Features
Everything you need. Nothing you didn’t ask for.
Read, message, and search — on open protocols, with structural privacy built in from the start.
The feed
Your feed, your rules.
SocialWeb delivers your subscriptions in the order they were published — newest first, no exceptions. No engagement score, no paid placement, no editor deciding what you should care about. When you subscribe to a source, you get everything from that source. When you don't, you get nothing. The feed is the contract you set, and SocialWeb keeps it. When there's nothing new, the feed stops. That's a feature, not a bug.
Feed — chronological order diagram Diagram replaced in Sprint 5
Stacks
Organize by topic, not by what's trending.
A stack is a named group of subscriptions. Create one for Sports, one for Finance, one for the handful of blogs you actually read. Switch between them from a tab at the top of the feed. Your main feed is all subscriptions together; your stacks are focused lenses into the same data. You decide what belongs in each one. Nothing moves between stacks automatically. Nothing gets added without your action.
Stacks — topic grouping diagram Diagram replaced in Sprint 5
Web search
Search the web without being searched.
When you search from SocialWeb, your query travels through SocialWeb's servers before reaching any search provider. From the provider's perspective, the request came from SocialWeb — not from your account, your device, or your IP address. They see a query. They don't see who sent it. Over time, this means no search profile is built on you. Premium includes 15 proxied searches per day. Premium Plus is unlimited. The rate limit exists because running the proxy has a cost; the design exists because mass surveillance doesn't have to.
Group chat
Conversation on a server you control.
SocialWeb's group chat is built on an extension to RSS. A host — a person, a team, a community — runs a server (or uses SocialWeb's managed cloud) that holds the conversation. Participants subscribe to it like a feed. New messages appear in order. The host chooses who can post. The data lives on the host's server, not on a shared corporate platform that owns it by default. If you want the full technical specification, it's published as an open standard.
Private video
Video sharing modeled on podcasting.
Private video on SocialWeb works the way podcasts have always worked: a video is hosted at a URL, and subscribers download or stream it directly. The host keeps the link secret and shares it only with intended viewers through the RSS feed. No corporate video platform holds the content. No CDN profile is built on viewers. Streaming goes server-to-server, not through a third party that logs who watched what and when.
Hosting
Your server or ours. Same privacy either way.
On first launch, SocialWeb asks: self-host, or use managed cloud? Self-hosted means your data lives on hardware you control. You can inspect every byte, delete anything at will, and run SocialWeb entirely off the grid. Managed cloud means SocialWeb's infrastructure handles the setup — the protocol-level privacy properties are identical, but you don't manage servers. Both options use the same open protocol. You can migrate between them. The choice is yours, and it's reversible.
Hosting — self-host vs managed comparison Diagram replaced in Sprint 5
AI
AI that stays in its lane.
SocialWeb does not apply AI to your content without your explicit opt-in. If you enable it, two options are available: local AI runs entirely on your device (self-hosted only) — no data ever leaves your machine. Cloud AI routes through Baseten under terms that explicitly prohibit using your content for model training. Either way, the AI assists you; it doesn't build a profile on you. Disabling it is always an option, and the app works fully without it.
AI — local vs cloud option diagram Diagram replaced in Sprint 5
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