Feedly has launched a beta channel for their now popular RSS service. Like any beta service, Feedly wants to test out new features before it hits the masses. Luckily, access seems to be open to anyone who wants to chance the crashes and oddities a beta channel can bring.
When Google Reader was shuttered, many quickly turned to Feedly as their default news feed. While not quite as clean and easy a Reader, Feedly provides one of the best experiences around. There is also a Feedly Pro that gives additional benefits, like the ability to quickly add articles to Pocket, Instapaper, or Evernote.
To their credit, Feedly has continued to improve on an already good service, and a beta channel shows that more is in the works. A beta channel is also a way to quietly create a buzz around your service, as we see from time to time with Chrome. Great beta features are tipped ahead of launch on a regular or stable channel, drawing more interest and — probably — users.
There is also a Google+ community to join, adding a layer of interaction. Right now, it seems like a sounding board for requested features, but we hope Feedly has someone dedicated to communicating with users. If not, we hope they’re at least paying attention to requests and discussing internally.
If you’re interested, check out the beta for yourself. The Android app is still the stable version, leaving the beta to the desktop. We like Feedly for it’s clean interface and really nice Android app. Power users will enjoy the Pro version, too.
