NewsFlash

NewsFlash is a modern RSS and Atom feed reader for the GNOME desktop, built from the ground up in Rust as a complete rewrite of the older FeedReader application. It pairs a clean, adaptive libadwaita interface with a Tokio-powered async backend so feeds refresh and articles load without ever blocking the UI. What sets NewsFlash apart is its first-class support for cloud sync services — you can keep reading position in sync across machines via Miniflux, Feedly, or any Fever-compatible API while still supporting fully local, offline-only feeds.

Features

• Local and cloud feeds — Works with local RSS/Atom subscriptions or syncs with Miniflux, Feedly (read-only), and Fever-compatible services such as FreshRSS and Miniflux.
• Full article scraping — Fetches the complete article content for feeds that only provide summaries, so you can read everything without leaving the app.
• Adaptive three-column layout — Sidebar shows feeds and folders; middle column lists articles; right column renders the full article. Collapses gracefully on narrow screens and mobile form factors.
• Drag-and-drop organisation — Rearrange feeds and folders by dragging them in the sidebar for a personalised reading order.
• Bookmarks and archive — Star articles to bookmark them for later; archive read items independently of your sync service.
• Date-grouped article list — Articles are grouped by date (Today, Yesterday, This Week, etc.) making it easy to scan what is new at a glance.
• OPML import and export — Migrate your subscription list from any other feed reader in seconds.
• Async Tokio runtime — All network operations run on a Tokio thread pool, keeping the GTK4 main thread responsive at all times.
• Keyboard navigation — Full keyboard shortcut coverage for power users who prefer not to touch the mouse.
• Dark mode — Follows the system colour scheme preference via libadwaita.

Installation

The recommended installation method is Flatpak from Flathub, which provides the latest version in a sandboxed environment on any Linux distribution.

# Flatpak (all distributions — recommended)
flatpak install flathub io.gitlab.news_flash.NewsFlash

NewsFlash is also available through distribution package managers:

# Debian / Ubuntu (Debian 13+ / Ubuntu 24.10+)
apt install newsflash

# Fedora
dnf install newsflash

# Arch Linux
pacman -S newsflash

# Nix
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.newsflash

Quick Start

After installation, launch NewsFlash and choose a backend on the welcome screen:

Local feeds — No account needed. Click Add Feed and paste an RSS or Atom URL:

# Example feeds to get started
https://this-week-in-rust.org/rss.xml
https://blog.rust-lang.org/feed.xml
https://fasterthanli.me/index.xml

Miniflux — Enter your Miniflux server URL and an API key generated in the Miniflux web interface:

# Miniflux server URL (self-hosted example)
https://rss.example.com

# Generate an API key in Miniflux:
# Settings → API Keys → Create a new API key

FreshRSS / Fever API — Enter your server URL and the Fever API password configured in FreshRSS settings.

Feedly — Sign in with your Feedly account. Read state syncs back to Feedly (note: marking as read is currently read-only from NewsFlash on the free Feedly tier).

Once subscribed, use the keyboard shortcuts below to navigate efficiently:

# Keyboard shortcuts (while the article list is focused)
n        # next article
p        # previous article
o        # open article in browser
b        # bookmark / star current article
r        # mark current article as read
Shift+r  # mark all articles in current feed as read
/        # focus the search bar
F5       # refresh all feeds

Migrating from Another Reader

If you are moving from Feedly, Inoreader, Miniflux, or any other reader that supports OPML export, you can import all your subscriptions at once:

# 1. Export OPML from your current reader (check its settings/export page)
# 2. In NewsFlash: Hamburger menu → Import OPML
# 3. Select your .opml file — all feeds and folders are created immediately

For cloud backends (Miniflux, FreshRSS), it is usually faster to connect to the service directly rather than importing OPML, since NewsFlash will pull the full subscription list from the server on first sync.

NewsFlash vs Other GNOME Feed Readers

NewsFlash is the natural choice for GNOME users who want a first-party look-and-feel, cloud sync, and an adaptive layout that works on GNOME-powered mobile devices like the Librem 5 or PinePhone.