iirc you can still use Facebook messenger with the m.facebook com at the mobile browser to chat
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.
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
Pinterest has long been a member of my uBlocklist configuration.
I fucking hate Pinterest. I don’t understand why anyone uses it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you want your app used so much, just make it snappy damn
This is what’s amazing. They could make a good, ad-supported app, but they seem to insist they don’t need to while wondering why everyone’s angry about third party apps going away.
Reddit never needed to fix their own hilariously-bad failure of an app, they could have just bought any of the ready-made, popular, beloved third-party apps out there for far less than this fiasco is costing them now. Old Twitter did this back in the day, some of their official clients started out as successful third-party apps.
Spez is out there being an insane libelous asshole to Christian Selig when he could have just hired him.
How can they do all the data collection then?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Oh my, that is such a great idea, right on par with everything else they’ve been doing.
They’ve been making their mobile site hard to use and blocking most utility with a “you really need our fucking app” popup for years now. I can’t imagine how they could make it worse.
Worst dark pattern ever.
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.
