-02-1215:261 reply

        Is there some way to create this kind of experience without having to change RSS readers? Is there a service that allows you to easily create RSS feeds for websites without them? I'd rather go with a more unix "do one thing and do it well" philosophy for something like this.

        • By jamespo 2026-02-1216:08

          There’s rss-bridge which is in the ballpark

    • By xmok 2026-02-1120:38

      Speaking of Alfred, there’s also a Raycast[0] extension for NetNewsWire allowing one to combine the two[1].

      Disclaimer: I authored the extension but like most Raycast extensions, it’s open-source[2].

      [0]: https://raycast.com [1]: https://raycast.com/xmok/netnewswire [2]: https://github.com/raycast/extensions/tree/main/extensions/n...

    • By tomaskafka 2026-02-1120:411 reply

      I love it too, but I would still like some concept of folders, so that I could sort my feeds into eg. programming, design, hobbies, and then have a feed to match the mood.

      • By dallen33 2026-02-1120:53

        Are you talking about NetNewsWire? There are folders, I have a bunch setup.

  • By k2enemy 2026-02-1122:112 reply

    I love NNW, especially the new iteration since Brent got it back. Mac-assed software at its best.

    The other day I was searching for how to turn a youtube channel into an RSS feed and tried all sorts of convoluted instructions for finding channel IDs, etc. At some point I thought this is the kind of user-centric thing that NNW has probably already thought of, and sure enough, if you just paste in a youtube channel URL as the feed, NNW sorts it out and creates a feed for you.

    • By kevincox 2026-02-1122:481 reply

      > if you just paste in a youtube channel URL as the feed, NNW sorts it out and creates a feed for you.

      While I don't doubt that NNW has great UX, feed auto-discovery is a table stakes feature for any RSS client.

    • By navanchauhan 2026-02-1122:411 reply

      I thought YouTube had native RSS feeds for channels?

      • By xp84 2026-02-120:111 reply

        It does - I think the praise being sung was just that you don't need to know how to construct them. YouTube doesn't have a little orange rectangle "RSS" link to click, or anything.

        • By k2enemy 2026-02-122:081 reply

          At one point (when I first tried this) I'm pretty sure youtube didn't have a link to an rss feed in the source. I had grown used to going to source and searching for "rss" and "xml." However, I just checked and they definitely do have a link now!

          • By onli 2026-02-127:321 reply

            Oh, thanks for the hint! I might be able to remove some code from my feed detection code (on pipes) then.

            But on a first glance, it seems like alternate links for channels are back, but playlists are missing. Still, that might be a step forward.

            • By trekz 2026-02-1211:241 reply

              I think openrss.org has YouTube playlist feeds

              • By onli 2026-02-1211:28

                Yeah, quite possible. You can construct the feed by some rules, mine are here: https://github.com/pipes-digital/pipes/blob/4243c9234ddab6a3... - but then you have to monitor whether it still works periodically. Being able to replace that by proper meta tags would be nice.

                Using openrss.org as an intermediary might work as well, but not ideal to rely on a third party for that.

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