If you use Reddit at all this is probably the beginning of the end for 3rd party apps.

Reddit's interface sucks and their official mobile app sucks. Most users use Apollo or other 3rd party apps to access the site.

Well that's about to end…

https://reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/12ram0f/had_a_few_calls_with_reddit_today_about_the/

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Had a few calls with Reddit today about the announced Reddit API changes that they're putting into place, and inside is a breakdown of the changes and how they'll affect Apollo and third party apps going forward. Please give it a read and share your thoughts!

Hey all,

Some of you may be aware that Reddit [posted an announcement thread today](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/12qwagm/an_update_regarding_reddits_api/) detailing some serious planned changes to the API. The overview was quite broad causing some folks to have questions about specific aspects. I had two calls with Reddit today where they explained things and answered my questions.

Here's a bullet point synopsis of what was discussed that should answer a bunch of questions. Basically, changes be coming, but not *necessarily* for the worse in all cases, provided Reddit is reasonable.

- Offering an API is expensive, third party app users understandably cause a lot of server traffic
- Reddit appreciates third party apps and values them as a part of the overall Reddit ecosystem, and does *not* want to get rid of them
- To this end, Reddit is moving to a paid API model for apps. The goal is not to make this inherently a big profit center, but to cover both the costs of usage, as well as the opportunity costs of users not using the official app (lost ad viewing, etc.)
- They spoke to this being a more equitable API arrangement, where Reddit doesn't absorb the cost of third party app usage, and as such could have a more equitable footing with the first party app and not favoring one versus the other as as Reddit would no longer be losing money by having users use third party apps
- The API cost will be usage based, not a flat fee, and will *not* require Reddit Premium for users to use it, nor will it have ads in the feed. Goal is to be reasonable with pricing, not prohibitively expensive.
- Free usage of the API for apps like Apollo is not something they will offer. Apps will either need to offer an ad-supported tier (if the API rates are reasonable enough), and/or a subscription tier like Apollo Ultra.
- If paying, access to more APIs (voting in polls, Reddit Chat, etc.) is "a reasonable ask"
- How much will this usage based API cost? It is not finalized yet, but plans are within 2-4 weeks
- For NSFW content, they were not 100% sure of the answer (later clarifying that with NSFW content they're talking about sexually explicit content only, not normal posts marked NSFW for non-sexual reasons), but thought that it would no longer be possible to access via the API, I asked how they balance this with plans for the API to be more equitable with the official app, and there was not really an answer but they did say they would look into it more and follow back up. I would like to follow up more about this, especially around content hosting on other websites that is posted to Reddit.
- They seek to make these changes while in a dialog with developers
- This is not an immediate thing rolling out tomorrow, but rather this is a heads up of changes to come
- There was a quote in an article about how these changes would not affect Reddit apps, that was meant in reference to "apps on the Reddit platform", as in embedded into the Reddit service itself, not mobile apps

tl;dr: Paid API coming.

My thoughts: I think if done well and done reasonably, this could be a positive change (but that's a big if). If Reddit provides a means for third party apps to have a stable, consistent, and future-looking relationship with Reddit that certainly has its advantages, and does not sound unreasonable, *provided the pricing is reasonable*.

I'm waiting for future communication and will obviously keep you all posted. If you have more questions that you think I missed, please post them and I'll do my best to answer them and if I don't have the answer I'll ask Reddit.

\- Christian

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Probably saw the success Twitter had doing this and wants the ad money

I saw this too; not sure I'll keep using Reddit without Apollo.

What does this actually mean? I browse reddit for gaming and sports info and thats it.

wangus12 said:

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What does this actually mean? I browse reddit for gaming and sports info and thats it.

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If you use a 3rd party app (like Apollo), you'll likely have to start paying for it soon.

Not being able to use Apollo is gonna kill Reddit for me

Not gonna lie I didn't know there were 3rd party options.

Yeah no go if I can't use Apollo. Over $20 million a year is crazy for the developer to pay

Same as posters above, I will likely quit using reddit entirely if Apollo goes away.

Some good places to check out while you can:
/r/spacexlounge
/r/cfb
/r/chatgpt
/r/guns
/r/historyporn
/r/wtf
/r/videos

Hope baconreader is unaffected.

This is all about the ipo, imo. They want to have all the users on their site/app to help with advertising revenue etc.

Madmarttigan said:

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Not gonna lie I didn't know there were 3rd party options.

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Same here. I'm a casual Reddit browser, so I'd be interested to hear exactly why people will only use a third party option. The indentations for comments are the only thing that get annoying at times, but again I'm just generally browsing.

The Dog Lord said:

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Madmarttigan said:

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Not gonna lie I didn't know there were 3rd party options.

