Reddit experimenting with blocking mobile browsers
Reddit experimenting with blocking mobile browsers
It looks like you’re part of one of our experiments. The logged-in mobile web experience is currently unavailable for a portion of users. To...
As quoted from the linked post.
It looks like you’re part of one of our experiments. The logged-in mobile web experience is currently unavailable for a portion of users. To access the site you can log on via desktop, the mobile apps, or wait for the experiment to conclude.
This is separate from the API issue. This will actually BLOCK you from even viewing reddit on your phone without using the official app.
Archive.org link in case the post is removed.
Jeez. The speed at which I've gone from "man it sucks that Apollo is shutting down but I still really enjoy Reddit and will suffer the first-party client" to "wow, Reddit is really trying to destroy their service and it's probably best I don't invest any more time there" is insane... going to draft up some thoughts and a probable farewell message for my frequented subs and followers there. End of an era.
14Stages of grief Speedrun any%
4
It's one thing to test a new idea or a UX tweak or similar on a small portion of users - but just turning off a key way to access your service is so just so weird to me. How many of Reddit's decisions at this point are some version of, "hey, how angry do they get? What can we get away with?"
4People need to understand that this is about tracking your eyeballs. Reddit viewed on a webpage does not provide the metadata they want. What metadata does the app provide? Things you wouldn't think about wanting as a human, but the aggregate is very valuable.
Stuff like how long did you watch that video Ad? Where did you click on screen and at what time? What content were you viewing and what course of action did you take to get there? Web viewing only shows the landing page you arrived on reddit from and the exit page that took you away from reddit. Performing these actions in the app provides metadata cookie crumbs like a trail of roach shit to every single thing you've done on reddit in micro activities.
3
It's unbelievable how's user hostile all of these major site have become. I deleted my 11 year old Reddit account today and while it hurt a little it's important that we send a message and not use Reddit at least until they repeal this bullshit.
3Same! I deleted my 10 year account. Kinda not even sad. It was going downhill for a while now. But hey I just created my own instance for gardeners called thegarden.land so now I have a new home to grow roots and thrive!
0I’m pretty sure I’m going to delete my three year and ten year accounts and just walk away for good. Honestly I was a little sad all day today, because I have a few hobbies I’m really crazy about and the cooking, baking, gemstone, and gardening communities have felt like home for a long time…but just using lemmy for a tiny little bit, I’m actually really excited! I’m having a much simpler experience here that’s refreshing. I like the content I’m reading.
1
Dollar-store Elon Musk is going full "fuck you" to redditors.
3The dollarama elon musk???
1
Honestly this is so absurd it's funny. Peak business brain to think that people in 2023 are willing to download an app and register an account to simply access content.
3"old.reddit.com isn't going anywhere"
-- a spez lie
3If it stays, I assume it's because spez himself uses it
1
Having already rather violently shot himself in both feet, spez has started aiming for his other body parts.
2They just keep digging
2Not surprised. They need to milk every last drop of revenue from their users free content for the upcoming IPO.
2Reddit is officially on a bankruptcy speedrun.
2Between this and Twitter, I feel like "enshittification" is really the word of the past year. It's incredible to watch these massive social networks completely turn on their users in the name of profit.
2They were always going to. The pre-enshittification stage of a modern capitalist website consists of burning VC money to collect users to later exploit.
3Twitter probably opened the floodgates when they managed to shaft users and cut API access without outright killing themselves. Now everyone else is emboldened to ask "why can't we do that too?".
2*without outright killing themselves YET.
2
Reddit's unwavering stubbornness to continue spiraling is just plain sad. What a way to go.
2Reddit had so much community favor too. The whole awards thing was born from people wanting support the website. If they really struggle to make money could have rolled out an optional subscription or something with a message that everyone would have fallen for. The incompetence is incredible.
2This is the natural result of having MBAs make any decision
1
Steve saw Elon's work at twitter and thought, "Watch me. I can ruin a company faster."
2Monetization at all costs it seems. They really want that IPO bag.
2Honestly, mobile browing (even using old.reddit) has been garbage for years because they detect your mobile OS and constantly try to push their app on you. Click on link, do you want to open in mobile app? let me open the playstore for you. And then you also get limited comments. To see more comments open in mobile app... You could do a case study in how to alienate your customers into leaving your platform on just mobile browsing reddit.
2They're really trying to speedrun killing their site lmao
2They already made the mobile site practically unusable by constantly reminding you to use the app. The mobile browsing experience was just terrible. They can just show the same adds in the mobile browser...
2Ironically, I'd just set my browser to desktop mode, and use the old reddit desktop interface. The more they modernized, the more entrenched I become.
2
My mobile is experimenting with not visiting reddit.
2Reddit has amazing SEO, and it looks like Spez is now hell bent on destroying that as well.
What a fucking incompetent moron. Google hates when people put roadblocks over mobile web experiences. Over the past 5-ish years they've down ranking sites that obstruct m.web.
1
They're tearing it down one brick at a time!
