Until now, a lot of users mourn the loss of Google Reader which we probably will not see resurrected anytime soon or ever. Google is giving us a slightly similar new feature though as the Chrome for Android browser is now getting a Follow button so you will be able to follow a website’s RSS feed and not miss new content from them. It has started rolling out in the stable version of the mobile browser but there’s also an easy way to enable the flag in case you can’t wait to get it already.
The Follow button that you’ll see on the Chrome app on your Android device works as it sounds like. You will be able to follow the RSS feed of websites that you want to follow and see the updates for these websites on a dedicated feed within Chrome itself. To see the follow button, tap the triple-dot menu in the upper right-hand corner and scroll down. You’ll see a follow button next to the website URL and all you have to do is tap it and you’re set.
You’ll be able to see the dedicated feed for all the websites you’re following when you open a new tab on your Chrome browser. Right next to the Discover feed is a new Following tab where the RSS feed will update the list with fresh content from each of the followed websites. Of course there are apps like Flipboard, Pocket, etc where you can do the same but this one doesn’t require a new app since it’s within Chrome, which you probably use a lot anyway.
In case you’re not seeing the Follow button yet, you can already enable it manually and the process is pretty painless. Open a new tab and then type in chrome://flags and then search for “web feed”. All you have to do is tap the drop-down box and then select the “Enabled” option. You’ll have to close and re-open Chrome for this to take effect. After that, you should see the follow option already when tapping the three-dot menu.
This is the next best thing to having a Google Reader-esque app or service back. And it’s built in to the Chrome browser already so it’s more convenient and accessible.
