Unbundling the Feed: HyperTexting's Bet on the Open Web
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
By decoupling the social media interface from centralized platforms, Caleb Hailey is attempting to return discovery and monetization power to independent publishers.
The modern digital experience is defined by the 'walled garden.' For years, the scrollable feed—complete with likes, follows, and algorithmic curation—has been the primary gateway to information, but it has come at a cost to the open web. According to reporting from TechCrunch, Caleb Hailey, a 20-year tech veteran, is attempting to decouple these familiar user interface elements from the centralized platforms that currently control them.
His solution is HyperTexting, a new iOS app developed by Hailey’s company, Herd Works. The app functions as a viewer for the discourse already occurring on the open web, leveraging the RSS open protocol under the hood to create a social-media-like experience without the algorithmic manipulation. By allowing users to follow blogs, newsletters, and news outlets with a click, HyperTexting transforms the fragmented web into a cohesive, scrollable stream of content.
From my perspective as a tech columnist, this is more than just a UI experiment; it is a strategic bet on the 'unbundling' of the feed. For too long, the discovery of content has been gated by a handful of social media giants. Hailey noted to TechCrunch that he was motivated to build the app after witnessing Twitter shift away from reverse chronological order and begin deranking links. When the discovery mechanism is controlled by a central platform, the monetization power shifts away from the creator and toward the gatekeeper.
HyperTexting attempts to shift this power back to the open web by integrating publishing directly into the consumption experience. The app allows users to connect their own websites—whether built via WordPress, Ghost, or static site generators like Hugo and Hailey’s own HyperTemplates—and post updates as easily as sending a text message. These posts are then linked to original articles and surfaced in the feeds of those following the site. This mechanism encourages users to own their own domains rather than relying on a centralized profile.
Historically, attempts to bring the general public back to RSS have struggled. TechCrunch points out that Google shut down Google Reader in 2013, and no other RSS tools have achieved mainstream success. The friction of the protocol often outweighed the benefit for the average user. HyperTexting’s gamble is that by mimicking the 'doom scrolling' interface that users have already gravitated toward, it can make the decentralized nature of the web accessible again.
Ultimately, Hailey’s vision is a rejection of the current trend toward complex, federated social networking. As he told TechCrunch, he believes the greatest decentralized social network already exists: the World Wide Web. By providing a way to explore trending content via an 'Explore' section and a Safari extension for adding sites, HyperTexting is positioning itself not as a new social network, but as a bridge back to an internet where the publisher, not the platform, holds the leverage.