HN Explorer

Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app?

1403 points by blickentwapft ↗ HN
Reddit constantly hassles me to use their app on mobile.

Why do they care so much?

I really don’t want to use their app. I just wish they’d give up and let me use the browser in peace.

656 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 302 ms ] thread
Daedren
I'd wager it's because the average user only blocks ads in the browser.
jamil7
Yeah ads. If you're on iOS check out Apollo, made by a solo developer and does not display ads. I'm not sure what the equivalent on Android would be (someone chime in if you know).
psibi
I have been using RedReader[1] on Android which doesn't display ads and it's also open source software.

[1] https://github.com/QuantumBadger/RedReader

ffpip
Infinity is a much better client imo. Best design and has all basic features, plus a few tricks.

Open source too

zhte415
It's not only ads.. well in the end it is, but that app's largely about stickyness and push vs. pull.

By visiting the website, you're the one pulling, wanting to visit and viewing the content or messages on your time. By installing the app, any message or update is pushed to you instantly, pulling you to the website, making it less your decision to visit, but being pulled in. A Medusa-like call that's hard for many to resist.

Reddit are not unique in this. Even updated 'XXX sent you a new DM' from Twitter via email for example.

Anyway, I'm shot of Reddit. Their recent purge shut down a lot of subs that for many were mutual support groups caught in the cross-fire of admins vs. sophisticated trolls using them as flare-scatter to escape themselves.

jamil7
Yes you're right it's not the only reason. My response was a little too cynical. My point is less web vs app and more profitable one person show (without resorting to ads and tracking) vs a bloated behemoth feeding the VC monkey on it's back.
zhte415
If there's a choice between web and app, I'd take web any day: Works on multiple devices, doesn't need updates or dependencies from an app store.

And agree on one person show / bootstrap vs bloated VC money.

wayneftw
I also can’t stand using apps because links work better in an actual web browser.

When I click on a link in an app, I have no clue what is about to happen. It could open my web browser, it could open some shitty in-app browser or it could show content in the app.

Also, having apps installed means I have to deal with the absolutely horrendous UX of being on the web, clicking a link and then having the app version of YouTube/Zillow/whatever forcefully opened instead of normal navigation.

So, I uninstalled all of those. I hope Apple gives me a setting to turn that fucking piece of shit feature off someday.

outadoc
Apollo is pretty much iOS's only good Reddit client, Android has a few great ones. I personally use Boost.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubenmayay...

leokennis
Apollo is definitely the best (as in, it's so feature complete, stable, integhrated with the OS UI/UX and awesome I don't see any reason why anyone would want to use an alternative) but there are alternative's, for example Narwhal.
bitsoda
Narwhal is criminally underrated. It's so fast and fluid, and you always have access to subreddits by swiping from the right. Apollo is good, but Narwhal deserves more love IMO.
leokennis
My only complaint about it is it doesn’t use WKWebView, but something else to render web content. This means that any site I open in Narwhal does not use my content blockers and is thus an ad and tracker infested slow as molasses experience.
outadoc
Meh. I used it before Apollo came out and it always felt very foreign to the OS and kind of ugly.
whalesalad
+1 for Apollo. Lots of great features and it follows Apple HIG (Human interface guidelines) unlike the bizarre UI direction of everything Reddit is doing these days.
spiderfarmer
I’m afraid and won't be surprised if Reddit goes the Twitter route and kills (or somehow cripples) third party apps like Apollo. If Reddit is this adamant on destroying the user experience of their platform, killing off great apps like Apollo seems to fit that strategy.
whalesalad
I have the same tingly sense as well, unfortunately.
spurgu
I used Apollo as well on iOS, on Android I'm using Boost.
m0guz
Ads only one of the reasons. Reddit also updated Reddit Coins [0] with their new design. With this new "in-app" economy, you can use real money to buy reddit coins and give an award to post. Another revenue stream for reddit.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/coins

gniv
I think that's the real answer to OP's question. Reducing the friction to buying stuff is a big deal.
mark_l_watson
They give me Reddit coins because I donate every month. I don’t use their app and have no trouble giving out coins for posts that I like. Sort of fun, BTW.

Now, I really wish Twitter would let me pay a monthly fee for no advertisements.

wonderlg
Lol why do you donate to a company that made $120 million in ads last year?
xioxox
RedReader is a good Reddit app for Android on F-Droid
Macha
I worry the day is coming for a Twitter-esque app purge if too many people are avoiding their ads and engagement mechanisms with third party apps.

Maybe I should root for it, for all the time I'd get back not using Reddit though.

callamdelaney
To be clear here, the app doesn't have additional ads but it does show reddit ads.
onyva
Install lockdown on iOS. It’ll block ads anywhere i assume. It’s such an hostile approach, like medium, I will never install their app or open an account.
koolba
Short term: you can’t block the ads like you can in the browser.

Long term: to turn it into a chat app and somehow cash out.

mangatmodi
I worked on user tracking all my life. You can track user activities, interest etc, much better on an app. This data is valuable for in-house use and to sell it to the highest bidder.
hutzlibu
Do you think tracking outside the app is done?

Meaning collecting data even if the app is not opened? I would suspect so.

mangatmodi
yes yes, there are third party DMPs. Phone companies, offline stores etc. all share data with these DMPs. It is quite disgusting. Particularly shady practices done by FB.

But nothing can defeat first party tracking you get with the app.

jakevoytko
Other people are saying "ads," but the story is probably more expansive. Mobile apps have better hooks for pulling people back into the app, like popup notifications. Reddit has natural lifecycle points where they can do this: when people respond to your comments or comment on your posts. They could also notify users of events like their yearly Secret Santa. I wouldn't be surprised if their engagement numbers were much better on mobile: since they can draw users back into the app with notifications, they have better ad views, more people buy Reddit Gold, more people comment (which leads to other people having content to read), etc.
nevf1
Yep, I think ads is just another way of saying monetization. The app has lots of annoying notifications like "You might like...", "You got 100 upvotes", etc which, when you engage with more, they make more money through ads, coins etc.

Your attention, retention and engagement is a lot easier to manage and increase through an app than it is through website.

Cthulhu_
Instead of direct monetization, they probably measure by engagement. If a service has a permanent presence on your device, you get a LOT more engagement and recurring visits than a web version. Websites on mobile are one-time, visit-and-forget/move on things.

I'd love to be proven wrong though; what websites see daily, recurring, long time active usage?

