How to Try Google’s New Experimental RSS Feature in Chrome Canary
Google is testing an experimental RSS-based Follow feature in Chrome Canary on Android. Google says the feature is just “experimenting” so far and will decide based on user and developer feedback whether to implement the feature publicly, but that seems like good news for RSS lovers like me.
If you are not familiar with RSS, it is a type of feed that is updated whenever a website publishes new content, and RSS readers collect all of these feeds into a single list that you can check at any time. RSS readers are not as popular as they once were, and well-known features like Google News and Firefox’s embedded RSS feed were discontinued many years ago. However, RSS is the preferred way for many people to keep abreast of their favorite news outlets and blogs. You can even add podcasts and YouTube channels to your RSS feed. It’s much easier than going directly to a website for the latest updates, and less distracting than catching headlines on Twitter, Facebook, or Reddit.
For now, Google’s subscription list is just an experiment that Google hopes will “strengthen the interaction between users and web publishers in Chrome,” but the final release is subject to user and developer feedback.
If you want to take part in the Chrome’s Follow test, you need to install Chrome Canary for Android . As we often warn you, Chrome Canary is the least stable version of the browser, filled with experimental and unfinished features that are prone to crashes. However, Canary installs as a separate app from other versions of Chrome, so you can always switch to a different browser if it doesn’t work as expected.
Follow is slowly rolling out to Chrome Canary Android users in the coming weeks, and not all users will have access to it yet (it hasn’t arrived for me yet). But once the Follow function is available, go to the website and tap the three-dot icon in the upper right corner. Click + Subscribe at the bottom of the menu to add the website to your subscribers list. The latest updates from monitored websites will appear in a new “Subscriptions” feed whenever you open a new tab.
If you end up converting RSS like I did but don’t want to use Chrome Canary all the time, there are tons of third-party websites, apps, and RSS plugins for every browser, including my favorite RSS reader, Feedly.
[ 9to5Google ]