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Same here. I'm a casual Reddit browser, so I'd be interested to hear exactly why people will only use a third party option. The indentations for comments are the only thing that get annoying at times, but again I'm just generally browsing.

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Easier to download Apollo and see for yourself but in short, user experience

The Dog Lord said:

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Madmarttigan said:

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Not gonna lie I didn't know there were 3rd party options.

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Same here. I'm a casual Reddit browser, so I'd be interested to hear exactly why people will only use a third party option. The indentations for comments are the only thing that get annoying at times, but again I'm just generally browsing.

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The Apollo app is in a completely different league as far as UI, speed, and general usability compared to the official app.

I only use Reddit for very specific info and only with a desktop. Mobile experience is a complete beating. Desktop is slightly less. Of course Reddit is just a misinformation aggregator with tidbits of nuggets interspersed.

Apollo mobile experience is better than desktop and I can't be persuaded otherwise

Astroag said:

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This is all about the ipo, imo. They want to have all the users on their site/app to help with advertising revenue etc.

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is it? or is it also about earning fees for being used as a training model for AI projects?

The Lost said:

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Probably saw the success Twitter had doing this and wants the ad money

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I've never used Reddit because the one time I visited it I discovered it had a UI that someone built in 1997.

I expect to find a "ENTER HERE" button surrounded in 8-bit fire graphics if I ever go there again.

The level of information density with that "obsolete UI" is why I stick around with old.reddit.com. The new one is a steaming bag of dog ****, and their app is too. I've been a Reddit is Fun user for years now. If that goes away I'll move back to old.reddit.com in a browser window on my phone or just drop back to using the site on an a computer only.

From what I've read on a couple of 3rd part app subs I'm not alone in my decision either.

Apple with the pretty deliberate Apollo app shout out earlier on WWDC.

I get the bot issues, but I cannot fathom how incredible these third party apps can be compared to the base app which seems perfectly functional for what I need out of the app

Saxsoon said:

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I get the bot issues, but I cannot fathom how incredible these third party apps can be compared to the base app which seems perfectly functional for what I need out of the app

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You just haven't used one then

HossAg said:

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Saxsoon said:

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I get the bot issues, but I cannot fathom how incredible these third party apps can be compared to the base app which seems perfectly functional for what I need out of the app

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You just haven't used one then

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Give me a sales pitch

I didn't even know they had an app.

Download Apollo while you can; it's a much better experience on mobile.

HossAg said:

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Apple with the pretty deliberate Apollo app shout out earlier on WWDC.

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Because Apple never does anything unethical in how they run their business

I bet we see a lot more of this, and I think it's because of ChatGPT. Essentially, ChatGPT trained their system off of data from places like Reddit, Stackoverflow, etc. with out paying anything for it. Now ChatGPT is pulling traffic away from the sites they learned from. I think the days of free public APIs are ending, and it's really going to slow down AI development as well.

A LOT of my favorite subs are going dark. Some temporarily and some indefinitely.

I get why people are mad and why these protests are going on. On the other selfish hand, I f'ing hate this. I am a browser user and it works absolutely fine for me. Ten times better than Old Reddit ever did. I even kinda like it. This sucks for those who use third party apps. This also sucks when those people take their toys and go home and leave the rest of us with unfinished games.

The problem is there's a ton of moderators that pretty much depend on 3rd party solutions to make their jobs easier or even possible from what I've read. It's gonna seriously affect some subs because of this.

HossAg said:

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The problem is there's a ton of moderators that pretty much depend on 3rd party solutions to make their jobs easier or even possible from what I've read. It's gonna seriously affect some subs because of this.

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Oh, I absolutely get it for sure. QOL is huge for power users and admins. I just don't utilize it myself and my wasteful mindless time sinks of subs are being taken away from me. Out here catching the strays. Several in the million plus member range. Even /apple is protesting.

superunknown said:

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The Lost said:

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Probably saw the success Twitter had doing this and wants the ad money

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https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/22/23564460/twitter-third-party-apps-history-contributions

Somehow it's still around. I never used anything but third party apps before they did this

HossAg said:

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Saxsoon said:

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I get the bot issues, but I cannot fathom how incredible these third party apps can be compared to the base app which seems perfectly functional for what I need out of the app

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You just haven't used one then

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I have, it isn't that much of a difference.

Good read, thanks for the link. Makes more sense now with that context, I was just strictly thinking of the in-stream ads, etc. The quality of advertisers has gone down considerably on Twitter and its seemingly a bunch of drop shipping stores and crypto bots. Which...if you think of it, that's the same kind of bargain basement advertiser that's all over anything these days because the ad market is bottoming out.

Apollo officially shutting down on June 30th. Gonna miss using that app.