Also not to be underestimated is that a mobile app will always have better UX than a website. Think of the subtle things like page transitions. Navigating Reddit still causes full-page reloads, whereas on the app it's a much more organic process. Speed is also an important factor.

allerhellsten
Exactly this. To give you a datapoint from our properties: Our web site attracts 90% of the users, but only 60% of the actual traffic. In all metrics like retention, frequency and time on site, mobile leads by factors of 2-5.

Part of that is definitely self-selection, but as some people already said, other notable effects are push notifications, mindshare, loss aversion (you're on somebody's device already, so they can just as well use it) and partly better performance.

So much about the users, but Monetization is much better as well, mostly due to mobile ad-IDs, which especially on iOS lets you extract double the revenue per user due to targeting. Ad blockers are harder to bypass.

In the end, a mobile app will get you anywhere between 2-10x the revenue per user you attracted to your property, so that's why Reddit is pushing so hard.

To stay in Reddit's lingo though:

`LPT: https://old.reddit.com`

GekkePrutser
I understand, but they're also pushing many users away with this behaviour.

It's what I like about HN.. It feels like they don't even care how much users 'engage'. I bet they don't even run a report on it. They just let us do our thing here and not worry about it. As a user this is a much nicer experience.

PakG1
Easy for HN to do that. HN is not incentivized to make money. The people who run HN do not care if HN does not make any money. In fact, they have zero monetization strategies for HN.
zozbot234
HN has ads on its front page. Not many of them, and they are quite hard to spot at a glance (mixed in with the content, not clearly marked as such) but they're there.
fauigerzigerk
I've never seen an ad on HN. They must be really hard to spot.
waterhouse
There's currently one on the frontpage for GiveCampus, shown below a regular story:

  14. The Haunted House – Privacy on Google Street View (harpers.org)
      8 points by b0b10101 1 hour ago | flag | hide | 1 comment
  15. GiveCampus (YC S15) hiring Sr Engineers who care about education (lever.co)
      1 hour ago | hide
Distinctive features: no upvote button, no point value, no flag link, no comments.
fauigerzigerk
14. "The Haunted House" is not an ad as far as I can see. It does have an upvote button.

15. is a job posting by a YC company. Perhaps you could classify it as an ad, but I see it as a perk that YC grants its own companies.

waterhouse
Right, I included the Haunted House entry (a regular story) for contrast.

The job posting is certainly "sponsored content", a privileged post put there at the behest of a third party, which blends in fairly well with neighboring posts yet isn't subject to the normal rules. I don't know if money actually changes hands to put it there (maybe each YC company is granted a posting there, or maybe they have to pay for it), but in other respects it's straightforwardly an ad for a job.

All that said, I have no problem with it being there.

fauigerzigerk
>Right, I included the Haunted House entry (a regular story) for contrast.

Ah, sorry, I misread what you said.

chipotle_coyote
AFAIK, the only ads are the ones described in the FAQ:

> A regular "Who Is Hiring?" thread appears on the first weekday of each month (or Jan 2). Most job ads are welcome there. Only an account called whoishiring is allowed to submit the thread itself. This prevents a race to post it first.

> Another kind of job ad is reserved for YC-funded startups. These appear on the front page, but are not stories: they have no vote arrows, points, or comments. They begin part-way down and fall steadily. Only one is on the front page at a time.

I'm not sure either of those qualify as ads in the sense we're talking about Reddit ads -- the first one doesn't bring in any revenue to HN (or cost "advertisers" any money); the second one seems like it's a perk for "graduating" YC and it's unclear whether it's something HN makes revenue from, either.

krapp
The only reason HN isn't incentivized to make money directly is that its owned by a company that makes money on it indirectly.
thunderrabbit
Your answer reminds me; we are focusing on Hacker News as if it's its own thing, but part of the answer is right in the URL. HN is a part of ycombinator, which presumably pays the bills.
quakeguy
Sadly the grave accent is breaking your link ;)
badassiel
someone compared mobile and web (with data from study) as Web, easier to attract, difficult to retain and vice versa for mobile.

Could be the reason why web to app migration practices are followed. best of both worlds.

marcosdumay
> what websites see daily, recurring, long time active usage?

Reddit

Do you really think that people would stop going to reddit if they used the site instead of the app on their mobile? (But, of course, the people more prone to recurring visits are more likely to install an app.)

> mobile app will always have better UX than a website

And again, it's reddit we are talking about here. The app experience is just horrible.

GekkePrutser
They really hurt their own monetisation by making the subscriptions too expensive though. They more than doubled in price recently. It's not worth the price anymore for me.
RealStickman_
It's also interesting to note that the old ui on a desktop does not have these useless messages you mentioned.
mxcrossb
I think this must be why they require you to register an account to read reddit now.
julianwachholz
Yet all of this could also be easily done with a PWA that could present with a much less intrusive "add to homescreen" bar.
FreakyT
Not on iOS! PWAs can't send push notifications on that platform, ever.
chromedev
Fortunately Apple can't prevent PWAs from telling users that Apple is the reason they can't have good things. I'm disappointed however in Apple also blocking PWA's from the App Store.
briandear
Despite what many might think, everything doesn’t need to be an “app,” PWA or otherwise. Reddit is literally a message board, one of the earliest types of website. It doesn’t need my location — ever. Email works just fine as a notification, if I want it as a “push” notification, I could VIP-enable the notification email address in Mail. Does Reddit need my accelerometer? Or direct access to my camera or microphone? Or address book? Or graphics APIs like Metal?

Nope. It’s just a message board. Sell contextual ads for the different subreddits, don’t bother tracking people, and be done with it. Of course that would likely require a significantly smaller workforce.

Dylan16807
What are you on about? Being a PWA doesn't mean it needs to access any of those things.

And no, email does not fit all the same use cases as notifications.

chromedev
A PWA is a web page and uses the browser engine. You don't have to enable notifications and still get prompted just like the browser.
GekkePrutser
Well, good. Being spammed with notifications is the primary reason I refuse to install many apps. Sure, you can turn it off but they really make you hunt around for it.
vanviegen
In that case you'll be happy that learn that notifications on the web are opt-in instead of opt-out! :-)
ori_b
Yes, that's one big reason I avoid installing apps. But the requests are also a pain. Can I permanently opt out of all requests across all sites, and never see a page ask again?
Klathmon
Yes, in all major browsers you can set notifications to auto-decline just like most web permissions (camera, location, cookies, etc...)
briandear
Reddit doesn’t care about being less intrusive. If they did, they could stop the aggressive app-nag today. A PWA doesn’t instantly make them want to be subtle.
jawns
There are so many mobile apps out there that are little more than wrappers around the mobile site -- but it's vital that they be apps for precisely this reason. Neverthless, as a user, it drives me crazy; I just want to access the site in my browser.

