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We're now available in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. Launching apps in other countries requires a little bit more diligence than just making a website avai

by alexis 10y ago

We're now available in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. Launching apps in other countries requires a little bit more diligence than just making a website available globally. I'm sorry it's not available in your country -- we're planning on getting it out everywhere.

basch 10y ago
what are the chances of getting a stripped down interface that just says "title, subreddit, comment count, upvotes" in one line (maybe 2)? No colors or upvote buttons, or toolbars. maybe a single button (not a hamburger, probably an arrow) that presents all the menu options. swipe to collapse comments is also a pretty crucial feature.
Mithaldu 10y ago
Your failure here is not that you are not making it available, but that you failed to communicate this limit in ability. The flow for me was "hey neat", click link to reddit page, "ok, this looks good", click link to google play store, click green Install button, 'none of your devices are compatible', "what in the ever-loving ...?", go to hn comments, "oh goddamn, not again". That could've been MUCH shorter and MUCH less confusing if the title up here ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11447273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11447273 ) said: "Announcing Reddit for iOS and Android in NA/UK/AUS" and at the very least having a text below the appstore/playstore buttons stating this. Have some empathy please. Edit: Going "Hello World!" in the "What's New" section also doesn't help matters.
- werid 10y ago
  https://twitter.com/reddit/status/718067681438539778 https://twitter.com/reddit/status/718067681438539778 "Reddit anywhere with our app for iPhone & Android" Replies are filled with people from countries where they can't get it.
  - Mithaldu 10y ago
    Wow, "anywhere" makes it actively worse.
    - notatoad 10y ago
      I remember Google doing the same thing when they launched their "Chromebooks are for everyone" ad campaign - you could only purchase one in the UK or the US. It's like companies are actively trying to annoy the region's they geo-block.
      - 794CD01 10y ago
        No, it's like what's actually true - that they don't think about those places and therefore do things like write slogans with the mindset that such people don't exist.
        umanwizard 10y ago
        Even more likely: whoever wrote that copy isn't the same person as whoever decided on the geo-locking policy.
      - tazjin 10y ago
        Google still loves doing this with Chromebooks. They have human-translated marketing websites for the Pixel in Norway and their buy button is just greyed out.
- zamalek 10y ago
  Additionally, it's highly unlikely that potential users will bother continuously checking to determine if the restriction on their region has yet been lifted - given that they can continue to use the competition. Tomorrow I will have forgotten about this app. This should have been sorted out before the launch.
  - tokenizerrr 10y ago
    Yep. Was going to try this app, but can't. Don't think I'll ever bother again, I'm happy with Relay for Reddit after all.
    - Mithaldu 10y ago
      That is until they pull a Twitter and kill those clients.
      - tokenizerrr 10y ago
        They claim they are committed to supporting that free API[1]. And if they kill it, it would also kill all those reddit bots. There would be a massive outrage since many large subreddits rely on them for advanced automated moderation. There's AutoMod which they've integrated, but it's often not enough. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/4dqxgt/reddit_mobile_apps/d1th4uf https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/4dqxgt/reddi...
        kuschku 10y ago
        Or they could just limit it to 10 IPs per API key. Kills all 3rd party clients, but leaves bots.
        tokenizerrr 10y ago
        If anyone can sign up for a bot API key, then anyone can sign up for a 3rd party client API key. It'd add a step or two, but still. Anyway, you don't need an API key at all currently. And they said they intend to support the current API.
pricechild 10y ago
Could you expand on what diligence is required?
- jbob2000 10y ago
  It probably has to do with advertising. The purpose of this app is to monetize the mobile users and they can't make money off users in countries where the ads can't be shown (for whatever reason).
- skeletonjelly 10y ago
  Yeah it's weird. They used this word again in the official announcement thread so clearly they've got a position they want their employees (and Alexis) to take, a fantastically vague corporate one at that.
deanCommie 10y ago
Can you share what is involved with this effort? It would be educational to the HackerNews community that is (understandably) quite angry at this decision. You can turn this into an educational effort on the state of app distribution. Frankly, I have a hard time believing that your team couldn't have done this due diligence upfront, considering how rare it is that I encounter apps in my daily use that do not work seamlessly. I moved from North America to Europe 1 year ago, so this is something I have a lot of experience with. You could help me and others understand this better.
0x0 10y ago
Why is that? Is it related to the crypto export restrictions in the Apple App Store?
k_lander 10y ago
"Launching apps in other countries requires a little bit more diligence than just making a website available globally" could you expand on this?
rcarmo 10y ago
I'm sorry, but as an occasional iOS developer, and seeing the amount of Portuguese users you guys have on Reddit, I find it hard to take that at face value. Is it the localised blurb you need? Crowdsource it. Heck, I'll do it. Ping me.
dipnuggetron 10y ago
can't you do anything right, you self-aggrandizing would be Mayor of the Internet fraud?
Rabidgremlin 10y ago
If you rolled it out to Oz surely you can enable New Zealand to ???
maknz 10y ago
Australia, but not New Zealand? C'mon.
bitserf 10y ago
New Zealand is a state of Australia, so if you could enable it here too that would be great.

by alexis 10y ago

basch 10y ago

what are the chances of getting a stripped down interface that just says "title, subreddit, comment count, upvotes" in one line (maybe 2)? No colors or upvote buttons, or toolbars. maybe a single button (not a hamburger, probably an arrow) that presents all the menu options. swipe to collapse comments is also a pretty crucial feature.

