I’ve got access to the beta of the Surf app. Some thoughts:

some stuff I really liked:

  • rss works (though no custom URLs yet, just what they already scraped)

  • you get lemmy, mastodon, bluesky, threads all together

  • you can make your own feeds and check what other people made (like a custom timeline, or topic-specific like “NBA”, “woodworking”, “retro gaming stuff”)

  • has different modes: you can switch between videos, articles, podcasts depending on the feed

but also…

  • can’t add your own RSS feeds (huge miss)

  • some feeds break and show no posts even when they’re active (ok, it’s still a beta)

  • YouTube videos have ads (not into that—I support creators through patreon, affiliate links, whatever. not ads)

  • feeds you create are public by default unless you manually change it

  • not open source. built on open protocols, sure. but the app is locked up. (HUGE MISS)

all that said, I really believe: better feeds = better experience = better shot at the fediverse going mainstream.

anyone else tried it?

do you know anyone building an open source version of this? is that even realistic?

I’d love to hear what do you think :)

  • Coco@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    17·
    1 day ago

    I just went to download it and realized I needed an invite code because the beta is closed.

    When I went to sign up for the wait-list, it turns out I’m already on it, since last DECEMBER!

    So they either need to let more folks in real quick, or they cannot gain traction by word of mouth.

    • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
      7·
      1 day ago

      I got in several months ago but they require a fucking Google account to activate it. I don’t understand how they can pretend to make an entire app “built for the open web” that has big tech dependencies. It’s a fuckin’ joke, as far as I’m concerned.

      • rglullis@communick.newsEnglish
        2·
        2 hours ago

        If your goal is to get the masses to try something new, making it as easy as possible to onboard them makes absolute sense. That includes letting them sign up using something that 98.123456789% of the people use.

        And if you already are out of Big Tech hell hole, then you likely already know how to find and manage and curate your own feeds.

        • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
          1·
          1 hour ago

          making it as easy as possible to onboard them makes absolute sense

          I don’t understand how one could possibly think that requiring a Google account would make it easier to onboard new users…

          And if you already are out of Big Tech hell hole, then you likely already know how to find and manage and curate your own feeds.

          The software necessary to do what Surf does, as far as I’m aware, doesn’t exist elsewhere.

      • Coco@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        7·
        1 day ago

        I just find it weird I’ve been on the wait-list for 7 months. Long enough for me to have completely forgotten I even signed up in the first place.

        They’re certainly taking plenty of time.

  • squinky@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    1 day ago

    Soooo…

    I’ve been working on something for a while now. It has RSS feeds and partial support for ActivityPub, and it’s also got federated web search.

    I’m considering adding AT proto for bsky support soon but it’s not a top priority.

    It’s been in friends-and-family testing for about a year now. The intent is to release under AGPL, but development is closed until I feel the code quality can withstand scrutiny from this brutal community 😅

    Right now I have a to-do list full of things that are stopping me from letting more people access it. My hope is to get them knocked out this summer, though. I’ll definitely post something here when that happens.

    I heard about Surf well after I’d already been working on this, and signed up for the beta but have been on the waiting list since last year. I’d really love to see their approach.

  • MacStainless@piefed.socialEnglish
    7·
    1 day ago

    I find tapestry to be way better than surf. I use both but surf just feels confusing while tapestry do everything in a cleaner way.

  • Coelacanth@feddit.nuEnglish
    6·
    1 day ago

    you get lemmy, mastodon, bluesky, threads all together

    Wait, I’ve been waiting for an app like this. How does it support threaded link aggregation like Lemmy? Can you browse communities and feeds as you would any other Lemmy app, or does it display all scuffed like if you try to follow Lemmy communities on Mastodon/Misskey?

  • Jayjader@jlai.luEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    Wanted to try it, signed up for the beta, still waiting on my invite code.

    On the surface, bluesky integration makes sense if they’re trying to onboard people onto “the social web”. Still, I’m disappointed they seem to want to be a curated view on what they determine is a feed, and not some kind of plug’n’play feed viewer beyond RSS.

      • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        Pretty sure Samsung didn’t install it because they thought their customers would just love it so much!