NewsNinja: a smart RSS reader to optmize reading time
A few weeks ago, I was commuting to work by train, and I was checking the news as I usually do.
While scrolling through articles, one annoying thing stood out to me: the same news was reported over and over by multiple news outlets.
Nothing out of the ordinary, but as a person who values time and optimization, I felt I was wasting brain power by reading the title, acknowledging I had already read the news, rinse and repeat.
I wanted a better way to browse news; I didn’t want to spend my precious time skipping articles and scrolling until I found something new to read.
My first idea was to check what apps allowed me to do that. I installed various feed readers and smart AI apps, and while they offered some cool features, they didn’t suit my style.
Some offered a daily overview of news; others were recommending me what news to read.
But I had a different (and maybe unique) requirement: I still wanted to read the original story and decide for myself if it was worth reading in depth or not, and I only needed to read one story about the topic.
Since my requirement was unique, I decided to use my spare time and build the app myself.
It was easier than expected; it only took 24 hours across 10 days (I’ll write an in-depth article about the process).
Ok so, what is NewsNinja?
NewsNinja is an RSS reader designed to maximize and optimize reading time.
The main differentiator is its ability to group articles that cover the same story. It includes three different algorithms to choose from and allows changing the similarity threshold to tweak it for different news sources.
It automatically defaults to reader mode, stripping away all distractions and allowing you to focus on the article itself.
For longer articles, it includes a summarization feature (this is the only paid feature, as it relies on third-party paid APIs).
No account is required to use the app, and it’s available on iOS, iPadOS, and VisionOS.
The scientific way
The app allows you to group articles by Feed, Chronologically, or Scientifically.
Scientifically?
The scientific grouping compares news titles and determines if they should be grouped together based on a threshold.
It is possible to choose between three different algorithms and to define the threshold so that the grouping can be customized based on the subscribed news sources.
For example, news about sports might require a different algorithm and threshold than news about tech. So depending on the type of news you read, you can tweak the comparison to better suit your needs.
There are two different ways to visualize scientific grouping: List and Article.
List creates groups directly in the list, allowing you to see all the articles at a glance.
Article grouping only shows the first posted article and displays a number indicating how many articles are grouped together.
Tapping on a grouped article will show a bar at the bottom of the article, where you can see and decide which articles to read.
Future updates
I’m planning to improve NewsNinja over time, adding various features to enhance its usability and customization.
Currently, here is what I have planned:
- Excluded words: hide articles that have specific words in titles (Ex: Elon, Trump…)
- Alternative UIs to show cards and images
- Categories: group news into specific categories (Tech, Sports, World, etc.)
- macOS version
- Article and summary translations
- Themes: customize fonts and colors for a more personal reading experience
- Integrations with services (Feedly, Feedbin, etc.)
- Support for YouTube and Reddit
