Feedbin is the Best Way to Read Twitter

by Ben Ubois

March, 2023 Update: Feedbin is no longer the best way to read Twitter. They have revoked Feedbin’s access and the access of every other third-party client. You can no longer subscribe to Twitter content in Feedbin.

You can now subscribe to Twitter content in Feedbin.

Tweets have become media rich, with support for multiple photos, videos and links. However, traditional Twitter clients are limited to showing tiny thumbnails and plain links. They make it too easy to mindlessly scroll through endless inane thoughts.

Feedbin treats tweets differently. The idea of the feature is to fully unpack the tweet. If a tweet links to an article, Feedbin will attempt to load the full article and display it alongside the tweet. Feedbin will also include full-size images, videos and gifs with native YouTube, Vimeo and Instagram embeds.

You can start adding Twitter content to Feedbin the same way you would subscribe to a feed. Feedbin will recognize any Twitter URL that contains tweets. It also supports shortcuts for subscribing directly to twitter @usernames as well as #hashtags. For example:

To achieve the best possible experience, I have a few recommendations:

  1. The best stuff on Twitter exists in the form of media attached to tweets like links and images. Feedbin includes a built-in filter that will only show you these tweets. The filter is on by default, but when you subscribe you’ll be able to choose to see all tweets instead.

  2. Follow fewer accounts in Feedbin. Rather than following your entire home timeline, try creating a Twitter list that only includes a few of your favorite accounts.

Twitter is deeply integrated with Feedbin and tweets include a number of new searchable fields. Using these fields you can easily find and filter tweets:

  • twitter_screen_name:"@feedbin"
  • twitter_name:"Feedbin"
  • twitter_retweet:true|false
  • twitter_media:true|false (link or image)
  • twitter_image:true|false
  • twitter_link:true|false

I’d be interested to hear your feedback on this feature. Get in touch!