Users Disheartened as Reddit Protest Leads to Closure of Third-Party Apps

Reddit, which is considered as one of the largest online discussion forums, is ranked 20th in the list of most visited websites worldwide, as per Similarweb. The platform’s popularity can be attributed to its well-maintained ecosystem, which is a collaborative effort of users, moderators, third-party app developers, and the corporate team behind the platform. However, the recent announcement of Reddit’s new API policy and pricing system has caused an uproar within the ecosystem, leading to widespread protests against the move.

A perfect example came yesterday, June 12th, when many major subreddits went private causing Reddit to experience a blackout, the website suffered one of its biggest outages and users were left frustrated because they couldn’t access their favorite communities. And it all started with one single event – third-party apps announcing that they were shutting down their services.

At the forefront of this shutdown was Apollo, an iOS-based third-party app for Reddit. Its developer Christian Selig announced that the app will cease operations after June 30 because it would require him to spend $20 million annually just to keep the app running, which is much more than what he gets from the app. But Apollo isn’t the only app to suffer from it.

Rif is having fun on Reddit announcing that it will be closing up shop by June 30th

Rif is to Reddit (formerly Reddit is Funny) to Android what Apollo is to iOS. With over 5 million downloads, it is one of the most popular third-party apps for the platform. Due to the active developer posting regular updates, many users have adopted it as their primary way of using Reddit.

However, to the shock of its user base, its developer, who goes by the username talklittle on Reddit, announced that the app will be shut down by June 30.

In the post, he said: “RIF will be shut down on June 30, 2023 in response to Reddit Inc’s API changes and their hostile treatment of developers building on their platform.”

He also added that Reddit’s corporate team refused to compromise on all the points he raised.

Talklitte raised three concerns. First, third-party app developers like Apollo and Rif is fun didn’t make the money they would have to pay the company. Second, the new API policy blocked ads in third-party apps, effectively stopping the biggest source of revenue for these developers, and third, removing NSFW (not safe for work) content from third-party apps would act as a deterrent to users who want to access third-party apps.

Users react to Rif’s funny announcement

One user commented: “RIF is by far the most used app on my phone. I paid for the premium version so long ago and it’s the best app purchase I’ve ever made. To say it’s going to be missed is such an understatement.”

Another user reported that this would prevent them from using Reddit on mobile entirely. They said: “This pretty much confirms that I won’t be using reddit on mobile at all anymore. This app is the only way I could tolerate mobile viewing. Thanks for the years of service”.

“I never thought that this one app I downloaded in high school to read rage comics would stick with me throughout my adult life until now. RIF is a masterclass in simple yet elegant design and it’s heartbreaking to see it like this,” the user said.

It should be noted that there are other third-party apps such as ReddPlanet and Sync that will also be shut down by June 30th.