Feedly is nice and all, but it’s basic. It’s great if you’re looking for a well-designed, minimal reading environment. But when you ask for pro functionality, Feedly quickly falls apart.
Inoreader, on the other hand, welcomes you with open arms. Want to create smart filters? Go ahead. Geek out over keyboard shortcuts? Why not. Customize every single detail of the web UI. Of course.
It seems simple, but there’s a lot of stuff Inoreader can do. And trust me, even with this article, we’re only just starting to dig in.
1. Import OPML File From Feedly
First of all, if you’re switching from Feedly, you’ll need to get all your subscriptions in. With Feedly, just go to the export link, and click the button that says “Click here to download your Feedly OPML.”
In Inoreader, go to “Preferences” and select “Import/Export.” Here, upload the file and choose “Import.”
2. Enable Dark Mode
Inoreader comes with a sweet dark mode built in. If you like reading in a low contrast environment or reading at night, the dark mode is for you. Enable it by clicking the “Eye” icon in the toolbar and clicking on “Dark theme.”
3. Disable Images and Customize Article View
If you’re trying to save bandwidth or you like a minimal reading environment, you might want to switch to a text-only mode in Inoreader by disabling images.
Inoreader has a plethora of customization options. Click the “Gear” icon, and then select “Preferences -> Interface -> Article contents.” Here you’ll see options for adjusting the font size, the font, and the line height along with an option to disable images.
4. Learn the Most Important Keyboard Shortcuts
Click the “Gear” button and then select “Keyboard shortcuts” to view a list of all supported shortcuts. And this is a huge list. You don’t need to remember all of them; just try to remember the important ones. “Space” for next article. “Shift + Space” for the previous article. “1” for list view. “F” to mark an article as a favorite, “T” to add tags, and “W” to lead from Readability.
There are keyboard shortcuts to send the current article to other services as well. “Y” for Pocket, “I” for Instapaper and “E” for Evernote.
5. Load Readability View
If you’re using Feedly, you need a separate extension to load the entire article from a truncated feed inside Feedly. Not here. Much like the Android app, Inoreader on the web comes with Readability view built in. And it works marvelously. All you need to do is press “W” when you’re reading a truncated article, and in a couple of seconds the whole article will show up right there. Alternatively, you can also click the “coffee cup” icon.
6. Use Tags
Inoreader lets you create tags from “Preferences -> Folders and tags.” Once created, a tag shows up in the sidebar. When reading an article, use the keyboard shortcut “T,” type in the tag name and save it.
Now that article will always be available in that tag across all your devices. You can also generate an RSS feed for each of your tags.
Tags basically help you take the favorite or read-later feature found in most RSS readers to a whole new level.
Using the same menu from “Preferences,” you can create a new folder and add your existing subscriptions to it.
7. Create a Rule
The free version of Inoreader lets you create one rule. You can unlock more by upgrading. If you’ve used filters in Gmail, you’ll be right at home with Inoreader’s “Rules.” Go to “Preferences -> Rules” to get started.
Create a new rule, and you’ll see the following screen.
Here I’ve created a rule to send me a notification on my Android phone whenever a new article containing “Reddit” in its title shows up.
But you can do much more. A rule can match text in the title, URL, content, author and more.
And once a match is found, you can assign actions like automatically filing it to a tag, sending to a service like Evernote or sending a notification.
8. Check Out Bundles
As you might already know, Inoreader tries to bring in the discovery element to RSS. When you first sign up, you need to select categories and sites you’re interested in.
“Bundles” is its natural progression. This is where you just tell Inoreader that you’re interested in X. Inoreader will then create a folder in Inoreader with all the relevant articles from relevant feeds. This stuff only stays in that particular folder and doesn’t mess up your normal feeds. Bundles are a community project. You can subscribe to bundles created by others or submit your own.
9. Use the Inoreader Companion Extension
Check out the Inoreader Companion extension for Chrome and Firefox.
It lets you do a couple of useful things. First, when you click it, a drop-down shows all your feeds, tags and folders. You can also search in Inoreader from here. It will let you add the current web page as a feed or save the current page directly to Inoreader.
Most features in Inoreader are free. You even get a taste of the pro features. But if you’re looking for features like unlimited rules and search, you’ll have to sign up for a paid account that starts at as little as $1.25 a month.
If you’ve been using Inoreader for a long time, do share your favorite tips and tricks with us in the comments below.
Khamosh Pathak is a freelance technology writer. He’s always trying out new apps, tools and services. He is platform agnostic. You’ll find an iPhone 5 and a OnePlus One on him at (almost) all times.
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