What we are starting to see is web push notifications becoming fully supported by browsers, and I think it's only a matter of time before iOS and Android start allowing app-like websites to notify users without them having to download a full-fledged app.

It would be interesting to see what this does for the iOS and Android development landscape. They're in a golden age now where every major property needs both a mobile site and a dedicated app on both platforms. But if the mobile site can handle more features that were previously the sole provenance of native apps, that seems likely to shift the landscape.

vanviegen
Android support for browser notifications landed in Chrome mobile about five years ago. (And yes, that included support for Android versions that were old even then.)

iOS still has no support, and nothing even on the horizon, as far as I know. Apple is intentionally holding back the open web. I find this infuriating.

mark_l_watson
I will somewhat reluctantly support Apple on this. There are no web sites that I want to allow interrupting my work/writing flow with notifications.

Also, the new awesome privacy settings in Safari on the beta iOS and beta iPadOS and beta macOS Bug Sur are very much appreciated, at least by me.

loh
I'm personally not a fan of notification spam either, but I would assume that notifications via mobile browsers would be opt-in. Is that a bad assumption?
StavrosK
It is not, I haven't seen a browser for which notifications weren't opt in.
zentiggr
In the history of site and app developers so far, yes, a very poor assumption. Assume opt-<whatever drives engagement harder>.
efreak
I can't imagine user-hostile features like silently allowing websites to spam you would drive browser share in a wanted direction. That's like expecting people to use your website because you sell their information.
the_gipsy
The constant nagging to "download the app" is worse. Notifications can be left off, for a website or an app - this constant install-app-nagging is unavoidable now.

It absolutely IS possible to add the feature, as opt-in like with app permissions, and e.g. with some user-initiated event like audio already does.

The REAL motivation here is money, forcing users to use the appstore, instead of the web which is an open protocol.

edoceo
And reddits App-nag setting is not a permanent choice. When you disable it that's a localStorage thing only, so if you sign out, clear caches, sign in elsewhere, still nags you.
mark_l_watson
This is true. I usually remove all cookies and data from my devices every three of four days - it just seems tidy to do so, even though I usually open a private tab for following links. There is the slight annoyance of logging back in to a few web sites and turning off notifications. That is definitely an opportunity cost, since it takes a little time.
danielscrubs
“Download the app” is still visible on Chrome.

Nagging will always be good business, no matter what platform or what shape or form.

michaelt
How is constantly getting nagged to download the app any different to constantly getting nagged to enable notifications?
bioipbiop
At least on desktop, browsers don’t allow you to be nagged once you’ve decided against receiving notifications.
Joeri
They support web notifications in safari in the desktop. Whatever annoyances would be caused on mobile are also present there. I am convinced the only reason we don’t have push notifications on mobile safari is because it would enable people to write pwa’s instead of apps.
moistly
> macOS Bug Sur

Please tell me the beta community is calling it that.

ori_b
I've been on android all along, but I think this just convinced me to give an iPhone a shot for my next device.
vanviegen
Why's that? At least on Android you're free to choose another browser that doesn't support notifications, if they bother you so much. Or you could just turn them of.
ori_b
I appreciate a platform that doesn't add these kinds of misbehaviors in the first place. It means I have less to watch out for or worry about in the future.
sidlls
I don't want the trend of browser-as-operating-system to continue.

Aside from the shabby technological issues involved, the applications themselves these pseudo OS features are put to generally are opposed to some of the things I value highly: privacy and stability, for example. Most applications don't need a social component or to harass me to re-engage, to utilize hardware or other software services on my device, or even to export/share data with other applications.

As far as the technology itself: the platform is generally a terrible technology for even the dubious purposes it is usually put. It's clunky, and even with things like wasm the development story for the platform is, at best, terrible. Also, in my experience, the quality of development in the web sphere is generally (not always) poor compared to similarly complex projects in other areas/applications.

fauigerzigerk
If an app is on the Web, it's my choice whether I use it or not. I don't need Apple's permission and I don't need to pay them for using it.

Also, Apple's stubborn insistence on lock-in (and lock-out) is really annoying if many of your contacts are not on Apple platforms.

There are clearly trade-offs, and there is a lot of valid criticism of the Web, but I'm really glad that the Web exists as a sort of operating system that guarantees some freedoms that native platforms are increasingly taking away from us (although not all of them are as paternalistic as Apple).

mcintyre1994
They also keep adding new stupid in-app notifications (I have OS notifications blocked for them) which ironically you have to use the website to disable. "Trending" stuff in subreddits you're not even in and suggested subreddits and garbage like that. I assume that rubbish does become an OS notification if you let them.
macNchz
Those kind of “nagifications” are among my biggest pet peeves on the modern internet. Almost every social platform these days abuses the notifications icon to show you a bunch of not-actually-a-notification garbage to boost your engagement. LinkedIn is especially egregious in this regard.
boring_twenties
Someone actually installed a LinkedIn mobile app?

May I ask why?

maxk42
LinkedIn actually disables some features, including certain types of messaging on their mobile site when not accessing it via the mobile app.

Infuriating.

boring_twenties
Are people using LinkedIn messaging for anything other than occasionally responding to recruiters? Can't that just wait until you get home?
philsnow
Yelp doesn't let you see more than a few photos in mobile web; if you switch to desktop view you can see all the photos but of course all the dimensions are janky.
macNchz
This one in particular drove me up the wall when they started doing it, because, for at least a year, the Yelp app was so buggy (on my phone at least) that it was essentially unusable. I wanted to keep using Yelp on the web, but because it was so crippled I switched to using Google Maps as my default review-searching app. The Yelp app works on my phone now...but I never reach for it.
macNchz
Their mobile website is terrible and intentionally crippled... I've found that when I'm having lots of meetings–whether it's sales, recruiting, or looking for work–being able to quickly pull up profiles of people I'm talking with while on the go is useful.

That said they badge the notifications icon in the header of the desktop web version as well–just now mine had 8 unread "Notifications", 7 of which were suggesting I congratulate acquaintances for work anniversaries or telling me about trending posts. Why can't that just be in the feed? Maybe because I don't actually ever scroll through the feed, because I don't care about the garbage people post on LinkedIn.

streb-lo
FYI you can disable all the fluff notifications in the iOS app at least.

settings > username > notifications.

