Replace Twitter Ads With Your to-Do List
macOS: I do my best to avoid online ads unless I really want to support the site or service I’m using. In addition, all large companies are likely to profit from my data anyway; do they really need my tiny impression?
That’s why I love Hijack Your Feed , a fun macOS Safari extension that replaces promoted posts (or ads) on your Twitter feed with giant colorful elements from your Reminders app. It’s easy to set up, but it has a few things you need to know to make sure it actually works. Mine was fussy the first time around until I got it all sorted out, so hold on.
To get started, download the free Hijack Your Feed app from the Mac App Store. Run it and you will be prompted to do two key things:
Setting up both is pretty easy, so don’t worry about that. You will eventually be taken to Safari – sorry Chrome, Edge or Firefox users, but there is only a Safari binding for Hijack Your Feed – where you will need to make sure you enable the extension:
Then, when you go to Twitter to start testing Hijack Your Feed, make sure you give the extension permission to change your site content:
Finally, click on the little Hack Your Feed icon and switch the extension’s only setting to Hack Ads instead of Hack Messages. I’ve never seen the latter get hijacked, but the former definitely worked, as you’ll see below:
Yes, it was a small snippet from my shopping list in Reminders that said I needed to buy a sink cleaner. Only I did it a few weeks ago and forgot to cross it off my list. One of the great tricks of Hijack Your Feed is that it allows you to mark tasks as complete when you complete them (or if you already have them). You don’t just get a reminder; you can act on that right now.
And, yes, the design of your reminders is gigantic, animated and obnoxious. This is a great way to make sure you don’t brush it off again. And this is much better than other ads.