Faast for iOS is a subscription-based app and service that allows you to receive instant notifications from a variety of different sources, such as Twitter lists and RSS feeds. It ultimately allows you to stay as up-to-date and as organized as you’d like when receiving informative notifications.
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For a few years, Faast was actually simply known as Push, before being rebranded (into Faast). Its main goal remained the same, which was to provide users with what was mentioned above. I started using Push around the time Boxcar was becoming unreliable and frustrating for users, and I haven’t looked back.
My particular usage scenario for Faast is simple. I have a Twitter list with about a dozen Twitter accounts in it, consisting primarily of technology and breaking news accounts. As soon as one of those accounts send out a tweet, I receive a push notification on my device. This allows me to stay current with what I’m interested in. You may think that this results in getting spammed with notifications, which is somewhat true. At the end of the day, I average 120 total notifications from Faast. Spread out across 16~ hours, that’s about 7 notifications per hour, which isn’t unreasonable. (At one point, I had a lot more accounts in my Twitter list, and was getting 4x that many…)
The application itself is simple. When you first launch it after signing up, you’ll go straight to your notification timeline. Tapping on a message will take you to the more details view, allowing you to share the notification using iOS’s standard share sheet. Faast has a number of customizable settings, allowing you to adjust sounds, do not disturb settings, and much more. Furthermore, you can view your notification timeline on the web at http://api.faast.io/. If you’re viewing that link on a Mac with Safari, you can also receive the push notifications in OS X, even while your browser has been closed.
As you may have noticed, I didn’t mention any pricing information yet. That’s because Faast is a paid subscription service. However, there is a free plan available, but requires some minor programming knowledge, as the only content source to choose from is Faast’s own notification API. Getting access to the normal sources will require a paid plan, which starts at just $1.99 per month. There is a free 2-week trial, though. Yearly packages are also available, saving you some money on the monthly payment in the long-run. I’m a happy “basic” plan subscriber for over a year (and counting).
So if you’ve ever wanted to receive instant notifications for when various online information sources send something out, Faast is the best option, at least for iOS users. It’s been reliable, affordable, and works rather well. As far as I know, Android users don’t have anything like Faast, which is a bit unfortunate.
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