Hey Reddit, There’s a reason why there were a dozen alternatives to your official Reddit app.
Some of them predate the official app.
I can’t think of any other website that has that many alternative apps, much less at that popularity level
Twitter did, at one point
I don’t think there are any other for profit sites that would allow third-party apps. They data is currency to them.
They can serve you ads just fine on mobile web, that’s not it. It’s that the app let’s them track your behavior far better than the web browser.
They can serve you ads just fine on mobile web, that’s not it. It’s that the app let’s them track your behavior far better than the web browser.
It’s both. Firefox for Android lets you run uBlockOrigin, effectively killing the ads.
Removed by mod
Ads on reddit are self-served. DNS can’t block that
deleted by creator
I run a DNS based ad and tracking blocker on my home network (similar to Pihole) through my router, and it’s amazing what apps are totally incapable of running with those restrictions in place. Amazon’s app doesn’t work, neither does Wells Fargo. Apps that do this are absolutely predatory and need to be regulated. They harvest my data in shady, insecure, annoying, obtrusive ways, and if they or their customer’s mishandle it, I have essentially no recourse, except for maybe a $0.32 payout as part of a class action lawsuit.
Would I have given my data to Cambridge Analytica? No. Did Facebook? Yes. Was it mishandled? Totally. What recompense will I get from it? Nothing! Will it happen again? Absolutely.
me and my wife also quit using apps
every god damn company has an app. “Get a bonus if you shop using the app”, etc etc etc. it’s all about tracking us, snatching data and of course that little app icon is “easy” to click to spend more money, right? I hate it so much
with reddit gone i’ll only have my bloonsTD app and my 2 factor auth for a couple of services (net banking and a few other things)
im nearing the point where i dont really see the use for a smartphone
I legit have floated the idea of ditching my smartphone several times. I hardly do anything on my phone anymore because of how awful and predator basically every app is now, even paid apps. I might as well just get a feature/dumb phone that has LTE and just set up a hotspot for my laptop.
Chinese owners need a tiktok backup plan.
You know what’s most fucked up about all of these types of practices? It’s that they had something great and have deliberately slowly destroyed it because of unchecked greed. Same with Facebook. They had a site so great that like 60% of the people on the entire planet signed up. They’ve been making money. Reddit and Facebook make millions of dollars a month. But it’s not enough for them. Nooo. They have to make billions. They have to make enough money to buy governments and amass as much power as small nations. The men running these companies are soulless. They try to fill the hole in their hearts with money, but it will never be enough. They’ve taken something that was amazing, something that benefitted billions of people, and destroyed it to serve their own selfish greed.
I honestly hope reddit keeps fucking up like this. It takes a lot of work and a long time to drive millions of casual users away from your site.
And from what I e been picking up it appears that reddit killing themselves is making for pretty good marketing for Lemmy and other reddit alternatives it kinda feels like a new era of the internet
They can get fucked then. I’m tired of this closed internet, walled garden attitude from large social media companies. They’ve taken the tools that people built to make information free and available, and have locked them down for their own selfish purposes. I will not give them any more of my time.
Right like how you can’t copy images from Pinterest, a site that populates all your Google Image searches. Like you fuckers didn’t create this content. You just got people to upload it to your site then blocked anyone else from accessing it without a membership and a share link.
I added a browser plugin on Firefox that blocks all Pinterest results from Google and DDG. Half the time they want you to log in just to see the page. Google is lame for including them in results.
I just wish Forefox for Android still supported desktop plugins without a massive hassle.
Kiwi
I fucking hate Pinterest. I don’t understand why anyone uses it.
Pinterest has long been a member of my uBlocklist configuration.
I agree. I’m not downloading an app that siphons out data just to access a website.
Ultimately Reddit thinks they’re too big to fail because they don’t have any real competition right now.
Makes no difference to me.
I stopped using Reddit and I’m glad that I don’t have to worry about this kind of user hostile changes.
They don’t know that the primary use case for reddit on mobile is getting good answers from Google.
Can’t wait for Google to derank Reddit links due to this BS.
Not surprising, since ad blockers are a thing even on mobile these days.
Revanced app apparently also can patch reddit app and block ads. The thing though is that it will still collect information about you.
That’s nice, but I doubt enough people would use it to have a significant effect on Reddit’s bottom line. It does require you to download APKs, patch them and install manually, which sounds easy to tech savvy people but isn’t for the common grandma. Furthermore it’s a bit bothersome cause you have to repeat it every time there’s a new version (at least a new version that you want or that’s required for continued access) and then there are all of those with iCrap, who can’t patch apps at all.
