Flash
In closed testing
Flash is not yet on Google Play. It is currently being tested before release. If you have questions in the meantime, get in touch.
What it does
Your important sources first
Star a source, and its unread articles come first in your feed, then everything else in time order. Nothing jumps around while you read: the order is set when the list loads.
A feed that ends
When you have read everything, Flash says so: "That's everything for now. See you later." No endless scroll, and nothing that tries to keep you there.
New to RSS? Start with topics
Pick the topics you like on the first screen, or later from Suggested feeds when you add a feed. Each topic becomes a category with a few well-known, free-to-read sources in your language. You can also paste any feed address, search for one, or import an OPML file from your old reader.
Keyword blocking that works
Add a word or a phrase and articles matching it disappear from every view, including ones already fetched. Matching runs on your device the moment a feed is parsed. No round trip, no waiting, no list of your interests sitting on a server somewhere.
Keyword alerts
The reverse of blocking. Name a subject you don't want to miss and Flash notifies you when it appears, then keeps a permanent record of every match in its own tab, grouped by term.
A reader that blocks ads and trackers
Articles open inside Flash, with a bundled blocklist stopping ad and tracker domains from loading and site notification prompts suppressed before they can appear. When a page can be reduced to plain text, Flash offers you that version instead.
AI summaries on supported phones, or with your own Gemini key
The article's key facts, in your language, in about one screen. On supported phones (those with Google's on-device Gemini Nano) the whole thing happens on the handset, offline and free. On other phones you can add your own Gemini API key in Settings: you accept the terms for it first, and summaries then use Google's Gemini on your own Google account, at Google's prices, with Google's free allowance. Flash runs no AI service of its own.
Calm by design
Your categories are tabs across the top of the feed, so you read one topic at a time. Light and dark, five colour palettes, and a newspaper mode when you want something calmer. On a tablet, articles open in a reading pane beside the list.
Everything else
Bookmarks you can read offline, full-text search, OPML import and export, background refresh on your schedule, and a reading list that stays exactly where you left it. Available in English, German, Spanish, French and Italian.
What it doesn't do
- No account, no sign-in, no password
- No analytics or crash-reporting SDK
- No profile of you, no reading history collected
- No location, camera, contacts or file access requested
- No selling of anything about you, in either version, with ads or paid
Your feeds, folders, articles, read state, bookmarks and keyword lists are stored in a database on your phone. We hold no copy of any of it. The privacy policy lists every connection the app makes and why.
What it will cost
Flash is not on Google Play yet, so nothing below is live. Setting it out here so nobody is surprised later.
With ads
The whole app. Every feed, folder, filter, alert, bookmark and AI summary. Ads in your feed.
Paid, €7.99, once
The same app, with no ads. One payment, not a subscription, and not a monthly fee for something that runs on your own phone.
The only difference between the two is the ads. AI summaries work the same in both: on your phone where it can, or on your own Gemini key, which Google bills to you, never to us and never through us.
Flash comes in two versions: with ads, or a one-time purchase that removes them. There is no version without one or the other.
Who makes it
Flash is built by DVM Software, a one-person studio based in Barcelona, Spain. It exists because Palabre, a reader a lot of people relied on, was discontinued, and because its keyword blocking never quite worked. This one does.
Questions, bugs and feature requests all go to the same place: flashrssapp@gmail.com. A real person reads them.