Mithaldu 10y ago

Your failure here is not that you are not making it available, but that you failed to communicate this limit in ability. The flow for me was "hey neat", click link to reddit page, "ok, this looks good", click link to google play store, click green Install button, 'none of your devices are compatible', "what in the ever-loving ...?", go to hn comments, "oh goddamn, not again". That could've been MUCH shorter and MUCH less confusing if the title up here ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11447273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11447273 ) said: "Announcing Reddit for iOS and Android in NA/UK/AUS" and at the very least having a text below the appstore/playstore buttons stating this. Have some empathy please. Edit: Going "Hello World!" in the "What's New" section also doesn't help matters.

werid 10y ago
https://twitter.com/reddit/status/718067681438539778 https://twitter.com/reddit/status/718067681438539778 "Reddit anywhere with our app for iPhone & Android" Replies are filled with people from countries where they can't get it.
- Mithaldu 10y ago
  Wow, "anywhere" makes it actively worse.
  - notatoad 10y ago
    I remember Google doing the same thing when they launched their "Chromebooks are for everyone" ad campaign - you could only purchase one in the UK or the US. It's like companies are actively trying to annoy the region's they geo-block.
    - 794CD01 10y ago
      No, it's like what's actually true - that they don't think about those places and therefore do things like write slogans with the mindset that such people don't exist.
      - umanwizard 10y ago
        Even more likely: whoever wrote that copy isn't the same person as whoever decided on the geo-locking policy.
    - tazjin 10y ago
      Google still loves doing this with Chromebooks. They have human-translated marketing websites for the Pixel in Norway and their buy button is just greyed out.
zamalek 10y ago
Additionally, it's highly unlikely that potential users will bother continuously checking to determine if the restriction on their region has yet been lifted - given that they can continue to use the competition. Tomorrow I will have forgotten about this app. This should have been sorted out before the launch.
- tokenizerrr 10y ago
  Yep. Was going to try this app, but can't. Don't think I'll ever bother again, I'm happy with Relay for Reddit after all.
  - Mithaldu 10y ago
    That is until they pull a Twitter and kill those clients.
    - tokenizerrr 10y ago
      They claim they are committed to supporting that free API[1]. And if they kill it, it would also kill all those reddit bots. There would be a massive outrage since many large subreddits rely on them for advanced automated moderation. There's AutoMod which they've integrated, but it's often not enough. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/4dqxgt/reddit_mobile_apps/d1th4uf https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/4dqxgt/reddi...
      - kuschku 10y ago
        Or they could just limit it to 10 IPs per API key. Kills all 3rd party clients, but leaves bots.
        tokenizerrr 10y ago
        If anyone can sign up for a bot API key, then anyone can sign up for a 3rd party client API key. It'd add a step or two, but still. Anyway, you don't need an API key at all currently. And they said they intend to support the current API.

pricechild 10y ago

Could you expand on what diligence is required?

jbob2000 10y ago
It probably has to do with advertising. The purpose of this app is to monetize the mobile users and they can't make money off users in countries where the ads can't be shown (for whatever reason).
skeletonjelly 10y ago
Yeah it's weird. They used this word again in the official announcement thread so clearly they've got a position they want their employees (and Alexis) to take, a fantastically vague corporate one at that.

deanCommie 10y ago

Can you share what is involved with this effort? It would be educational to the HackerNews community that is (understandably) quite angry at this decision. You can turn this into an educational effort on the state of app distribution. Frankly, I have a hard time believing that your team couldn't have done this due diligence upfront, considering how rare it is that I encounter apps in my daily use that do not work seamlessly. I moved from North America to Europe 1 year ago, so this is something I have a lot of experience with. You could help me and others understand this better.

0x0 10y ago

Why is that? Is it related to the crypto export restrictions in the Apple App Store?

k_lander 10y ago

"Launching apps in other countries requires a little bit more diligence than just making a website available globally" could you expand on this?

rcarmo 10y ago

I'm sorry, but as an occasional iOS developer, and seeing the amount of Portuguese users you guys have on Reddit, I find it hard to take that at face value. Is it the localised blurb you need? Crowdsource it. Heck, I'll do it. Ping me.

dipnuggetron 10y ago

can't you do anything right, you self-aggrandizing would be Mayor of the Internet fraud?

Rabidgremlin 10y ago

If you rolled it out to Oz surely you can enable New Zealand to ???

maknz 10y ago

Australia, but not New Zealand? C'mon.

bitserf 10y ago

New Zealand is a state of Australia, so if you could enable it here too that would be great.