inessential: Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App
October 9, 2025
But what if I wanted to do a web app, in addition to or instead of a native app?
I can picture a future, as I bet you can, where RSS readers aren’t allowed on any app store, and we’re essentially required to use billionaire-owned social media and platform-owned news apps.But there are issues with making NetNewsWire a web app.
I’ve long admired and was in the early days a user of NetNewsWire (originally a Mac and then later iOS app) for reading news feeds that is RSS.
I’ve long since been using a web-based feed reader like Feedly, but, for 15 years or more, companies and developers have chased native apps. They’ve been seen as vital when the web has been right there all along.
So why wouldn’t somebody simply build a web app instead of a Mac or Windows or iPad or iPhone app? After all, you’ve got one codebase with perhaps a few little variations as opposed to three or four or more.
The answer is certainly in some situations not as straightforward. Here Brent Simmons, the long-standing developer of Net News Wire, talks about why it is not a web app.
