Chrome does not incorporate an inbuilt RSS reader – hence it cannot cope with RSS feed files.
Is there a way around this?
Use another browser? It’s not a WordPress issue.
Um, sorry, esmi, but, IMNSHO, when WP puts up an orange feed subscription button, folks really do expect it to actually begin the subscription process. Lots of folks use aggregators that aren’t browsers… I claim that, at the very least, WP’s responsible for detecting when a browser is known not to support its format, likely from the headers sent on the button push, and providing a hook to let the site offer something else. One possibility would be a copy-able text-box with the feed link in it, for pasting into a non-browser aggregator.
I know that I was bemused when I clicked the “RSS feed for this topic” link on this very WP forum page, and got a pagefull of XML in my face (reading with a newly installed Chrome).
It really doesn’t matter if it’s “not a WP issue” – WP is clearly an efficient place to fix a user experience that is failing.