I left just the comment replies on and turned everything else off.

bonestamp2
If you're on iOS, use Apollo... it's better than the web or reddit app experience.
mcintyre1994
I've heard it mentioned before, will definitely have to look into it - thanks! :)
wombat-man
reddit notifications are useless now. I do use the app but all notifications are off. I only look at that in app notification thing if I recently posted and am expecting replies.
bemmu
Also Reddit can offer IAP more easily, since users won't need to input their CC info again inside Reddit.
TheRealWatson
What you said is all true but it still boils down to getting people to see more ads. I'm not sure how big a part of their revenue Reddit Gold is.
Ozzie_osman
This is correct. It's about retention more than monetization.

With the app, you can not only send notifications, but you also have the app icon which reminds people of the apps existence. Even little things like "badging" (when the app icon shows a dot or number to indicate new notifications) and even that can have a noticeable impact on retention (we're all programmed to click into anything with a notification).

Also, they can recommend better content for you. I don't know if this is still possible and whether reddit does it, but an app used to be able to get the list of other apps installed on the phone, and many companies used that as an input into their recommendation systems (along with your location, etc).

mbesto
> retention more than monetization

FWIW, retention is monetization.

spenczar5
I don’t see how. Can you explain how a company makes revenue purely by retaining users? I think they still need a monetization scheme separately. [edited for clarity]
tehbeard
In the context of Reddit, it's only a no-ad website if you're running adblock.
spenczar5
Sorry, I was unclear - I was trying to pose a hypothetical, not to say Reddit has no monetization.
mbesto
Retaining users means:

- You can sell ads to them

- You can continue to sell ads to them

A proxy, if you will. For a for profit business, what other reason is there if not to drive some monetary value.

Ozzie_osman
(Mentioned in another comment somewhere else in this thread). In the long-term, yes, but retention and monetization can diverge in the short-term. Classic example is showing fewer ads (better user experience, better retention... but much less monetization). Of course, in the long term, you'd still need to monetize that retention somehow anyway.
rabuse
I believe Apple is going to be allowing push notifications from the web soon, and you can also "Add to Homescreen" a webpage, and it acts like an app, so we might finally be seeing a needed shift away from the app store.
Joeri
Apple added push notifications to safari, but only on desktop. That tells you that they deliberately do not support this because they know a lot of apps could be pwa’s otherwise.
rabuse
Last I heard is that it is also coming to mobile.
dfabulich
Apple hasn’t announced anything like this. I’m pretty sure you’re confusing it with something else.
OkGoDoIt
Heard from where? Many people are clamoring for this, but other than wishful thinking I’ve never heard any compelling claims that Apple actually has it on their roadmap.

I, for one, would love to see support for push on mobile web on iOS. But I’m not holding my breath.

naravara
> With the app, you can not only send notifications, but you also have the app icon which reminds people of the apps existence.

This is exactly why I don't want to install the app. All of these things seem designed to steal my attention and direct it towards stuff others want me to focus on rather than what I want to focus on.

While having a mobile App store is probably a net good, in a lot of ways I wish Steve Jobs' initial vision of having the iPhone run WebApps and just improving the OS level support for improved hooks and functionality with actual websites was the way the world went.

The apps would never have gotten as good and stuff like Uber might never have happened. But it also would have kept Facebook and Reddit and all these other sites focused on making you visit because you want to visit rather than because you're being skinner boxed and nudged into visiting by overbearing tracking technologies.

nonbirithm
Also worth mentioning that there is no official API for Reddit's chat feature. You have no choice but to use the website or official app if you're on mobile and want or need to use their chat.

Also the chat feature is extremely watered down and doesn't even have support for attaching images. But that doesn't matter if someone on Reddit chooses to contact you via chat and you want to respond. It compels you to use their platforms instead of a third-party client.

plorkyeran
If you always use third-party clients or old.reddit.com you'll never even know that someone tried to contact you via chat, which makes it somewhat ineffective at getting people to stop using those.
mywittyname
I'm just now discovering that chat exists.
weego
Pedantically, retention is the most effective KPI for predictable monetisation plans.
Ozzie_osman
Very true and not actually pedantic. Retention is a pretty solid predictor of monetization, esp in the long-run. But in the short-run they can diverge. For example, decreasing ad units per page could drastically drop your monetization, but be great for longer-term retention.
ryandrake
There's probably a suffering PM there whose bonus depends on juicing these horrible metrics rather than making their product wonderful. I myself dabbled in product management but got so turned off to it from the constant focus on addiction metrics. 7-day Retention! 30-day Retention! Daily Active Use! Daily Sessions Per DAU! Eyeball-share! Get their contacts! Spam them with E-mail! Spam them with notifications! Red badges on the app icon! Get them back in the app! I felt like a drug pusher, not someone building something great.
maurys
Would there be confounding variables though?

Users who have the app are anyways likely to be the ones who use Reddit more so naturally it has much higher engagement than on a browser.

Enginerrrd
Yes! And as a general rule, it's safe to assume their marketing department isn't interested in that issue. Marketing departments can't help but market themselves too, and if BS numbers make them look good even to the detriment of the company, it's almost a sure bet you'll see them do that.
AgloeDreams
Yup, many companies I've worked for see push notifications as the raison d'être for apps.
seppin
I mean, most companies are mobile companies now, and the app is the only thing that matters to them.
AgloeDreams
I mean even existing non-mobile companies.
robbyking
Not to mention analytics. There are a ton of third party frameworks that make it very easy to see where the bottlenecks and friction points are in your app. It's standard practice.
pmarreck
Apparently the only platform that you can't send notifications direct from websites on is iOS.

So that needs to get fixed, and then this problem might go away naturally

charlesju
Also helps them rank higher on app store which is a discovery engine
kevincox
Of course on web they have email. Of course that only actually works about 5% of the time. No wonder their retention numbers are trash...
propogandist
it's more expansive, as in more data that can be mined for adverting purposes. I got a presentation from Reddit a few of years ago on their ad-platform and it was terrible (for enterprises). Their sales team were hyping big changes and things that were coming including geo-location, strong user profiling etc.

This was pre-redesign and it became clear what they were doing and their roadmap of features all were to grow the ad business. Mobile makes sense as it's how their key audiences consume content and it enables stronger profiling, richer engagement and better ad-targeting due to persistance.

