https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/13ws4w3/had_a_call_with_reddit_to_discuss_pricing_bad/
Sad news, indeed. I enjoy the Apollo client but cannot stand the official Reddit app. I, for one, will be closing my account if this happens.
Not the end of the world, as social media is a waste of time. Reddit was the only SM I used, as I found it a good news source. I often go down rabbit holes of comments, though! Back to newspapers, I guess.
Funding is no longer so cheap and easy for tech companies, even those with enormous user bases. Free services (meaning Reddit here, not Apollo) are harder to justify to owners, especially while online advertising remains a very difficult business model.
I won’t be surprised if there we see more of this, in different forms, as time goes on. We saw something similar after 2001
The real question in my mind is whether companies draw the line with charging other business users (API fees), or expand to charging or raising prices on end users
A possible solution here would be allowing 3rd party API access only to Reddit subscribers, instead of killing the 3rd party clients. As it is, if Apollo stops functioning, I will cease to use Reddit --which I certainly do, and a lot.
Pricing does seem extreme and with the intent to remove third-party apps.
Yet another platform to cancel my account.
It’s a crazy price tag, but I want to see what the free per-user tier looks like. I’m hoping he can rework API use to fit enough users within it that premium users can shoulder the excess calls, likely with a price increase.
If this is all just a pretext to kill third party reddit apps, that’s really sad to see such a lovely app be wasted.
I can’t say I’d quit reddit over this, but I use it more for sporadic research than regular news/entertainment.
The privacy features developed by Apple and others have gutted advertising revenue for many companies, as have the filters that many of us use. And inflation, etc. is driving up costs. I think end users will eventually have to pay for the majority of the services, and apps, that we use today.
I think we will be comparing subscription manager apps in a few more years.
This! Media publishers need to come up with something different than selling ad placement stock, pronto.
Agreed,
People have become used to free access to many services while those organisations have been on a growth path (often) with a view to selling the company rather than creating a sustainable business model.
I also think that organisations like Twitter and Reddit do not value what 3rd party clients bring to their products and unfortunately undervalue them.
Reddit already has two ways for users to pay that are supported by third party clients. The third party clients are also fine with showing reddit ads served by the API. If reddit wants to force users onto premium the third party apps are just as good a vehicle as the official site. The API just replaces browsing so making the third party clients pay is like making browsers pay to make HTTP requests to reddit.com.
This is kind of like the time I heard some political talking head screaming about how Netflix needed to “pay their fair share”. Ummmmm…no. Netflix pays for their bandwidth. And end users pay for the bandwidth they use to watch it. The entire data path is bought and paid for already.
It’s the same sort of attempted double-dipping you’re talking about with Reddit.
Quinn of Snazzy Labs has just published an interview with Christian Selig (the developer of Apollo), which I found worth watching.
Reddit is my favorite site. But I won’t use it if I can’t use Apollo or another app of my choice. I’m happy to pay for Reddit Premium. But if they force us onto their own app, I’m done.
I think anyone who cares should be part of a one-week boycott that will show them that we provide the content, and without us, good luck with their IPO.
This. If I have to buy Premium just say so and make it an awesome experience (with the app of my choice) but strong arming ISV isn’t the answer. I’m not shedding crocodile tears for Reddit they exist of the intellectual profit off free user submissions.
So sad, that’s the end of using Reddit for me as I hate the official app 
Sad. I only started using Reddit regularly a few years back because Apollo made it convenient, accessible and actually usable. I have already deleted all my posts and comments and comments as I do not want to leave them that content, and I will be closing my account on June 30th.
This is sad. Other third party clients on iOS and Android also announced today. I’m glad developers were able to discuss this and support each other in person this week at WWDC.
Likewise. I’ve never used Reddit any other way, except when I decide to use a site:Reddit.com in a Google search – then I get the web version, and realize that Apollo is even better than I think
Thanks for the link to the post. The dev seems like a reasonable person - it’s too bad Reddit can’t get it figured out.
Apollo is amazing because it is not trying to monetize Reddit’s content, and in this way the user experience is the pure, unadulterated Reddit experience --for good and bad.
I do not know what are the number of Reddit users that use Apollo as their main interface, but I suspect it is pretty high, thus I understand Reddit’s position although they have been too heavy-handed. As a counter example, OpenAI got it right, no 3rd party ChatGPT interfaces would be affected because paying users can bring their own API key.