RSS in plain English (and why you already know how to use it)
2026-04-14 · 4-min read
What RSS actually is
RSS is a list of "what's new," maintained by a website, that your phone can subscribe to.
That's it. That's the whole thing.
Every time a site you care about adds a new post, they update a little machine-readable file called feed.xml (or feed.json, or similar). That file is a list of headlines, dates, summaries, and links. Your phone's RSS reader app checks all those files periodically and shows you the new ones, like email, except nobody has your address and nothing gets through a spam filter by accident.
Think of it like this: email is push, RSS is pull. You decide which sites to follow, and your reader fetches their news for you. No algorithm. No "for you" tab. No ads unless the site puts them in their own feed. No logging in anywhere. No being tracked across the web.
Why it exists and why it mostly disappeared
RSS was huge from ~2005–2013. Then Google shut down Google Reader in 2013 and most people thought it died. It didn't — it just moved to a smaller, nerdier audience. Podcast apps are actually all RSS under the hood; every podcast you subscribe to is an RSS feed (podcast.xml) and the podcast player is an RSS reader wearing a different hat. So you already use RSS every day — you just don't call it that.
News apps, blog readers, and people who don't want Twitter's algorithm deciding what they see — that's the modern RSS audience.
Why I'm bringing it up for your reports site
Right now, every time I write something for you, I update reports.thebarnetts.info and you have to remember to check it. That's fine for high-urgency stuff, but for small updates — a new status report, a research finding, a calendar reminder — you'd rather have something that just tells you.
If I add an RSS feed to your reports site, it becomes a simple feed.xml that lists everything on the site with dates. Then:
1. You install an RSS reader app on your phone (Reeder is the nice one; NetNewsWire is free; Feedly is web-based). Takes 60 seconds.
2. You paste https://reports.thebarnetts.info/feed.xml into the reader.
3. From then on, every new report I publish shows up in the reader — with a little unread badge, like email but cleaner. You tap, read, done.
No notifications unless you want them. No app I have to build. No OAuth. No backend. No "check your site" — the reader checks for you, every time you open it.
What RSS is good for in your setup
- Morning digests — land in your reader with your coffee
- Calendar alerts — "Q4 Progress Report due April 21" shows up as a normal feed item 3 days before
- Research finishing — when an overnight agent finally writes its report, it appears in your reader the next time you pull to refresh
- Cross-device sync — Reeder, NetNewsWire, and most modern readers sync via iCloud or Feedbin so what you've read on the phone shows as read on the Chromebook and vice versa
What RSS is NOT good for in your setup
- Interactive things — you can't click "Archive" from an RSS reader, because RSS is read-only. The feed just tells the reader what exists; actions happen back on the site.
- Instant notifications — most readers check every 15-60 minutes, not instantly. If you want "buzz my phone the second this report lands," that's a push notification, not RSS. Both can coexist.
- Replacing the site entirely — RSS gives you a list of headlines and summaries. To actually read a long report you still click into the rendered HTML page. (Some readers can show the full body if I include it in the feed, but long docs look cleaner on the site.)
The one-minute-mental-model
Imagine every website you follow has a mailbox out front. RSS is you checking all those mailboxes automatically, once every few minutes, with one app. When a mailbox has something new in it, the app shows you. That's all.
If you want this
Say the word and I'll add a feed.xml to your reports site. Then I'll tell you exactly which reader app to install on your Pixel (and Chromebook, if you want it synced). You'll have the feed working in under 10 minutes. If you hate it after a week, we delete the feed.xml and forget it happened.
Apps I'd point you at
- Feeder (Android) — free, open source, clean, offline-capable. First pick if you want nothing fancy.
- Feedly — web + app, the most popular cloud-synced one, free tier fine for you. Pick if you also want to read it on a browser.
- Inoreader — more powerful than Feedly, still free tier. Pick if you think you'll eventually follow 50+ feeds (news sites, AI blogs, etc.).
I'd install Feeder first. 5 minutes, no account required, done.
tl;dr — RSS is "my phone checks 5 websites for me and shows me what's new, like email but without the email." Say go and I'll wire it into your reports site.