Why Use RSS.app Bots?
The Problem: Information Changes Outside Your Workspace
Modern teams operate primarily within centralized communication platforms: Slack, Discord, Telegram. These tools are where conversations happen, decisions get made, and work gets coordinated. But the information teams need to act on often originates elsewhere.
Manually monitoring these sources is an unreliable process. Depending on team members to manually copy and paste updates into channels leads to:
Information Lag: Delays between publication and team awareness.
Structural Fragility: Monitoring breaks when the designated person is unavailable.
Low Efficiency: High "context-switching" costs for individuals moving between browsers and workspaces.
The Structural Solution: Bring Updates to Where People Already Are
Rather than requiring people to visit information sources, deliver information to where people already work. This inverts the relationship: instead of humans checking systems, systems notify humans.
RSS.app Bots implement this inversion. A bot monitors a feed and posts new items directly into a messaging channel. Team members see updates in the same interface they use for everything else—no context switching, no manual checking, no dedicated monitoring role.
Core principle: Bots move information from where it originates to where people work. They eliminate the gap between availability and awareness.
What RSS.app Bots Do
At its core, an RSS Bot is an automated agent that maintains a permanent link between a data source and a communication channel. The bot auto-posts whenever a feed updates with new content.
Detection: The bot identifies new entries as they appear in the feed during each refresh cycle.
Transformation: The raw feed data is automatically formatted into a platform-specific message (including titles, descriptions, and media).
Delivery: The bot "auto-shares" the update to your designated channel.
Core principle: Bots eliminate the "monitoring tax." They transform external web updates into internal, searchable, and discussable team events.
What Bots Are Built On
Bots consume RSS feeds as their input. Every bot connects to a feed URL and reads the items that feed contains. The feed can be:
A native feed published by a website: a blog's RSS endpoint, a news site's syndication feed, a podcast feed, or any site that publishes structured content updates.
A generated feed created by RSS.app from a webpage that lacks native RSS. Use the RSS.app Generator to create feeds from social media profiles, JavaScript-rendered sites, or any page with regularly updated content.
A bundled feed that aggregates multiple sources into a single stream. Combine feeds from several blogs, news sources, or internal systems, and connect one bot to deliver all updates.
The feed is the data source; the bot is the delivery mechanism. Feed quality directly affects bot output. If a feed contains incomplete items or updates infrequently, the bot reflects those characteristics.
To understand how RSS feeds are structured and managed, see our Guide to RSS Feeds.
Bots vs Widgets vs Readers
| Tool | Format | Audience | Primary Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bots | Auto-post messages | Collaborative teams | Live market intelligence and group alerts |
| Widgets | Pull-based embeds | Website visitors | Adding "freshness" to static web pages and intranets |
| Readers | Individual Inbox | Solo researchers | Personal content consumption |
Supported Platforms
RSS.app Bots integrate with major communication platforms:
Slack
Posts appear as messages in Slack channels. Supports rich formatting with titles, descriptions, images, and links. Works with public and private channels.
Discord
Posts appear as messages in Discord text channels. Supports embeds and mentions with formatted text. Suitable for community and team servers.
Telegram
Posts appear as messages in Telegram channels, groups, topics, and DMs. Supports formatted text and preview links. Suitable for broadcast channels and group conversations.
Webhooks
For platforms not directly supported, generic webhooks allow integration with any system that accepts HTTP POST requests. This extends bot functionality to custom applications, internal tools, and niche platforms.
Each platform has its own message format and capabilities. RSS.app Bots adapt feed content to each platform's conventions, producing messages that look native to the destination.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need coding skills to set up a bot?
No. RSS.app Bots are configured through a visual interface. You select a feed, connect a messaging platform, and adjust settings without writing code. The bot handles the technical work of monitoring, formatting, and posting.
Can one bot post to multiple channels?
Each bot connection targets a specific channel or destination. To post to multiple channels, create separate bot configurations for each destination. They can share the same source feed.
What happens if the messaging platform is temporarily unavailable?
The bot queues messages during platform outages and delivers them when connectivity resumes. Temporary disruptions do not cause message loss; the bot retries delivery according to its configured behavior.
Can I filter which feed items the bot posts?
Yes. Bots support filtering rules based on keywords, categories, or other feed fields. You can configure the bot to post only items matching specific criteria, reducing noise and keeping channels focused.
How is a bot different from email notifications?
Email notifications deliver updates to individual inboxes, where they compete with other messages. Bots deliver to shared channels where teams can see, discuss, and act on updates together. The delivery context is collaborative rather than individual.
Can bots work with feeds I create using the Generator?
Yes. Bots accept any valid RSS feed URL, including feeds created by the RSS.app Generator. Generate a feed from a source that lacks native RSS, then connect a bot to deliver updates to your messaging platform.
Do bots post historical items or only new ones?
When first connected, bots may post recent items to establish the feed presence. After initial setup, bots only post new items as they appear. This prevents flooding channels with old content.