- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
Apollo founder Christian Selig said he’s “heartbroken” about pulling the plug on the third-party app following Reddit’s API pricing changes.
Apollo founder Christian Selig said he’s “heartbroken” about pulling the plug on the third-party app following Reddit’s API pricing changes.
I’ve actually been using the Reddit app for quite some time now and I don’t get the hate. Regardless of that, the way Reddit handled all of this was enough for me to leave anyway. Hi Lemmy!
I used sync on Android for about 10 years, and reddit is fun (“rif”) for maybe a year before that. I used the official app yesterday to look for any top posts about the lost traffic on reddit and the app was stuttery and was impossible to find even the easiest of things. They’ve had their requirements and priorities change over the years as middle management comes and goes and so the app doesn’t have a unified and streamlined experience, which many of us on 3rd party apps have gotten used to. Which is sad since most 3rd party apps are the efforts of a single individual vs a 100s of employee, first party company.
IIRC, the official Reddit app used to be third party app Alien Blue. They didn’t even build their official app, they just bought a premade one.
Nothing of Alien Blue was really left, they just destroyed it and replaced it with their own crap
Goes to show how difficult it can be for teams to build good products when there’s a million stakeholders involved vs one stakeholder (plus users). It can be done of course, but only if managed well. Which Reddit obviously didn’t.
I tried the official app 5 or 6 years ago but it really sucked, was way too bright and killed my phone’s battery life. Settled for RedReader and never looked back.
RedReader only got better, the Reddit app had some features slowly trickle in years too late, and got worse and had bugs that took ages to fix.
I was using it enough that I would have considered paying for premium or gold if Reddit was to co-operate to add-in API features like poll voting. But with their such antagonistic approach, I started winding down my Reddit usage in late April and ramping up with Lemmy. Despite RedReader being given an exception, I’m leaving it permanently. I’m not posting or commenting anymore.