Just before the HTC One (M8) was announced yesterday, we saw a slew of core Sense apps land in the Play Store, which set off rumors that BlinkFeed and more would be hitting other Android devices. While that didn’t come true during the event yesterday, it seems that’s what might be happening. Following yesterday’s announcement of a BlinkFeed SDK that will allow more content providers to hook their news and more into BlinkFeed.
When reviewing last year’s HTC One, BlinkFeed was one of my favorite features and it eventually came to other HTC devices, like the One X and numerous mid-range devices that HTC subsequently launched. However, what many users that haven’t been using an HTC device have been wondering is whether or not devices from Samsung, Sony, LG or others will be able to use BlinkFeed. In the main Press Release for the HTC One (M8) there was a little tidbit that plainly states BlinkFeed will soon be available for all. “Following its popularity with HTC users, HTC will now make HTC BlinkFeed available to other Android devices, launching on the Google Play store soon.”
If you’re unfamiliar with BlinkFeed, it’s essentially a one-stop shop for all of your news feeds, social updates and with the introduction of Sense 6.0, BlinkFeed now hooks into wearable fitness trackers like the Fitbit. However, the main attraction is its super-easy way you can access your feeds and social updates from your homescreen. It’s unclear as to whether or not BlinkFeed will hit other phones as a launcher, or simply a standalone app, but frankly it’d be nice to be able to use BlinkFeed on my Nexus 5 and it’d probably help HTC if other users can use their key app. Of course, it’s more than likely going to be missing a few features, but that’s hardly surprising as there’s little HTC would gain by giving away one of their key features. Let us know in the comments if you’re looking forward to getting BlinkFeed on whatever device you have.