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Flipboard just launched Surf, its new social app and feed reader
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Vittelius feddit.org Vittelius@feddit.org
Joined: 2024-07-21
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50   Original
Loaf sh.itjust.works loaf@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-06-24
#2 · (edited) Quote Reply

I’ve been beta testing the iOS version and I’ve got to be honest, it’s a bit of a mess.

Bluesky (ugh) works — I can see posts from Bluesky users even without an account. But Mastodon posts are hit-or-miss.

If you post something, it’s to your surf.social account, which… fine. I’d prefer just sharing to my personal account. (There’s probably a way to do this, but I haven’t found it)

The UI is kind of ugly. It used to make sense in earlier betas, but now… eh.

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Cris_Citrus (he/him <3) piefed.zip Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip
Joined: 2026-02-26
#3 · (edited) Quote Reply

I’ve been beta testing the iOS version and I’ve got to be honest, it’s a bit of a mess. Bluesky (ugh) works — I can see posts from Bluesky users even without an account. But Mastodon posts are hit-or-miss. If you post something, it’s to your surf.social account, which… fine. I’d prefer just sharing to my personal account. (There’s probably a way to do this, but I haven’t found it) The UI is kin...

Flare on f-droid might also be worth trying out depending on what you're looking for :) not sure if it'd be for you but thought I'd put it on your radar

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jagermo feddit.org jagermo@feddit.org
Joined: 2024-06-23
#4 · Quote Reply

Oh, I'll take a look. Cool new RSS reader? Count me in

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Jayjader jlai.lu Jayjader@jlai.lu
Joined: 2023-12-31
#5 · Quote Reply

I'm disappointed there's no threadiverse integration.

The basic grunt work of bringing together bluesky and mastodon feeds is pretty decently done, if a bit opinionated.

I like the concept and presentation of their feed "packages", but for most of the feeds I've been proposed in the app I'm not interested in the entire package. It's nice that you can still directly follow the actors packaged into a feed from that feed's page.

It's very annoying that Surf wants their/my Surf account to act as the intermediary for my mastodon account. From what I can see, this means I need to exit the app to take some action with my mastodon account. Maybe I just haven't found the option, but if there isn't one then it's a hard blocker for me to use it as my main fediverse browser.

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Loaf sh.itjust.works loaf@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-06-24
#6 · Quote Reply

Flare on f-droid might also be worth trying out depending on what you're looking for :) not sure if it'd be for you but thought I'd put it on your radar

Just downloaded it and love it so far! Thanks for the suggestion!

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Cris_Citrus (he/him <3) piefed.zip Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip
Joined: 2026-02-26
#7 · Quote Reply

Just downloaded it and love it so far! Thanks for the suggestion!

I'm glad its helpful ☺️☺️

The app hasnt been perfefctly polished in my experience but its generally worked more than well enough for my use case

Hope you have a lovely day friend ☺️

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tuckerm feddit.online tuckerm@feddit.online
Joined: 2025-03-06
#8 · Quote Reply

I'm disappointed there's no threadiverse integration. The basic grunt work of bringing together bluesky and mastodon feeds is pretty decently done, if a bit opinionated. I like the concept and presentation of their feed "packages", but for most of the feeds I've been proposed in the app I'm not interested in the entire package. It's nice that you can still directly follow the actors packaged in...

From what I can see, this means I need to exit the app to take some action with my mastodon account.

I haven't tried posting anything yet, but just liking and boosting has been doing it through my Mastodon account. If I'm interacting with a bluesky post, then it uses the bluesky account that it automatically created for me. But since I signed in with my Mastodon account, all of those actions have been done by my Mastodon account.

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tuckerm feddit.online tuckerm@feddit.online
Joined: 2025-03-06
#9 · Quote Reply

I'm liking it so far. One thing that I noticed is that, by default, when you add a new source (person, Youtube channel, etc.), it asks you what category that source should go it. Mastodon's web UI has the multi-column layout, and you can use that to categorize people you follow, but I always end up forgetting to do that. Seems like Surf makes categories the first thing you do, rather than an optional thing you do later. I think I'm going to like this more organized feed based around topics.

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Jayjader jlai.lu Jayjader@jlai.lu
Joined: 2023-12-31
#10 · Quote Reply

From what I can see, this means I need to exit the app to take some action with my mastodon account. I haven't tried posting anything yet, but just liking and boosting has been doing it through my Mastodon account. If I'm interacting with a bluesky post, then it uses the bluesky account that it automatically created for me. But since I signed in with my Mastodon account, all of those actions ha...

That's great to hear!

2
northernlights lemmy.today northernlights@lemmy.today
Joined: 2025-10-05
#11 · (edited) Quote Reply

I'm liking it so far. One thing that I noticed is that, by default, when you add a new source (person, Youtube channel, etc.), it asks you what category that source should go it. Mastodon's web UI has the multi-column layout, and you can use that to categorize people you follow, but I always end up forgetting to do that. Seems like Surf makes categories the first thing you do, rather than an op...

Not super fan of this hiding basic settings behind a future paid subscription:

Since it does RSS I'd like to be able to import an opml of my feeds like any other aggregator does.

I like the idea but not super impressed so far.

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tuckerm feddit.online tuckerm@feddit.online
Joined: 2025-03-06
#12 · Quote Reply

Not super fan of this hiding basic settings behind a future paid subscription: Since it does RSS I'd like to be able to import an opml of my feeds like any other aggregator does. I like the idea but not super impressed so far.

I'm always torn about what kinds of features should be put behind a paywall. Like, if it's just little customizations, that's much better than saying, "pay us a monthly fee to make more people see your posts." It seems silly to make UI customization a pro feature, but that also seems like a non-evil way of monetizing a social media app.

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