HyperTexting app offers open web alternative to algorithmic feeds

A new iOS application, HyperTexting, launched this week to repurpose the open web into a scrollable, social media-style feed. Built by 20-year tech veteran Caleb Hailey and his company Herd Works, the free app leverages RSS technology to let users follow blogs, news outlets, and podcasts.

The app functions much like X or Facebook but points entirely to independent websites. Users can read articles ad-free, listen to podcasts, and engage in discussions by posting directly to their own linked websites, such as WordPress or Ghost newsletters. An optional Safari extension allows users to add new sites to their feed while browsing.

Hailey developed the app after growing frustrated with the evolution of major social platforms. “Somewhere along the way, social media came, and it was easier to make a page and post to your page than it was a website,” he said. “And the rest is history.”

He specifically cited Twitter’s shift as a breaking point. “[Twitter] used to be a good place to discover things and share things, before they were chasing growth, and no longer reverse chron,” Hailey said. Plus, he adds, “links got deranked”.

The experience of “doom scrolling” during the COVID-19 pandemic eventually led him to uninstall social apps entirely and return to older RSS reader technology. For European digital consumers navigating an increasingly fragmented online landscape, the app offers a bridge back to an open, decentralized network.

Mainstream adoption of RSS has historically stalled. Google famously shut down its Google Reader app in 2013, and the protocol has remained a niche tool for researchers and journalists. Hailey believes the missing ingredient was simply user interface design.

“My experience in tech over the last 20 years is that things have just gotten so complicated,” Hailey said. “And to some degree, there’s this urge — this irresistible urge — to reinvent the wheel. Part of my experiment with HyperTexting is like, what if we didn’t?”

To sustain the service, Herd Works may eventually introduce premium subscriptions or feature a single daily sponsored post. For now, Hailey hopes users will recognize that the infrastructure for a truly open social network already exists.