The mobile app allows reddit to mine user behavior (every outbound link click is tracked, even on the desktop website) and then they're able to link your device profile, to content you consume and engage with. This can be used for ad-targeting or sold to other data brokers to build a richer profile about ABC user with this device, across XY IPs, typically based in ZZZ location.

m463
It is monetization.

A guy I know worked for a PC manufacturer years ago. The offered a windows version of a machine, and folks asked why they didn't offer a linux version.

A linux version would cost more money, because they made a non-trivial amount of money by loading up the PC with shovelware.

I've seen this countless times at companies. The decision makers do not want to greenlight projects that do not make money, or worse that cost them money.

So I think if you follow the money you'll find a mobile app makes them more money.

[dead] loraa
Clipboard data.
nottorp
Funny, they make me not read reddit on mobile with their insistence on using the app.

But the real reason is tracking and spamming you with notifications to get "engagement".

moksly
I still use old.reddit.com. Such an improved experience, even on mobile where the format doesn’t fit.

So maybe that’s why they want you in the app? They know their website is terrible?

ffpip
Use the app 'Infinity for Reddit'.

Open source and neat design

Thiez
The compact view is even cleaner. Try adding `.compact` at the end of any reddit url.
veqz
Awesome! Thanks for the tip.
netmare
Alternatively, you can replace the 'www' with 'i'.
Cthulhu_
Their website is fine, but no website works as nice on mobile as a native app does.
whywhywhywhy
I'd argue even their old design is better than a native app.

Loads lightning fast, can load thousands of comments on a page without loading bars or context switch. Don't even care if I have to pan and zoom it still works better than the mobile app.

Starting to feel like the idea of a mobile app being a universally better experience is a software industry mass hallucination. A handful of things apps work way better, modern banking comes to mind but sites styled like reddit and HN are just better in a browser with desktop view and high information density.

the_other
Speak for yourself.

My eyesight’s not great. If I can’t pan&scan your content (or continuously vary text size to suit my needs in the moment), you wont have me as a user. Very few native apps on mobile work this way, so I don’t use most of them.

jabl
At least for firefox, there's an old reddit redirect extension that automatically rewrites any reddit urls to old.reddit.

I warmly recommend that one. Except that since the latest firefox mobile release it hasn't yet been ported. But given that it does exist on the desktop version, I guess it's only a matter of time until it reappears for mobile firefox as well.

tennineeight
I have a tiny script added to TamperMonkey that redirects every reddit URL old.reddit.com equivalent. Funnily, the redirect ends up loading more comments faster than the redesigned "new" site with 2 comments
whywhywhywhy
Honestly even with the tiny text, even with having to pan and zoom around the page. The old.reddit experience is superior on mobile to the modern idea how to design of a "mobile app" for a site like reddit.
rainbowzootsuit
Try out i.reddit.com alternately as it's the old mobile-friendly version.

Fair warning that you still get kicked into the new mobile version when selecting some content links.

ccheney
A big reason is likely so they can place ads in your feeds while using the app and avoid ad blocking extensions, push notifications, etc.

For mobile usage I use the third party app, Apollo[1], highly recommended.

For desktop I use a couple of third party extensions to improve the experience & normalize the UI, Old Reddit Redirect [2], RES [3]. I then disable subreddit css and enable dark mode. Any subreddit I visit looks exactly the same as any other, it really allows you to focus on reading content.

- https://apolloapp.io/ [1]

- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/old-reddit-redirec... [2]

- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/reddit-enhancement... [3]

chromedev
Their recommended notifications on Android are so spammy that they should be banned from the Play Store unless they change the defaults.
nottorp
Well, thanks for all the bypass advice. But I only read reddit when a search brings me there, so I can afford to just skip it. I suppose all the workarounds posted in this thread are useful for someone more addicted^H^H^Hinvested into reddit.
gr2zr4
“We know that Redditors are so privacy-conscious,” says Victoria Taylor, director of Communications at Reddit, referring to the site’s community of registered users. So privacy-conscious, indeed. A number of sub-Reddits, which are user-made discussion and link-sharing forums, are devoted to the practice of online privacy tactics, education, and information. A noble Redditor respects “Reddiquette,” refusing to reveal the personal information of a fellow Redditor.

https://geomarketing.com/reddits-safe-play-in-the-game-of-ge...

avipars
Because the 3rd party clients have their own ads... now reddit wants to get more income and control over their mobile counterparts
system2
I've been using narwhal for years and had no issues. Highly recommended.
kaushikt
User retention on mobile is much higher as compared to websites. Now, people are more attention deficit. Everyone I know has a weird habit of opening their phone and checking their "FEED" (could be reddit, could be fb or insta even). All this on mobile.

Ads is a good reason too. In my past workspace, we spent a crazy amount of money on facebook ads and got 80% of traffic from their mobile app.

Reddit is trying to follow the same too.

prepend
Is user retention really higher on mobile? Or is it that web users can’t be tracked so look like they drop off and come back.

I think people make too many definitive statements and bad assumptions based on what they can measure. Leaving off understanding gaps where data doesn’t exist or never will.

Macha
Mobile gives you way more options (notifications, widgets) to drag users back in which have a nonzero success rate.
ninth_ant
Measuring retention is going to be mainly useful for logged-in accounts. And that is is something that could be trivially measured and compared between platforms.

My guess based on experience in this area in other companies is that app users will report a better experience, stay much longer, and return more often.

prepend
I use reddit a lot through my browser and about half the time I’m not logged in. I’m still retained, but not measured accurately.
blfr
They need to somehow make up the engagement for all the interesting content they banned over the years.
optimalsolver
They've grown to the sixth most visited website in the US (third in the UK), so they're doing something right.
mlang23
You mean like when ethernal october hit, the internet was doing something right to attract all these wonderful people? Just because the masses like something doesn't mean it is good.
optimalsolver
So what should they use as a standard of success?

How many Usenet poseurs give them the thumbs up?

That don't pay the bills.

amiga_500
What's the point in producing trash if your only reason is to have enough money to pay for the trash?
optimalsolver
"Trash" is completely subjective. And Reddit's resounding success demonstrates that most people disagree with you.
smolder
IMO, net quality of life is the ultimate measure of success. Is the world a better place for humans as a result of some action? Our economic system does a poor job of rewarding the best behavior in that sense.
knob
Try this: old.reddit.com/r/$foo

A little bit cleaner.

ant6n
Related, why had the reading experience on everywhere become so useless: only the first 6 posts or so are loaded and you constantly need to wait to load more posts. It’s an annoyingly sluggish experience - even with their anti-user pattern of hiding 90% if each conversation by default, they could at least preload the data and show it instantly.
znpy
Because Reddit is slowly becoming trash.

