I've been thinking about why RSS stayed niche for twenty years despite being genuinely good, and where it's actually heading now.
My take: there were always two kinds of people. One group wants out of Big Tech and the algorithm, back to open formats they control (the classic RSS crowd). The other group wants modern features, audio, summaries, clean interfaces, stuff in the car. For a long time RSS served the first group but not the second, so it stayed a tool for a technical minority.
What's changed lately is that a wave of new apps is using AI to fill the gaps that kept RSS out of most people's hands. Finding feeds without touching a URL, reading them aloud, summarising, organising on-device. The protocol underneath is the same open format, but the friction is gone. So people who've never heard of RSS end up using it without knowing, because the app hides the technical part.
I don't think RSS is about to boom (anyone promising that is selling something). It's quieter than that. It's just becoming usable by people who aren't us.
Wrote it up properly here if anyone wants the longer version: https://safeandinformed.com/blog/where-rss-is-quietly-heading
Curious what this sub thinks. Do you see RSS staying a power-user tool, or do these AI-layer apps actually bring in normal people? And does that dilute what made RSS good, or extend it?