Desktop RSS Feed Reader NewsFlash 1.2.0 Adds Support for NewsBlur, More

NewsFlash 1.2.0 has been released with support for NewsBlur, ported Feedly to the new collections API, and more.

NewsFlash is a desktop RSS feed reader for Linux created primarily to be used with web-based RSS feed readers like Feedly, Feedbin, etc., but it can also be used locally, without such web services. The program is a complete rewrite of FeedReader in Rust, using GTK for the user interface, with many extra features on top.

The application features:

Support for syncing with services like Miniflux, Feedly, Fever, NewsBlur (support for this was added in the latest NewsFlash 1.2.0), Feedbin, and like I already mentioned, there's also support for local RSS feeds
Desktop notifications
Fast search and filtering
Tags, categories and stars
Configurable keyboard shortcuts
Makes use of the Feedly database for feed discovery (no matter the web-based RSS service you're using, and even for local RSS)
Adaptive user interface with the help of libhandy
Dark mode and 5 built-in themes
OPML import / export
Can fetch updates in the background and has configurable update interval
Configurable proxy
Download full content for specific articles on demand
Export articles as html with embedded images
Manual offline mode

The application project page also mentions that work for Google Reader style APIs is already on the way, which should add supports for web-based RSS feed readers such as FreshRSS, InoReader and The Old Reader.

NewsFlash adaptive user interface

Changes in NewsFlash 1.2.0 include:

Support for NewsBlur
Feedly: port to new collections API
Option to limit duration articles are kept in the database
Option to hide feeds without unread/starred articles
Update article with new content like forum posts
Local RSS: support for MediaRSS (an RSS extension that adds several enhancements to RSS enclosures, and is used for syndicating multimedia files like audio, video, and image in RSS feeds)
Fix regression in database that lead to foreign key constraints failing
Feedly: fix token not refreshing
Other bug fixes

I've been aware of NewsFlash for a while, but I didn't want to write about it because its Feedly integration didn't work properly, at least for me (I follow numerous RSS feeds), and I don't like to write about things I wouldn't personally use. However, with the latest NewsFlash 1.2.0, Feedly works great with this application. As a side note, I didn't add a screenshot of NewsFlash using Feedly in this article, but using local RSS feeds, due to privacy reasons.

It's also worth noting that if you'd like to implement support for new RSS feed services, there's a guide and code template that you can use. The developers are also looking for a Feedbin service maintainer.

Download NewsFlash

NewsFlash is available on Flahub, making it easy to install across many Linux distributions. Before using Flathub, you'll need to follow its quick setup if you haven't already. Once Flathub is setup, you can install it using:

flatpak install flathub com.gitlab.newsflash

Note that some Linux distributions come with Flathub enabled by default (like Linux Mint). In such cases, all you have to do is search for NewsFlash in your Software app to install it.

The application is also available on AUR for Arch Linux / Manjaro users (the stable version is quite outdated at the time I'm writing this, but there's also a Git version).