First their website redesign makes the whole thing slow and unusable, then they start making the app get invasive and abusive.

All in the name of "engagement".

varbhat
On mobile,

I use

1) https://i.reddit.com

2) https://github.com/Docile-Alligator/Infinity-For-Reddit

I don't use neither the official bloated site nor official Android app. They are way much animated, bloated,slow.

I think that current focus of reddit is to become social media. Earlier days,reddit was focused on creating better forum,discussion platform. There is gradual change in focus ,i guess.

jamil7
> I think that current focus of reddit is to become social media. Earlier days,reddit was focused on creating better forum,discussion platform. There is gradual change in focus ,i guess.

Theres a few people talking about the "unbundling of reddit" that's going on at the moment. I forget where I read it but basically some larger communities are starting to break off again into their own platforms.

Cthulhu_
There's a lot of subreddits now that advertise their own Discord server, omitting Reddit's own attempt at hosting a chat service.
simias
Trading a centralized proprietary platform for a different centralized proprietary platform. Sounds familiar somehow.

Beyond that, Discord is not really the same thing as Reddit. It's true that reddit tried to compete with Discord by offering their own chat service when they realized that many communities also had a Discord server, but they don't really offer the same service.

Discord is IRC, reddit is BBS/usenet/PHPBB.

fareesh
Bacon reader is a pretty good no-frills client app
gsich
It's called asshole design.
aphroz
Because they need your data. I don't understand how a website with such bad UX can rank so well when Google is now calculating CLS and other parameters like this. Reddit is a mystery to me.
exit
> I don't understand how a website with such bad UX can rank so well when Google is now calculating CLS and other parameters like this.

you can still use the old ui via old.reddit.com

i have no use for anything they introduced in the current ui

thatguyagain
Isn't it one of the most popular sites on the internet? I can't think of where on Reddit the CLS is bad, do you have an example?
aphroz
It was probably very popular, but for me it has become like Quora, I don't understand how the information is structured and I find it not relevant most of the time.
wilde
Reddit usually has more relevant info for me than a raw Google search. My normal search behavior is something like search for “thing”, browse useless blogspam, search for “thing reddit” and then find a link to the answer through a comment or the like.
mlang23
The UX made me quit reddit. I delt with it (with a screen reader) for a few months. Then, I submitted a PR on GitHub to improve the accessibility of the site (just a very small addition). Then my PR got ignored for a few months. So I commented that I will delete my PR since it is obviously not welcome. Then I got some comments asking me to not do so, because accessibility is supposedly important now. A few months later, still no action. So I deleted my reddit account, because there was really no point in continuing to hurt myself with their terrible UX.
schnable
They are all in on AMP, even though its terrible experience on AMP.
opportune
Despite reddit getting worse and worse over the years it’s still one of the best indexed sources of non-advertised/SEO/sponsored information.
Nursie
There was a way, hidden deep in your user settings, to tell them "No, really, I'm never going to use your app".

This has switched off all of those reminders and popups and crap for me on mobile.

Last time I went looking for the setting though, it had gone.

blickentwapft
They shall hassle you to switch to their app until the end of time.
nokya
Reddit's obsession to constantly show me an "ad" to install the app has basically cured me from drifting and spending more time than strictly necessary on the website. I hate it so much that it triggers a negative experience everytime I visit the website and I just tend to watch links shared to me.

Honestly, I thank them for that and I hope they don't remove it.

yomly
Maybe I need that on HN :p
akerro
Go to your profile settings and play with maxvisit, minaway and delay.
yomly
I am giving this a try - it has been great so far!

I like to think of myself as an adult with agency and yet I log into HN on reflex probably over 100 times a day...

searchableguy
Use an RSS reader. While HN doesn't force engagement through dark patterns and notifications. There are still things that create FOMO such as the fast pace of the front page. With a good rss reader, you can check back to read what you missed.

https://edavis.github.io/hnrss/

Check no proc option too.

maps7
Yeah it's driven my usage down now too. I actively try seek alternatives.
optimalsolver
So how many hours do you spend on the site each day?
ObsoleteNerd
Their redesign combined with the incessant harassing app crap turned me from an hours-a-day-and-modding-some-decently-big-subs redditor to visiting for 15 minutes a couple times a week when on the dunny. Their entire site is so user hostile now it’s actually bordering on funny. They’ve become a parody of everything they set out to defeat.
camillomiller
Do NOT have your phone with you on the dunny and don’t spend 15 minutes on it! Make it a one minute job.

You’ll thank me when you won’t get piles ;)

teekert
Actually forcing the whole thing in 1 minute will get you piles, afaik?
throwaway4220
Both true! Don't force it, but also don't spend more than 10 minutes there. (Source: med school, personal experience :\ )
mft_
If one isn’t actively forcing, what’s the difference between sitting on the loo and sitting on a chair?

Is there evidence that lingering on the loo in a relaxed state causes problems?

throwaway4220
I can't find a good article, but my (albeit anecdotal) understanding is that the hole pulls down your butt muscles while the ring compresses the veins responsible for blood return.
RankingMember
Give a Squatty Potty a try and you'll only need that 1 minute with no forcing.
camillomiller
if you can't make a 1-min poop, apart from other specific physiological reasons, it means you should check your diet, in my opinion. If you get the right amount of fiber and enough water, the whole thing shouldn't take more than that. This and a squatty potty have been life changing for me.
fencepost
For those in the US, piles=hemorrhoids.
ronanyeah
The original 'they' are long gone.
tootie
Not to ruin you but try https://i.reddit.com
laylomo2
When I click on that link, there's an obnoxiously large button that says TRY REDDIT'S MOBILE WEBSITE at the top of the page.
rolls-reus
I felt the same. I've tried to quit reddit several times without success but since these changes the constant annoyances were just too much that I completely stopped using the site.
hh3k0
It's quite irritating if you browse 18+ subreddits and they stop you from seeing content, stating you need the app to see 18+ content.

It's easily circumvented by replacing "www" with "old" in the URL, however, quite irritating nonetheless.

fullstop
There are browser extensions which automatically do this.
taneq
Ugh, imgur does this now too. The one time I don't want to be logged in is if I'm looking at something nsfw...
blaser-waffle
Replacing "www" with "np" also works. Functionally I believe it's identical to "old" but without voting/posting
soylentcola
Really? I just went to /r/gonewild on my phone (browser) to test it out. It gave me the usual "are you 18+?" message and let me proceed to all of the amateur nudity you'd expect.

