Tapestry App Review: Exploring the Open Web

Tapestry: A New Approach to Web and Social Media Aggregation

Launched on Tuesday, Tapestry is a novel application designed to consolidate information gathered from various online sources and social networks into a unified platform.

In essence, it functions similarly to FriendFeed, a service from the Web 2.0 period that aimed to centralize feeds and social media updates for both discovery and conversation, but for a contemporary audience.

A Reader-Focused Design

Unlike FriendFeed, which fostered on-site discussions and evolved into a social network ultimately acquired by Facebook, Tapestry excels as an information reader.

Its core function is to streamline the user experience by eliminating the need for constant app-switching, a growing issue as the decentralized social web expands.

Navigating the Fragmented Social Landscape

The emergence of platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon, built on open-source software and decentralized principles, presents a new challenge: maintaining connections with contacts who have dispersed across multiple platforms following departures from X and Meta.

Tapestry directly tackles this issue, offering a solution for those seeking to stay informed across a fragmented social landscape.

Potential Limitations

While Tapestry effectively addresses the problem of information overload, its specialized focus may initially restrict its broader appeal to primarily early adopters and those actively engaged with the open web.

The app’s success will likely depend on its ability to attract a wider user base beyond this initial segment.

A Consolidated Application Experience

Many individuals currently rely on a variety of applications and workflows to stay informed through news websites, blogs, podcasts, and video content from their preferred creators. Tapestry aims to streamline this process. It presents a unified platform for monitoring updates from these sources, alongside those originating from various social networks, including Bluesky, Mastodon, and Tumblr.

Developed by the creators of the original Twitter client, Twitterrific, Tapestry introduces a novel timeline concept. This timeline functions similarly to Twitter’s, displaying updates in a continuous scroll.

Furthermore, the application provides advanced configuration options for this timeline. Users can selectively mute or “muffle” content, or even collapse it for optional viewing, thereby optimizing screen real estate.

These features allow for personalized control over the aesthetic and overall experience of the timeline. For example, users might choose to muffle discussions related to politics to avoid visual clutter or suppress spoilers for their favorite television programs.

Once you’ve integrated your desired social accounts, RSS feeds, blogs, and podcasts into Tapestry, you can then customize your timeline, or create multiple timelines. This allows for tailored views of your information streams.

For instance, a dedicated timeline could focus exclusively on Apple-related news, blogs, and podcasts, while another could aggregate updates from social platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon.

Maximizing Tapestry’s potential requires careful consideration of the information you wish to track and how you prefer to organize it. Consolidating all updates into a single feed can sometimes feel overwhelming due to the volume of social media posts.

Your timelines within Tapestry function as custom feeds, akin to those found on Bluesky, but with the added capability of aggregating content from multiple services, rather than being limited to a single platform. This positions you as a curator of information, rather than simply a consumer – a role that may evolve with the growth of a more extensive developer ecosystem.

Feeds and Connectors

Tapestry aims to address a need felt by those familiar with the early open social web, however, its aggregation of content into timelines can sometimes feel unnecessarily complex. Certain aspects of the user interface would benefit from further refinement.

For example, when selecting “open original” from the “more” menu (represented by three dots) on a post, Tapestry defaults to opening feeds within the application itself.

This design choice, placing an additional tap between the user and direct engagement with the source content, may not appeal to individuals who prefer swift participation in social discussions while browsing. Engaging with posts requires logging into the respective social network when opened in-app. It is recommended to configure Tapestry to open feeds in “Safari” to directly launch the associated iOS application (such as Bluesky) for liking, replying, or reposting.

Regrettably, this configuration doesn't fully resolve the challenge of managing multiple accounts across various applications.

A potentially confusing element of the app’s design lies in its two sections for adding sources: “Feeds” and “Connectors.” The “Feeds” section is for adding content displayed in your timeline, while “Connectors” are intended to generate feeds that populate it. (These descriptions may cause confusion, and the app would benefit from clearer explanations.)

Connectors function similarly to plug-ins or extensions. They operate within a JavaScript sandbox and are designed to be developed by a community of third-party developers seeking to expand the Tapestry ecosystem with custom feeds. However, these Connectors are currently unable to incorporate sources like Facebook, Instagram, X, or other platforms lacking open feeds.

The concept of an extensible application is innovative, but perhaps better suited for a later stage of development. The primary focus should initially be on validating the core premise: do users actually desire to view information from diverse web sources, including social media, as unified “timelines”? Is there a preference for a combined view over utilizing dedicated applications for each service?

Evolving Control: A Look at Feed Customization

The desire for users to curate their own news and information streams isn't unique to Tapestry. Several platforms are exploring methods to grant individuals greater control over their online experience.

Emerging social applications, such as Bluesky and Meta's Threads, have begun incorporating customizable feed options. Furthermore, companies like Graze are developing sophisticated tools for constructing personalized feeds.

Flipboard has also entered this space with its new application, Surf, which allows users to create custom feeds aggregating content from various services. Surf distinguishes itself with a user interface that enables viewing feeds filtered by media type – watch, read, or listen – or a combined view across all formats.

Apps like Feeeed and Reeder have also appeared, focusing on improving the way users consume information feeds.

The Challenge of Protocol Diversity

A key challenge these solutions confront is the fragmentation of protocols used by today’s open social networks. Platforms like Mastodon and Pixelfed utilize ActivityPub, while Bluesky and its associated clients are built upon the AT Protocol.

Simultaneously, traditional news websites, blogs, and podcasts often rely on the established RSS protocol for distributing updates.

Efforts are underway to bridge these divides. Connections are being established between networks like Bluesky and Mastodon, and Threads is integrating with ActivityPub.

WordPress blogs and newsletter services, such as Ghost, are also actively working to integrate into the broader open social web, often referred to as the fediverse, through ActivityPub.

This ongoing development places us in a period of transition. Currently, a single application cannot guarantee a unified view of all desired content.

Instead, users are provided with the means to assemble feeds and sources according to their preferences. However, many of these approaches may be considered interim solutions as a more interconnected and open internet continues to take shape.