My biggest problem with the official Reddit app is the inefficient use of space. I've been using Reddit is Fun (RiF) for many years now and moving to the official Reddit app feels like having desktop zoom permanently enabled.
Aside: The recommendation feature is completely broken... By default it injects completely inappropriate content from seemingly random subreddits right in the middle of everything. Example (looking at the app right this second) I see posts from /r/AskReddit, /r/plumbing, and /r/linux_gaming then "similar to /r/other communities" (wasting vertical space) is a post from /r/PeopleFuckingDying titled, "sICk FuCkS INJecT cAt WiTH PEptO bisMal".
So unless you turn off the "recommend other subreddits" setting (on by default, could've been a useful feature) you're going to get that, "Random bullshit, go!" stuff injected into your feed constantly every few pages of posts. It'd be fine if they just recommended the subreddit but they include the day's top post from that subreddit and if you have NSFW posts enabled you may need to regularly visit /r/EyeBleach
To be fair, /r/PeopleFuckingDying is all about totally normal, innocent videos "subverted" by their insane captions. It will be things like a baby lightly falling over on a bed with the caption "cHilD FuCKiNg SMoTHERed AftER tERriBLE FalL". I was curious, so I watched that particular one, which is a cat harmlessly receiving an injection from a veterinarian, of a medicine that happens to look a bit like Pepto Bismol.
This is kind of a Reddit thing; look at /r/MarijuanaEnthusaists for instance (it's about trees. Actual trees). You'd get the same thing with any app.
The thing with r/MarijuanaEnthusaists is: it swapped places with r/trees
Kinda same thing with r/worldpolitics and r/anime_tiddies (just worldpolitics is now/was a lawless land where almost anything was posted, instead of just being about anime tiddies)
>The only reason I installed the app is because Reddit deliberately made their mobile web site so appallingly annoying to use!
This is a really good reason to not install the app. IMHO we (HN readers) have an obligation to stand up against companies using dark patterns to strongarm users into giving up their data. Otherwise it will keep getting worse until gov. regulation.
UX and UI design preferences notwithstanding, here's the list of bugs I regularly experience that drive me insane:
* Opening comments regularly takes 30-45 seconds, I sometimes think I mistapped, and end up with 2 post comments activities overlaid on top of each other
* Comments often open the wrong post comments
* Opening comments on a video post sometimes opens a non-loading video player with missing comments button, have to repeatedly re-open or try sharing the link to desktop in order to get to comments (assuming the next bug doesn't lose the post for you)
* Backing out of comments has a significant chance of returning you to the top of the feed instead of where you left off
* App just straight up crashes out of nowhere
* Autoplay settings don't seem to be reliable
* Another huge peeve of mine is due to the shared "video mute" setting in the video player, if you play a video with audio, the mute control may fade out and not return, requiring you to scroll to a different video, deal with the autoplay audio, and then hope you can use that video's mute button to get your feed muted again. This is especially annoying when the feed gets unmuted and I come across a video ad
I'm surprised by how many people say they use the official app without any issues, from my perspective it seems chock full of bugs, race conditions, and overall bad code. I don't know how people are managing to avoid these bugs.
The app is so slow that it actually has loading screens and scrolls kind of janky sometimes on a 2021 phone.
LAYOUTS
Lots of wasted space as is fashionable these days. Layouts are very spread out and no compact mode is available. Top and bottom bar stick around at all times limiting space for actual content
FONTS
Font is weirdly bold, moderately large, and with lots of extra space as is fashionable these days, neither text nor layouts are customizable. In dark mode text below post titles is light grey making it hard to read.
ADS
Promoted posts with autoplaying videos even if you have gold (paid reddit).
AUTOPLAYING VIDEOS
No way to disable autoplaying videos.
NO MULTIREDDITS
Multireddits are user created mashups of multiple reddits allowing you to view a customized feed of a subsection of reddit here is an example.
So many advertisements in the app. I use the browser on my phone and have tried, on a few occasions, the app and giving it a go, but am quickly deleting it after being bombarded with all the ads. They’re less pervasive and in your face on mobile web and I think I see fewer of them.
I said this elsewhere, but the experience in the reddit app and 3p apps is like browsing an entirely different social media platform.
The "old reddit" experience was basically: Only see posts from the subs you subscribe to, unless you want to see what's on "the front page of the internet" where you can go to /r/all (or /r/popular). Or if you're feeling brave, /r/new.
If you subscribe to a lot of self-post heavy subs you'll probably get a very snappy experience, not too many gifs/videos/memes/images etc, and you might even just want to browse with them closed by default.
"new reddit" is nothing like that. Intrusive notifications, suggested posts, ads in your face, oh and loading times are garbage (I don't even know how it's possible: a 3p app can serve things without loading screens at all, wtf is Reddit doing?)
It sucks for blind community for example. It doesn't affect me personally but the way reddit has handled this whole saga is "short term corporate profits".
Reddit is dead. Highest contributors will move on.
i dont think thats what people are saying, they're just saying that 3rd party apps shouldnt be destroyed. people have built companies and they're livelihoods around them.
why would you build your livelihood as a 3rd party app this day in age dependent on another company?
This story of companies changing policies is nothing new, and a obvious risk if you pursue this type of business dependent upon other peoples platforms. Companies yanking access to data/api usage/changing terms for farmville games/changing ad words terms/etc. has been going on since the internet was commercialized in the 90s.
People who did make money off apps like this, should call it a good run for a few years and move on to the next thing.
>People who did make money off apps like this, should call it a good run for a few years and move on to the next thing.
That seems to be what is happening, but Reddit shouldn't be given a free pass. They could have handled this much better. They announced drastically higher API fees with no warning or grace period. It was extremely sudden and extremely steep.