(Firefox mobile, not in desktop mode if it matters).

hh3k0
It happens ever so often but not always -- maybe they're still phasing it in?
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
Timpy
Unfortunately, for every conscientious person that they push away another user is hooked even deeper. Their redesign is insidious. Their page is now aggressively attempting to manipulate you into browsing longer; infinite scrolling, and the way they put questionably-related links in the middle of comments sections is no better than the chumbox clickbait you find at the bottom of bullshit-web articles.
blaser-waffle
Yeah I recall how they used to be different looking -- the ads, I mean. Enough that you could tell they're ads and would only click on them by dumb accident or if they were interesting.

Now they just look 100% like regular posts, and it feels more and more shady.

shawnz
But I already WANTED to browse Reddit all day... They didn't make it more encouraging for me to do that, they made it more difficult
_jal
> Their redesign is insidious

I must somehow be immune to the charms. I find it intentionally, aggressively irritating.

I used to lose hours there, but now don't browse around at all anymore. Follow a link in, find what I'm looking for, and dismiss the junk-pit.

dageshi
People didn't need any encouragement to browse longer on reddit, they actually built user solutions to infinite scrolling (RES) years before reddit incorporated it proper.
bhupy
I thought I was the only one. For a while I really struggled with a crippling addiction to Reddit, and no amount of Screen Time blockers seemed to help (it’s too easy to override).

Simply uninstalling the app did the trick. In the beginning I would open the mobile browser out of compulsion, but the UI was so revolting that it’s essentially cured my addiction.

nepthar
This comment is a great answer to the originally posed question :)
vcanales
The Apollo app, that everyone seems to love for reasons unbeknownst to me, had that effect on me. I was happily addicted to the official reddit app when I decided to try something else. It ruined my experience so badly that now I barely even go to reddit.
cfontes
I have this problem too, uninstalling apollo right now.

I also hate the mobile UI, I think this will work.

culopatin
That’s the best way to get available time hours up for me. Deleted IG, FB, Reddit and I grab my phone, switch through the home screen pages, I don’t find the apps for those places, and turn the screen off. No more drifting through trash feeds of unnecessary content. It’s been great. Now I only drift through HN and my RSS feed, but at least I choose what I see.
jrsdav
I was having a similar problem, so I turned to blocking on the network level (pihole). The work arounds were annoying enough to finally deter me off the platform, circa 2016. It was such a relief to have those wasted hours of my life back, as well as abandon some of the echo chambers. It’s also shocking to see how hostile the design choices have gotten since then, so I’m glad I got out when I did.

One handy tip: Reddit I find, is still one of the best sources of user submitted content for niche hobbies, traveling, consumer advice, etc. So I use Google’s cached search results for those instances where I want to take advantage of Reddit’s information, but don’t want to actually go to the site.

ballenf
https://selfcontrolapp.com

That blocker / screen time app (MacOS only) worked for me. Also having trusted person set the screen time password on iOS is an approach I've heard people using.

z9e
I wonder if it’s partly due to business / product people taking control and trying to aggressively push for more user engagement rather than let the engineers keep the site enjoyable to use.

Either way, it’s turned me off as well, and I thank them for it because I got a lot of free time back.

AnIdiotOnTheNet
Maybe, but from experience I can assure you that engineers are just as capable of ruining user experiences all on their own.
7thaccount
Agreed. No, I don't want your app. Why can't I just use the browser? I can't even view pictures anymore in some threads without the app. HN is so nice with its simplicity.
halfFact
I have the issue that I find Reddit extremely useful to become proficient.

I knew what problems my tomatoes were having the moment it started. I learned about blueberries needing something stronger than coffee.(and more)

I learned what microcontrollers are popular in the enterprise world by lurking.

I got some extremely useful information in a table form which was impossible to find in a Google search.

I suppose I just need to stop browsing the popular feed and it would always be useful.

throwaway0a5e
I completely and totally disagree. Reddit is of no benefit for anything you could just Google. Reddit's commenting dynamics create a false consensus around whatever the first thing that a bunch of people who Googled it can not disagree to. That's bad enough but when you start talking about subjects that have any degree of subjectiveness people's desire to have their world view confirmed abounds and it becomes even worse.

Pick a subject you're very familiar with the nuances of and start sorting comments by best, go straight to the bottom and among the low quality junk you'll find that there are tons of valid and well informed opinions that get rejected because they required more nuanced thought to understand than a bunch of amateurs who just googled it could muster or wasn't 100% compatible with the ideology of the group at large.

The net effect is that you get "if you just Googled it yourself" quality answers (pretty much every "open to the internet riff raff at large" platform has this problem to an extent) but sent though a filter that removes a substantial fraction of the opinions from people who actually know what they're talking about. Frankly the chans are better in this regard because the only mechanism for disagreement is to reply and the content of replies makes the nature of agreement/disagreement pretty obvious.

As bad as HN is about rejecting anything that doesn't fit it's narrow ideology about how the world works it at least usually doesn't reject things if they're technically correct. The same cannot be said for Reddit.

If you want professional advice you need to go somewhere with some sort of permanence and a higher bar to entry (i.e. the people who wind up there have actually care enough about the subject that they sought the place out), traditionally forums fill this role.

dageshi
And yet... reddit is still probably better than the alternatives.

Half of what I search for nowadays has a "reddit" version tacked on the end in googles auto complete. That is, people are deliberately searching for results to questions explicitly from reddit and it's popular enough that it's surfacing in googles autocomplete.

The only other site that gets that kind of treatment is stackoverflow.

Jommi
I find this completely wrong. Every time I want to answer a question, googling it will give me 2-3 pages of SEO hypercharged shitty articles that take way too long to go into the point.

Compared to opening 2-3 reddit threads you get 20-30 opinions all without filler and get to then form your meta opinion on that. Its absolutely magic!

mark_l_watson
I forgot about that, probably because I don’t see it anymore on iOS/iPadOS. I go to the www.reddit.com URI, not the mobile one.

Perhaps it is because I autopay $5/month to Reddit? It could also be the newer version of Safari in the beta iOS and beta iPadOS?

ashtonkem
That and the fact that they somehow make video playback continually less reliable somehow.
jampekka
This. The reddit's video player is a total mess, in both functionality and usability. For the majority of time it simply doesn't load the video, and when it does, the play/pause/seeking is extremely laggy, and often any interaction causes the video to just not play.

