To use RSS, you’ll need an RSS reader, which combines a web browser with a tool that summarizes the content of subscribed news feeds. There are many RSS readers available. Some are installed as applications on your computer, while others can be used through a web browser. Most readers are divided into three categories: readers that work as stand-alone applications, readers that are part of web browsing software, and readers that are available as a service from a web site. Many are free to use. A list of many of the readers is available online.

Once you have downloaded your news reader/aggregator you can put news feeds into your news aggregator. You can do this by right-clicking (or control-clicking on the Mac) on the RSS icon, which is commonly found at the bottom or in the sidebar of a web page (), then copying the shortcut/link location and pasting it into the news aggregator. You can also subscribe to a particular news feed in order to get news updates from a particular site.