Too much salespeople see complaints like “your application is bad” and answer with “we’re going to force it on you even more then”.
The data they’re looking at when they make this decision is”people aren’t using our app as much as I’d like”.
What the F Reddit, are you trying to speedrun the worst decisions a website can do??
They are trying what Facebook did to their Facebook chat, forcing users to use the app by banning mobile web access
I stopped using Facebook altogether because of that.
Reddit follows the enshittification.
Me too, but apparently Facebook survives without us. Turns out the most valuable Facebook users are actually retirees waiting to be scammed by shady advertisers.
iirc you can still use Facebook messenger with the m.facebook com at the mobile browser to chat
Now you can, but back then you couldn’t when they initially started their messenger app
On iOS at least, fb messenger on mobile is just a redirect to the app store to get the app, the Web messenger is not functional anymore, sadly. At least when I just tested it just now!
You have to force your iOS browser into « desktop mode » to access the web version of fb messenger on iOS. It’s just « working », not really usable through….
Oh perfect, thanks, I didn’t try that; much appreciated!
And I’m curious how many facebook users have the chat app. (and how many just walked away)
I’m one of those who just walked away.
I checked out Facebook recently because I needed help moving and it was the quickest way to ask everyone I knew.
That shit is like 90 percent ads and clickbait tick tocks now. It’s fucked. I don’t understand how people can use it without becoming enraged.
My main use case for facebook now is buying used shit locally on Marketplace, since they have effectively killed craigslist with it. It’s where I found my motorcycle. As an actual social network experience it sucks ass.
Hah that’s actually where I got my bike from too. It’s good for that, but only when you’re looking for something I guess. I don’t need anymore toys right now or my wife will bury me in the back yard.
I use it solely to talk to friends and family members who I otherwise wouldn’t be in touch with. I don’t participate in groups or get into arguments or anything like that. That, plus being able to dismiss things like political ads so you never have to see them (at least for now), make it acceptable for me to use. I wouldn’t say it’s a great experience in any way, but it isn’t bad enough for me to find new ways to keep in touch with those people.
I refuse to install anything Facebook related on my outcome. I was one who has to walk away.
I haven’t deleted the account (yet, pretty unjused right now), but never installed an app of them. Via the browser they’re already way to obnoxious.
Why would the owners of a website want to make it harder to browse their website
My guess is this is only for mobile users which would explain why when the OP request a desk top version of the site he can still log in. That way they can push more mobile users to the app and shove all sorts of ads down their throat and there’s nothing they can do about it. You can block ads on a browser, you can’t in the official Reddit app.
Shut down all the 3P apps. Prevent mobile users from being able to use their browser on mobile, forcing them to grab the official app. Load it to high hell with ads… Profit.
You can not block in the official app “yet” Wouldnt surprise me if we get some form of Revanced reddit app at some point. Same thing which youtube vanced. For me killing off the infinity for reddit app is my call to not use reddit on mobile anymore but a full switch to lemmy instead.
To force people to use their app, of course. Facebook did that several years ago with Messenger. There’s no real reason to not have mobile browser access to it other than to try to make people use the app so it can spy on you in various ways.
Several years: like going on 15 years ago.
Fuck we’re old.
Was it that long ago? I thought they locked it down about 7-8 years back. I don’t know, I would just use mbasic .facebook. com when I had to.
I know it was before the 2010 Olympics at least, because they shut it off while I was dating someone I broke up with before that.
This is the Reddit. com front page on a mobile browser and has been for well over a year now
The writing has been on the wall for along time.
btw clear you cookies on exit, use a password manager, stay safe.
lmao, they can’t be serious
They know that many users will try to use web page once 3rd party apps stop working. They are testing how many of them they can make use their mobile app which allows them to obtain more information about you.
With how awful the interface is and how it spams me with DOWNLOAD THE APP TO SEE MORE, it kinda already “blocks” it for me. Browsing via Libreddit on mobile is so much better.
Not only that but some features like Chat just redirect you to the app on Reddit mobile web, and it’s too cumbersome to use the desktop Reddit chat on a mobile browser.
I had no idea people actually used that feature.
Oh my, that is such a great idea, right on par with everything else they’ve been doing.
Reddit’s fucked
We can only hope.