I'm having hard time understanding how someone manages to write such horrid piece of software, and how it keeps on being used on one of the most popular websites in the world.

ashtonkem
Or how they expect to remain one of the most popular sites in the world if the core functionality doesn’t work right.
jampekka
Network effects?
ashtonkem
The story of social networks depending on network effects alone is the story of Wile E Coyote going off a cliff; it works and until it suddenly doesn’t. Hey, remember Digg?

Reddit’s risk here is that there’s very little value to their back catalogue, since most users use it as a stream of new and novel things. So the only thing protecting reddit is that it’s still the main place people go to post funny videos and similar, which is much easier to move than their back catalog. The fact that video playback basically doesn’t work is a serious problem here.

searchableguy
Use an RSS reader. You will like the lack of feeling of being forced to comment on things you don't care much about in retrospection. No tracking or ads, only content. You can filter shady sites or posts from appearing.

Here are some readers.

0] https://github.com/GetStream/Winds

1] https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS

2] https://github.com/feedbin/feedbin

3] https://github.com/yang991178/fluent-reader

If you like something closed source, try feedly.

Reddit provides rss for now. For sources that don't, you can use rss.app or similar.

https://www.reddit.com/wiki/rss

One more useful thing some readers provide is an email address that you can use for subscribing to newsletters.

spians
Yup. RSS is the way to go for browsing Reddit without all the dark patterns.

Self plug - you can try my app Plenary on Android (no ads/trackers) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spians.ple... that has Reddit as one of the RSS Assistant option. It basically creates RSS feed for subreddits, users, search terms etc for you.

robinduckett
A feature of the app that you can't use without buying a monthly subscription or paying £10.49, to whom it may concern.
spians
Thank you for trying it out. Plenary has monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription options and even has a lifetime purchase plan. That is the way support the development of the app so that it doesn't have to rely on ads and works without any intrusions to users. That is the point of this post, right?
YPCrumble
Interestingly parent’s plug is a dark pattern to avoid dark patterns!

It’s also surprising that even on HN, a place where many people write software for a living, people are avoidant of advertising paid features.

spians
> Interestingly parent’s plug is a dark pattern to avoid dark patterns!

Sorry I didn't find any dark patterns here. If you can elaborate more on this, that would be really helpful.

> It’s also surprising that even on HN, a place where many people write software for a living, people are avoidant of advertising paid features.

Exactly! A lot of users want privacy focused - no ads apps. But many of them are hesitant to pay for it. For them, all apps should be FOSS (that means relying on good will of the developer that he will have motivation to maintain the app regularly or relying on some bug foundations) and no dev should generate revenue from their apps.

giancarlostoro
> Sorry I didn't find any dark patterns here. If you can elaborate more on this, that would be really helpful.

I don't think you were being malicious, but it would of been useful to know up front that those RSS features cost money is all. Otherwise I see nothing wrong in your initial comment.

spians
Yes I agree, could've been clearer upfront about it being a premium feature. Thanks!
freedomben
You're right, I do want a FOSS solution and I'm hesitant to pay for something closed and controlled entirely by the dev.

But I am not opposed at all to pay for apps that include the source (and build instructions). I don't mind if it's licensed accordingly to prevent me redistributing it (which would undermine sales). I frequently buy apps like that.

More times than I can count I have bought an app that was later either abandoned when it stopped making money, or got an unwanted UI overhaul that wrecked it, or removed an obscure feature I depended on, etc. I will happily pay for software, but if it's not software I could potentially maintain myself then the amount of money I'm willing to spend goes way down and I'm a lot more hesitant to make the initial purchase.

It's not about money, it's about freedom.

Chris2048
> that means relying on good will of the developer that he will have motivation to maintain the app regularly or relying on some bug foundations

As opposed to paying for it which guarantees you'll get the service you want - except it doesn't. At least FLOSS would give you and others the opportunity to fix bugs /maintain the app themselves.

> But many of them are hesitant to pay for it

Depends what it is. There's a difference paying for a non free app, and tipping for a free app.

SamWhited
This. If you want something already hosted try Innoreader (https://www.inoreader.com). I like having software I can just support with money instead of seeing garbage ads and having my personal information sold because it's "free" (though they do have a free plan if you can't afford or don't want to support them).
keepingscore
I built a better rss feed for reddit to use with Feedly.

Notable features: * Links to the content rather than the comments * Embeds a summary of the content * Supports images, gifs and videos * Extra query params (nsfw block, up vote limits) * Open source https://github.com/trashhalo/reddit-rss

https://www.reddit.com/r/rss/comments/fvg3ed/i_built_a_bette...

https://www.reddit.com/r/rss/comments/galitc/my_improved_red...

spians
Yes, I have been using your feed and it's amazing. Thanks!
jhardy54
Yes! Bonus points for using software made by a Scuttlebutt friend.
Y_Y
I'm still waiting for Google Reader to come back.
jabroni_salad
this is not my project but I have been enjoying this rss proxy which can let you limit which posts get into your feed by top rank, score threshold, or quantity of posts per day. I use it because even a moderately popular subreddit can be a bit of a firehose.

https://reddit-top-rss.herokuapp.com

tjpnz
What's sad is that the mobile app is perfectly usable and it's obvious that a lot of thought and care has gone into it. I feel bad for the people maintaining it.
tmikaeld
While the UI is fine, I'm concerned about optimization and loading.

Is it really required to keep ALL previous scroll history in memory and on-screen?

If they only showed what you're currently scrolling, it wouldn't be the most battery sucking app on my phones.

dade_
I tried the app, but it doesn’t work for me at all. As a platform, Reddit is very flexible and can be used in many different ways. Their app has been designed for (or to create) social media crack babies that can’t stop swiping and infinite feed of SMC (Social Media Crack). It isn’t designed to be useful to users, so I assume it is designed to improve engagement metrics with an Instagram effect.

In my simple case, I follow specific subreddits, but I check other ones from time to time. The web browser is much easier to work with URLs on my phone. I can go to specific reddit’s very easily by just typing in the URL on my phone browser. Even better, there is still old.reddit.com which is much faster and less glitchy (media not loading, complicated UI frames appearing resulting in unexpected scrolling/zooming issues) than their new website for tablet and desktop usage. Further, the new site constantly loses my place and resets to the beginning of the subreddit losing my place.

The constant ads for the mobile app, and the automatic switching back to the new app on browsers are a massive hurdle, so I do seek out alternatives. However, there are some great communities and information on Reddit, so I will keep using it until critical mass moves on.