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The aim is not _just_ to make money, but to force users to use their crappy app so they can track users better. Sort of like what Twitter did. It’s also why the

The aim is not _just_ to make money, but to force users to use their crappy app so they can track users better. Sort of like what Twitter did. It’s also why they had like one dude working on their mobile website one hour a month for the last few years.

wmurmann 3y ago
What’s so crappy about it? I’ve seen some bad apps and it’s definitely not that bad. Can you elaborate?
- chillbill 3y ago
  Everything, similar to how crappy the new (now old) god awful and broken design. It’s not meant for users, but for advertisers. From abominable amount of tracking, to recommended community posts, to unnecessary avatars, to taking multiple clicks to view something, and on and on and on…
- 888666 3y ago
  The reason why I dislike it is that, compared to 3rd party apps, it's slow and the design is overly busy. I prefer a more minimalistic design. The excessive tracking doesn't help.
- KptMarchewa 3y ago
  Does it look remotely like this site? No? Then that's not the reddit experience I want.
- cragfar 3y ago
  The app on iOS isn't too bad. It used to just light your data on fire though when reddit was trying to do streaming.
- Gareth321 3y ago
  The design language follows all modern social media apps: engagement. Think TikTok. This means auto-playing videos, large elements instead of small elements (low information density) designed to draw attention, prioritising popular and contentious items in the feed instead of relevant items for the user, etc. This language is user-hostile. It uses psychological techniques to keep users on the platform for longer instead of presenting the information which they actually want. There are technical issues too. Many users report issues playing videos and gifs. Finally, the Reddit app serves ads.
  - 369548684892826 3y ago
    > auto-playing videos, large elements instead of small elements You can fix both these issues in the app settings. Turning off feed thumbnails is also a big improvement.
    - Gareth321 3y ago
      > You can fix both these issues in the app settings. Turning off feed thumbnails is also a big improvement. You cannot. The "classic" layout is still less information dense than Apollo, and disabling autoplay only disables autoplaying videos in the "card" layout. Videos still auto-play once a user taps a submission. While we're here, I forgot how hostile their navigation menu is. At the bottom of the app Reddit has "Home," "Discover," "Create," "Chat," and "Inbox." The latter doesn't even take one to their inbox. It takes them to their *activity." These are clearly not the most used actions on Reddit. They're the actions Reddit wants to encourage.
- EnragedParrot 3y ago
  The UI is absolutely awful. As just one example, if I want to view the karma count on a recent comment, in the official app I have to tap my user profile icon in the corner, tap "my profile" (didn't I just tap my profile icon?!), then tap "comments". So now to go back where I was I have to back swipe three times. If I'm in a comment thread and I tap on a user's name, a profile card slides up from the bottom of the screen. If I then want to view that users comment history, I have to tap on their username from the slide up card, and that brings me to the full user profile card, and then I have to tap on the comments tab for that user. To go back to the comment thread, I have to press the back arrow to leave their profile, then press the (x) button on the slide-up profile card - so I back swipe and then down-swipe/tap a button. It's an absolutely insane and frustrating UX. Things slide in from different directions and there are multiple UI elements with similar (but not identical) functionality. That's on top of crap like not being able to download gifs and videos right to my device and the built in video player being broken. There are so many other major social media apps that do things so much better it just boggles my mind at how bad reddit's is. TikTok is so smooth and easy to use, even Facebook is better. In Apollo on the other hand, I view my comments by tapping the "profile" button at the bottom of the screen. In a comment thread, to view a user's history, tap their name and their history pops up. It's smooth and intuitive and fast and simple. I always "go back" views by sliding from the left - the interactions never change depending on context so I always know exactly how to navigate intuitively.
rileyphone 3y ago
The bigger joke is their “open in app” links don’t work for me on mobile safari. At least old reddit still works on desktop.
bastawhiz 3y ago
> but to force users to use their crappy app so they can track users better That's the point: let the users pay you to make up for the (potential?) revenue you're not making from tracking them. Estimates put reddit at something like $0.25 per user. Pushing them to the official app might _generously_ triple that number. Versus the user paying $5/mo? It's a braindead business case to say that users in your official app are materially better than the same users directly paying for the service they actually want.
- savanaly 3y ago
  One problem is the type of user who opts to pay even $5 is probably worth more than triple the average. There’s the users who have money to spend at the top and a very long tail of non-spenders at the bottom dragging that average value down.
  - bastawhiz 3y ago
    They're hypothetically worth more in a world where they started out in the official app. In our universe where Reddit is fucking those users, they're far more likely to simply stop using Reddit altogether. And many of them will. Reddit will be lucky if they break even.
- ToniCipriani 3y ago
  Sounds to me they want to double dip: charge you AND track you.
princevegeta89 3y ago
And the official Reddit apps sucks big ass in my opinion. Combine this with the way Reddit nags and misleads you to install it, and that gave me enough reason to never use their fucking app.
- stuff4ben 3y ago
  Having tried to use Apollo several times over several years, I keep coming back to the official Reddit app. It works and I'm just used to it. I like the UI much better and it feels normal. Nothing Apollo provides was that much of an improvement over the default app IMO.
  - teaneedz 3y ago
    Are you a dev for the app or Reddit employee? The official app is a case study in bad UX design. The only positive reviews in the app store are easily identified as bot or part of paid for campaigns. The recent reviews though tell how more average users view the official app…and it’s not very good.
    - stuff4ben 3y ago
      Nope, just a plain average user. And I never leave reviews for apps, positive or negative. Most people complaining are NOT average users. Which is why this is just a bunch of nonsense.
sleepybrett 3y ago
... and make sure ads are served, presumably in the most annoying way possible.
lost_tourist 3y ago
that's the final nail for me. The second I have to give an email address or can't access it via the web I'm out.

