Scattered thoughts on Tapestry

I've been a longtime Reeder user, so when Iconfactory announced Tapestry, I knew I had to check it out. Here are some initial thoughts.

TL;DR: the app is okay but needs work.

• Having everything in one place is, for me, perfect. It forces me to slow down and avoid bouncing between apps.
• The UX is clunky and confusing in certain areas, like interacting with cards in the feed or setting up and maintaining feeds.
• Something that's not a unique problem to Tapestry is that there's no ability to interact with posts from the feed. You need to tap on the post, which opens an in-app browser. Next, you log in, and "like" or "favourite," then return to Tapestry. It's not great.

As an aside, I've heard one of the main issues with Tapestry and apps like it is that they're simply a means to an end, something we use now until everything is standardized.

I disagree with that idea. The internet is messy, and we'll always need apps like these to bridge the gaps. People will always want to reinvent the wheel with new specs and standards; getting all of these things on the same page will take decades if it happens at all.

• They talked a bit about it on Mastodon but the fact that it doesn't work with RSS services, especially self-hosted ones, is basically a non-starter. I get the reasoning somewhat but it's a huge pain to manage large libraries of feeds right from the app.
• On a related note, Tapestry's connections list and ability for third-party developers to integrate is really impressive.
• I find the different colours used for each feed to be overwhelming. I wish there was a monochrome option.
• To be honest, I've never liked Iconfactory's design style. It's opinionated, which is great, but it doesn't jive with my tastes at all. This'll keep me from using the app for any extended period of time.

This is a good start and there are a lot of people who are really going to love this app. I'll be interested in checking in with it again in a few months and seeing what's changed.