14 DAY TRIAL // Feedly has made the jump to its new backend, which replaces the Google Reader API. With Reader having days to live, the move was inevitable. By now, most users should have upgraded to the new cloud version of Feedly.
While Feedly may still not be a perfect replacement for Google Reader, it does bring plenty of its own features to the mix.
What's more, compared to the Feedly of just a few months ago, the latest version of the app is quite an improvement.
It's only been 100 days since Google announced it was shutting down its RSS reader, which had become the most widely used news reader app at that point.
Since then, eight million people have made the switch from Reader to Feedly. And in that time, the Feedly team has made quite a few improvements to the product.
First, it added a simple import tool for those making the switch. One of the first changes done to accommodate Reader users was a new title-only view for the feed.
A few days ago, the pure-web version of Feedly was introduced. Previously, users had to install browser extensions. At the time of the announcement, the Firefox version of the extension hadn't been updated in a year and the Chrome one wasn't getting that much attention either.
The company also beefed up its hardware to deal with the millions of new users. Also more recently, the Feedly cloud API became a reality, making it possible for Feedly users to sync between devices, but also enabling other news reader apps to add sync capabilities that had been previously provided by Reader.
Overall, it's been quite the transformation. Feedly is not the only one vying for Reader users and the new competition should only be beneficial. While no one has matched Reader yet, there are now options and it's clear that things will evolve. A few months from now, most people could actually be glad that Reader is dead.