wmurmann 3y ago

What’s so crappy about it? I’ve seen some bad apps and it’s definitely not that bad. Can you elaborate?

chillbill 3y ago
Everything, similar to how crappy the new (now old) god awful and broken design. It’s not meant for users, but for advertisers. From abominable amount of tracking, to recommended community posts, to unnecessary avatars, to taking multiple clicks to view something, and on and on and on…
888666 3y ago
The reason why I dislike it is that, compared to 3rd party apps, it's slow and the design is overly busy. I prefer a more minimalistic design. The excessive tracking doesn't help.
KptMarchewa 3y ago
Does it look remotely like this site? No? Then that's not the reddit experience I want.
cragfar 3y ago
The app on iOS isn't too bad. It used to just light your data on fire though when reddit was trying to do streaming.
Gareth321 3y ago
The design language follows all modern social media apps: engagement. Think TikTok. This means auto-playing videos, large elements instead of small elements (low information density) designed to draw attention, prioritising popular and contentious items in the feed instead of relevant items for the user, etc. This language is user-hostile. It uses psychological techniques to keep users on the platform for longer instead of presenting the information which they actually want. There are technical issues too. Many users report issues playing videos and gifs. Finally, the Reddit app serves ads.
- 369548684892826 3y ago
  > auto-playing videos, large elements instead of small elements You can fix both these issues in the app settings. Turning off feed thumbnails is also a big improvement.
  - Gareth321 3y ago
    > You can fix both these issues in the app settings. Turning off feed thumbnails is also a big improvement. You cannot. The "classic" layout is still less information dense than Apollo, and disabling autoplay only disables autoplaying videos in the "card" layout. Videos still auto-play once a user taps a submission. While we're here, I forgot how hostile their navigation menu is. At the bottom of the app Reddit has "Home," "Discover," "Create," "Chat," and "Inbox." The latter doesn't even take one to their inbox. It takes them to their *activity." These are clearly not the most used actions on Reddit. They're the actions Reddit wants to encourage.
EnragedParrot 3y ago
The UI is absolutely awful. As just one example, if I want to view the karma count on a recent comment, in the official app I have to tap my user profile icon in the corner, tap "my profile" (didn't I just tap my profile icon?!), then tap "comments". So now to go back where I was I have to back swipe three times. If I'm in a comment thread and I tap on a user's name, a profile card slides up from the bottom of the screen. If I then want to view that users comment history, I have to tap on their username from the slide up card, and that brings me to the full user profile card, and then I have to tap on the comments tab for that user. To go back to the comment thread, I have to press the back arrow to leave their profile, then press the (x) button on the slide-up profile card - so I back swipe and then down-swipe/tap a button. It's an absolutely insane and frustrating UX. Things slide in from different directions and there are multiple UI elements with similar (but not identical) functionality. That's on top of crap like not being able to download gifs and videos right to my device and the built in video player being broken. There are so many other major social media apps that do things so much better it just boggles my mind at how bad reddit's is. TikTok is so smooth and easy to use, even Facebook is better. In Apollo on the other hand, I view my comments by tapping the "profile" button at the bottom of the screen. In a comment thread, to view a user's history, tap their name and their history pops up. It's smooth and intuitive and fast and simple. I always "go back" views by sliding from the left - the interactions never change depending on context so I always know exactly how to navigate intuitively.

rileyphone 3y ago

The bigger joke is their “open in app” links don’t work for me on mobile safari. At least old reddit still works on desktop.

bastawhiz 3y ago

> but to force users to use their crappy app so they can track users better That's the point: let the users pay you to make up for the (potential?) revenue you're not making from tracking them. Estimates put reddit at something like $0.25 per user. Pushing them to the official app might _generously_ triple that number. Versus the user paying $5/mo? It's a braindead business case to say that users in your official app are materially better than the same users directly paying for the service they actually want.

savanaly 3y ago
One problem is the type of user who opts to pay even $5 is probably worth more than triple the average. There’s the users who have money to spend at the top and a very long tail of non-spenders at the bottom dragging that average value down.
- bastawhiz 3y ago
  They're hypothetically worth more in a world where they started out in the official app. In our universe where Reddit is fucking those users, they're far more likely to simply stop using Reddit altogether. And many of them will. Reddit will be lucky if they break even.
ToniCipriani 3y ago
Sounds to me they want to double dip: charge you AND track you.

princevegeta89 3y ago

And the official Reddit apps sucks big ass in my opinion. Combine this with the way Reddit nags and misleads you to install it, and that gave me enough reason to never use their fucking app.

stuff4ben 3y ago
Having tried to use Apollo several times over several years, I keep coming back to the official Reddit app. It works and I'm just used to it. I like the UI much better and it feels normal. Nothing Apollo provides was that much of an improvement over the default app IMO.
- teaneedz 3y ago
  Are you a dev for the app or Reddit employee? The official app is a case study in bad UX design. The only positive reviews in the app store are easily identified as bot or part of paid for campaigns. The recent reviews though tell how more average users view the official app…and it’s not very good.
  - stuff4ben 3y ago
    Nope, just a plain average user. And I never leave reviews for apps, positive or negative. Most people complaining are NOT average users. Which is why this is just a bunch of nonsense.

sleepybrett 3y ago

... and make sure ads are served, presumably in the most annoying way possible.

lost_tourist 3y ago

that's the final nail for me. The second I have to give an email address or can't access it via the web I'm out.