TechSource: Best Google Reader Replacements for Android and Linux

Best Google Reader Replacements for Android and Linux

Posted: 06 Aug 2013 11:12 PM PDT

RIP Google Reader: October 7, 2005 - July 1, 2013. Yes, it's official, Google Reader is dead. One of the best content aggregators (feed readers) on the web, that too by one of the best companies on the web, has just been discontinued. Google, noticing that Google Reader's usage was declining, announced on March 13, 2013 that it was going to discontinue the product by July 2013. This led to a huge discontent among many Google Reader users who thought that the change was completely unnecessary and that Google was pulling the plug on a very important product. In fact, more than 100,000 people signed a petition on change.org opposing the axing of Reader. Needless to say, saying goodbye to Google Reader was one of the hardest things ever for techies who preferred all their news in one place.

Having said that, it's not the end of the world. Soon after the announcement, people started looking for Reader alternatives, and yes, they found some great products. Though most of these alternatives are web-based, there are also some applications that do Reader's job perfectly well on Linux and Android. Here's a list of the best of such applications.

Feedly

Feedly is the best alternative to Google Reader you can find on any platform. With a snappy, magazine-like customizable interface, as many as 500,000 Google Reader users migrated to Feedly once Google announced the service's closure. In the next two weeks, Feedly got as many as 3 million new users. Running across Chrome, Firefox, iOS, and Android, Feedly, under the codename Project Normandy, decided to make it easier for users to migrate their Reader feeds to the cloud. Now, once you login to Feedly, not only can you find your old feeds, but also discover new ones based on their popularity and their category.

Akregator

A part of the KDE Suite of applications, Akregator is one of the best RSS readers for Linux. With a simple interface, once installed, Akregator lets you follow news sites, blogs, and many other RSS feeds. Since the application is integrated with Konqueror, KDE's default web browser, you can browse the sites without opening any external application.

Liferea

Written in C, Liferea is one of the most popular RSS readers on the Linux platform. The application lets you add and manage various RSS feeds from blogs as well as from news sites. You can then choose to read those feeds online and offline as well. One of the best features about Liferea is that it synchronizes with TinyTinyRSS and The Old Reader, so that even if you migrate to other applications, it won't be such a big problem. Also, Liferea lets you play podcasts within the application itself. Overall, Liferea can be crowned as the best native RSS reader Linux has to offer. Also, since the application is in active development, expect it to be integrated with Feedly or AOL Reader in the future.

For Ubuntu users, try out the following command to install Liferea:

sudo apt-get install liferea

Blam! RSS Reader

Blam! is a very simple RSS Reader for Linux. It has an easy-to-use 3-pane interface with the feed list on the left, individual stories on the top right and the full stories on the bottom right. In other words, the interface looks much like any other mail reader. Though Blam! is not something you can rely on if you are switching from a powerful reader like Google Reader, it is nevertheless a great choice if you are looking for something extremely simple.

Flipboard

Though not a Google Reader alternative in a strict sense, Flipboard does serve as an amazing magazine-like reader. With a beautiful interface and a large user base, Flipboard lets you read your news in style. Moreover, you can also discover new feeds by categories and personalize your reading. Flipboard, unlike other reader applications, relies on a magazine-like interface that makes it stand apart from them. Available for both iOS and Android, Flipboard is worth a try even if you're not looking for a Google Reader alternative.