New in Reader: Combined Cards
Go ahead and follow that prolific site. We’ll keep it organized for you.
If you’ve ever followed a frequently updating site in Reader, you may have noticed a problem. When one of your followed sites goes on a posting streak, it can easily overwhelm your stream, causing you to miss posts from less frequent sites.
Today we launched a new feature to alleviate this problem: Combined Cards. Now, when a site you follow gets prolific, we’ll combine those posts into a single card — provided the posts are all from the same day and uninterrupted by posts from other sites.
Here’s a recent example from Time Magazine. (Did you know you can follow Time in Reader? You can!) Before on the left, after on the right.
For Writers: If you post once a day, your posts will never be combined in Reader. If you post more than once a day, it’s possible your posts will be combined for some readers and not others — it depends on how many other sites they follow and when they post. Posts will only be combined if they’re uninterrupted by other posts.
For Readers: Your Followed Sites stream still shows all the posts from the sites you follow, in exactly the same order. The only thing that’s changed is that if a site posts a string of new posts, we’ll combine them into one card so they take up less vertical space.
We hope this change makes Reader more pleasant to use, and helps you feel comfortable following more frequently updating sites. If you’d like some suggestions, here are some great high frequency sites we recommend: Fortune, People, Laughing Squid, Uproxx, The Sports Daily, Heavy, TechCrunch, Black America Web, and BGR. Remember to click the “Follow” link at the top of the page to add it to your Reader.
WordPress.com members can visit Reader in the usual spot. Not a member yet? Join us. And thanks, as always, for being part of the WordPress.com community.
- March 21, 2017
- Reading
Thanks so much for this! It will definitely help 🙂
LikeLiked by 6 people
Great! I’m enjoying the recent improvements on the Reader.
LikeLiked by 5 people
This is a very good update. In fact, it could provide a magazine-like reading experience where the posts from a particular blog are clubbed together. This could be particularly good for readers who subscribe to blogs from a wide variety of subjects, like I do! I can now scan them by “topics”. Kudos to the WordPress team for keeping on improving the service here. Cheers!
LikeLiked by 7 people
I actually stopped reading so many blogs in the reader because of this problem. Glad to see you’ve rectified it. Can’t wait to dive in again.
LikeLiked by 7 people
A big thank you! I stopped following some interesting bloggers because they cluttered up my reader stream.
LikeLiked by 8 people
Thank you SO MUCH for doing this! There were some tags that I’ve followed where this really was a problem. It felt like I was scrolling to infinity before getting something by a different person. (This seemed to be like the same post but in all different languages, or just continually reposting what was found on other blogs?) Anyway, thank you SO MUCH for doing this!
LikeLiked by 4 people
I just realized it. It will surely helps but can you guys maintain the likes and comments shortcut too?
LikeLiked by 4 people
All these new updates are amazing and extremely helpful. Thanks!
LikeLiked by 4 people
I think this is a brilliant idea. I follow a lot Reader feed used to get clogged up, so this really tidies things up and makes sure I don’t miss any posts.
LikeLiked by 4 people
That’s brilliant! There’s a blog I stopped following because they were posting so much. Thank you for realising it’s a problem and coming up with an elegant solution!
LikeLiked by 4 people
Good news and much appreciated.
It was the high post rate of Time magazine that caused me to stop following it – and for precisely the reason you have now ‘cured’.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Perfect fix. Right on WP !
LikeLiked by 4 people
Great idea for readers following newsy blogs.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Very timely. After this update, I just re-followed sites I had dropped for this very reason!
LikeLiked by 5 people
Ah, this is brilliant. Thank you!
LikeLiked by 5 people
This is a great idea! Thanks!
LikeLiked by 3 people
I post a few times a day on my blog, so I’d probably expect my posts to be combined in the reader. I’m already finding this useful.
LikeLiked by 2 people
All these new updates are amazing and extremely helpful. Thanks 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
This is a HUGE change! Thank you so much. Sometimes I scroll and scroll and scroll, hoping to run across some of my old favorite, but less prolific writers. Frankly, because this problem was so annoying to me, I cut way back on the frequency of my own posts. I didn’t want people scrolling past me the way I do those who dominate my feed. If this works out well, I’ll feel more comfortable returning to my old posting schedule.
LikeLiked by 3 people
But once again a very positive change.
Whenever I think, now it can not be better, you succeed still to me again amaze with a new positive change.
I can only say WOOOW, I’m so glad that I follow this blog and try these steps to follow as much as possible.
Thank you again to this wonderful team
Have a nice day
Theo Herbots
LikeLiked by 2 people
Its really so insightful. I have been trying to catch the eyes for my small blog . I guess you have shown me a very good path. Thanks 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
That is a splendid idea! Some wonderful people use WordPress as Facebook or Twitter and that is cluttering my inbox, so this is a small welcome fix. Thanks.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you! This is a much needed and very welcome organizational time saver. What a pleasure it will be to see all of the blogs I follow get “equal” space.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi, One question. I’ve noticed that the new cards don’t seem to be working yet in the ios app. Is this correct and is it coming? Thanks
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Amanda. The web version is out ahead of the apps right now, and we don’t have an ETA, but yes, we do want to bring all the new features to the apps eventually. I take it from your question you’re interested in that happening?
LikeLiked by 2 people