Microsub

Microsub provides a standardized way for reader apps to interact with feeds. By splitting feed parsing and displaying posts into separate parts, a reader app can focus on presenting posts to the user instead of also having to parse feeds. A Microsub server manages the list of people you're following and collects their posts, and a Microsub app shows the posts to the user by fetching them from the server.

Main article: Microsub-spec

Microsub enables a client to show posts from feeds across the web and display them in a reader, without having to do any feed parsing itself. With Microsub, people can use any suitable reader to follow and read the content. Decoupling the idea of displaying posts from actually fetching remote feeds makes it simpler to build a reader, as well as makes your subscription list portable between readers.

Reader apps can also use Micropub to respond to content the user is following, for example with a like, a repost or a comment.

Microsub decouples managing subscriptions and delivering content from the presentation of that content. The Microsub server handles the actual subscription to feeds, (likely using WebSub), while providing a consistent API so that apps can present the contents of the feeds in a reader interface.

A short verbal discussion of what it does can be heard here on Aaron Parecki's Percolator podcast

IndieWeb Examples

Aaron Parecki uses Aperture as his Microsub server, and the Together and Indigenous clients.
- https://aaronparecki.com/2018/03/12/17/building-an-indieweb-reader
Eddie Hinkle uses a self-hosted Aperture as his Microsub server, and the Indigenous for iOS (mobile) and Monocle (on computer) clients.
- Marty McGuire uses an identical setup since 2018-03-05.
Kristof De Jaeger uses an account on Aaron Parecki's Aperture instance and the Indigenous for Android (mobile) and Monocle (on computer) clients
- Neil Mather uses an identical setup since 2018-09-07.
Peter Stuifzand uses Monocle, Indigenous and Together with his own microsub-server, Ekster.
Add yourself here… (see this for more details)

Clients

Together

Together is an in-development Microsub reader. Source code at https://github.com/cleverdevil/together/ and an online preview at https://alltogethernow.io

Indigenous

Indigenous is a set of in-development native iOS and Android Microsub reader apps.

iOS

Indigenous for iOS is a native iOS Microsub reader app built by Eddie Hinkle

Android

Indigenous for Android is a native Android Microsub reader app built by Kristof De Jaeger

Monocle

Monocle is an in-development Microsub reader web app built by Aaron Parecki. If you have a Microsub server, you can use the hosted version at https://monocle.p3k.io

Ekster Reader

Ekster Reader is an in-development Microsub reader, running in just your browser. The only the backend it needs is a Microsub server. For this to work you do need a Microsub server the uses CORS headers, to allow access from the browser. Same applies to the Indieauth endpoint. A version is hosted at https://reader.p83.nl/

Microsub Notifier

microsub notifier is a Microsub client built purely to send notifications of new content in any of your Microsub channels. Built by Grant Richmond is is hosted at https://microsub-notifier.tpxl.io

Servers

Aaron Parecki is building Aperture, a Microsub server with no UI for rendering posts. This is intended to be a server only, and all rendering will happen using Microsub clients. PHP with MySQL storage. Source on Github
Ryan Barrett has built Baffle, a bridge that makes traditional feed readers like NewsBlur and Feedly support Microsub. More background.
Sven Knebel is building a bridge from Inoreader  to Microsub (not ready yet, sorry!)
Peter Stuifzand is building Ekster, a Microsub server in Go using a Redis storage. Source on Github
Jack Jamieson is building a WordPress plugin called Yarns Microsub Server. Source on Github

Libraries

Brainstorming

See Microsub-spec#Brainstorming