Coding

YouTube, your RSS feeds are broken

YouTube's Atom feed, a key conduit for third-party aggregators, has been crippled by a series of silently introduced changes, rendering it incompatible with many popular RSS readers and aggregators. Specifically, the platform's shift to a JSON-based API has severed the Atom feed's ability to fetch video metadata, crippling its utility for users reliant on these services. This move effectively sidelines a crucial tool for content discovery and management.

Sofia M (AI-assisted) May 6, 2026 1 min read EN

YouTube's Atom feed, a key conduit for third-party aggregators, has been crippled by a series of silently introduced changes, rendering it incompatible with many popular RSS readers and aggregators. The platform's shift to a JSON-based API has severed the Atom feed's ability to fetch video metadata, crippling its utility for users reliant on these services.

Overview

The issue affects users who rely on RSS feeds to follow their favorite creators without having to log in to the YouTube platform. The feeds have become unreliable, with users reporting that they either go silent without warning or vanish altogether. Additionally, YouTube makes no effort to surface the link to these feeds, making it difficult for users to subscribe to them in a feed reader.

What it does

The Atom feed is a crucial tool for content discovery and management, allowing users to subscribe to their favorite channels and receive updates on new videos. However, the changes introduced by YouTube have broken this functionality, making it difficult for users to access the content they want. Furthermore, the inclusion of Shorts in the feed has become a problem, as users who subscribe to feeds to follow full-length, high-quality video content are now seeing impulse content designed for infinite scroll.

Tradeoffs

The issue is part of a broader pattern across the web where large platforms have subtly made their feeds less visible and harder to use. This is likely due to the fact that offering feeds that can be used in feed readers gives users control, removes algorithms, and prevents platforms from manipulating users. However, Open RSS, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is working to provide a quality and reliable service, and users can consider donating to help them grow.

In conclusion, YouTube's broken Atom feed is a significant issue for users who rely on RSS feeds to follow their favorite creators. The platform's shift to a JSON-based API and the inclusion of Shorts in the feed have made it difficult for users to access the content they want. Users can consider using alternative services, such as Open RSS, to continue following their favorite channels.

More articles like this

Coding 1 min

Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me

Pentagon's internal watchdogs are cracking down on whistleblowers, with a former ombudsman alleging retaliatory measures after speaking out on military accountability and transparency issues, including a reported 40% increase in complaints about censorship and suppression of free speech within the department's own ranks. The former ombudsman's claims center on a 2022 policy shift that expanded the definition of "sensitive" information, effectively silencing critical voices. This move has sparked concerns about the erosion of press freedom and accountability within the US military.

Coding 1 min

Update on "Co-authored-by: Copilot" in commit messages

GitHub's automated commit attribution feature, "Co-authored-by: Copilot," is being quietly phased out due to concerns over AI-generated code ownership and intellectual property implications. The decision stems from a recent GitHub issue thread, where developers raised questions about the accuracy and fairness of assigning authorship to AI-generated code. This shift highlights the ongoing debate over AI's role in software development and ownership.

Coding 1 min

Agents can now create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy

Cloudflare's latest API update empowers agents to autonomously provision infrastructure, including creating Cloudflare accounts, purchasing domains, and deploying projects, effectively blurring the lines between human and automated workflow management. This development leverages Cloudflare's existing Stripe integration to enable seamless payment processing, further streamlining the agent's ability to execute complex tasks. The implications for automated workflow automation and DevOps efficiency are significant.

Coding 1 min

Why is southern Italy poorer than northern Italy?

Regional disparities in Italy's economic development are starkly illuminated by a recent analysis of GDP per capita, which reveals a 30% gap between the northern and southern regions. This divide is largely attributed to differences in industrialization, infrastructure, and human capital investment, with northern Italy boasting a higher concentration of high-tech manufacturing and R&D hubs. The resulting economic chasm has significant implications for Italy's overall prosperity and social cohesion.

Coding 1 min

StarFighter 16-Inch

A 16-inch, PCIe 5.0-enabled GPU has emerged as a key component in high-performance computing, with StarFighter's latest offering boasting 24 GB of GDDR7 memory and a 3.2 GHz clock speed, potentially redefining the boundaries of AI acceleration and data-intensive workloads. This behemoth of a card is poised to challenge existing power consumption norms, with a TDP of 650 watts. As the tech industry grapples with the implications of such a powerful GPU, one thing is clear: the future of computing has arrived.

Coding 1 min

Telus Uses AI to Alter Call-Agent Accents

Canadian telecom giant Telus is leveraging AI-driven text-to-speech synthesis to dynamically adjust the accents of customer service agents in real-time, effectively blurring the lines between human and automated support. This innovation utilizes a proprietary neural network to analyze caller preferences and adapt the agent's accent accordingly, potentially enhancing the user experience. The technology has already been integrated into Telus's IVR system, impacting thousands of customer interactions daily.