I decided to make this because I haven’t seen a good writeup online, so wanted to help others that were stuck like I was and wanted to write this down so I could come back and reference it later for when I get a new device.
For those that are brand new, I’m going to explain how to sync Miniflux subscriptions to the Lire app, which is an RSS reader?
Don’t know what RSS is? it’s a thing that allows you to subscribe to social media stuff, newsletters, blogs, and podcasts without being logged in. There’s paid Patreon like feeds but I’m not explaining that here. You can read more about RSS on Wikipedia.
Lire is a very screen reader and blind accessible RSS app. It’s the one I use the most and like it far more than others commonly mentioned, like NetNewsWire.
Miniflux is the best RSS reader/tool out there. I’m not kidding. Fantastic keyboard navigation and easy to remember keyboard commands to boot. The website is beautiful from a screen reader perspective, and it’s just super clean. It’s why I pay for Miniflux hosting and donate to Miniflux on a regular basis.
To get MiniFlux working with Lire, there are a few things you need to do to get it to sync properly. I use the paid hosted version so swap out the below URLs with whatever your instance name is below.
Steps to enable the necessary syncing settings and how to sync.
First, we need to enable all the syncing settings it needs to communicate with the Lire app. These are the Miniflux API tokens, and the Fever API integration.
It should be noted the below instructions are for iOS. I don’t use a Mac
- After you login to the hosted Miniflux here, create a new Miniflux API key here and call it anything you want.
- Enable the Fever integration here by checking the, Activate Fever API, box under Fever and then putting a username and password. It’s best if you use the same one you created your Miniflux account with.
- Open Lire and swipe left until you get to the feed subscription settings. It’s currently a button. Double tap on that button that says sync mode.
- Swipe right until you hear sync mode. Double tap on the service currently selected to open up another menu.
- Swipe right through this lengthy list until you get to Miniflux.
- Enter your Fever username and password in the labeled fields respectively. To make it easier on yourself, you should have enabled it to be the same one you use to login to Miniflux.
- Enter your API key you made, here, into the API token/API key field that isn’t currently labeled.
- Next is the URL. Leave the URL field alone. If the URL field somehow has an incorrect place holder after this is published, use this following URL. If your self hosting, replace the URL with whatever you have. https://reader.miniflux.app Double tap on login at the top right.
- Now, when you open the app again, all your feeds should sync!
I know other blind people use other RSS apps and services. Truth be told, Feedbin is a far easier service to connect to other apps, and Feedbin has more features, but I tried it and overall found it more clunky from a screen reader perspective than I initially thought it was going to be.
Miniflux is here to stay, for me. If you have an Android, they do have some nifty third party apps you can try specifically made for Miniflux. For me, Lire is my RSS app of choice until, well, it isn’t.
I hope this guide helped someone. If it helped you, give me money so I can make more stuff like this in the future.