2I can honestly say since Twitter did this I’ve hardly ever used it
2Are they actively trying to make people stop using the site?
1This is both informative and unfortunate.
1I, for one, welcome my Louis Rossmann overlord.
3
Earlier today, I was reviewing some Lemmy information in Google, and one of the links was to Reddit. I didn't think anything of it, but I clicked and saw the message that's given to mobile users saying you have to view NSFW content in the Reddit app. Fine, I've got the garbage app installed already for situations just like this. I click the link, and it throws an error stating my third party app (Boost, in this case) must be uninstalled in order to open links in Reddit.
No it doesn't, Reddit. And why do you care what's installed on my phone?
1Check the app permissions, and revoke the one that allows it to see other installed apps. In fact, revoke everything it shouldn't have.
2How does it even know what is installed on your phone ?
1I'm guessing it was something to do with another app hijacking the link or something. Either way, they shouldn't give a shit.
1
Reddit speedrun to ruin their site
1What were they thinking doing this experiment in the heat of the third-party app protest?? Are they trying to aim for their foot?
1They are trying to force users into their app is what they were thinking.
2
Some asshole at Deloitte is going to make a ton of money writing case studies about this.
1And someone from McKinsey & Co. is currently making money from this as a consultant
1Don't worry, PwC will make a ton of money when they're asked to help cut costs after this crashes and burns.
1
This... is dumb. Reddit gets traffic from people using it as a secondary search engine to get relevant answers.
Most people on the Internet view it from mobile. Reddit already makes their mobile experience genuinely awful despite this. Blocking it entirely?
The herding to their mobile app is so transparent (and DEFINITELY through stick, not carrot) I'm morbidly curious to see what horrible things they planning to put in their app that they know users will loathe, that requires their alternatives to be zero.
1Their approach here seems inherently broken. People aren't going to use the app they don't want to use.
115-year reddit veteran here. Spez thinks us old-timers are freeloaders for continuing to prefer old.reddit and the third-party apps. The truth is, that site is dead and what Lemmy offers now is closer to that original vision than current reddit ever will be. Reddit is Dead. Long live Lemmy.
2
Damn now this is just next level bullshit. I thought that even if I can't use Infinity anymore I can still access reddit through a firefox mobile with adblock and privacy addons to make the ux somewhat bearable.
So..
1Destroy reddit speedrun any% [WORLD RECORD]
Yeah the desktop site especially is why i wanted to leave reddit for the past few months, im happy they shot themselves in the foot the past week so we could move over to a different platform. I kept having to switch back to old.reddit just to see a NSFW post without an account, they made it so you cant even sort comments anymore without being logged in recently. Just malicious design. The website on mobile has been shit for years now asking you to USE THE MOBILE APP.
1
The API issue was a huge nail into the coffin of the user experience at reddit. For sure, mobile site will disappear and then old.reddit.
Everything about this is utterly tone deaf, you can see it in u/spez answer in his AMA about how the company will continue to be profit driven until it’s profitable. Bro, this is not how you talk to your user base. Your actions, policies, and strategic outlook should be toward driving the user experience and your service so that it is profitable. Not degrading all things for grinding down every extra cent at the expense of your entire companies differentiators.
Fuck spez, fuck reddit.
1The more they push their shitty mobile app, the more people won't use it.
1As if it wasn’t bad enough to ask if I want to use the default mobile app every time I go to a Reddit page on mobile. 😕
1Damn they turning into quora
1It's like they're trying to kill the platform
1Yeah, maybe it's an exit scam. I bet some executive said, "I'll give the higher up execs what they think they want (ADS) which is the opposite of what the users want, but we'll all get bonuses just before the site dies."
1
Wow, they're really putting some effort into alienating their user base. What a shame.
1It's great news when the social media oligopoly shoots themselves in the foot.
So far I've tried:
- Facebook = Diaspora
- Irc = Matrix (Element)
- Reddit = Lemmy
- Twitter = Mastodon
Out of all the different federated solutions I've tried, I believe this one has the best chance to hit big. Diaspora didn't work because the network effect is too strong with Facebook. Same with Matrix and Mastodon. But reddit is pseudoanonymous platform, you are not here because of some specific people. It's actually somewhat a benefit when there are less people and you have more room for people to see the content you put out. And the quality of the discussion can be better when there are fewer people.
It's still likely that everyone will just go back to reddit but we have a good chance here. The Lemmy UI is actually better and more snappy for someone who has used old reddit all this time.
1It does feel like there a a significant level of friction with each of these equivalent platforms though, including Lemmy. As with anything new it'll take time to catch on but each layer of complexity will be another stopping point for non-tech people.
1I may myself go back to Reddit. My girlfriend loves the cat pictures I aend her from there. I'll just stop moderating and creating content, only accessing the site on Desktop with adblocker. I ain't giving a single fucking cent to them, even indirectly, if I can avoid it.
1
Wow..
1Reddit finding ways to actively make things worse, while lemmy rapidly improves.
1It's getting worse by the minute. I really really hope Lemmy usage picks up.
1I am not aware of Reddit experimenting with blocking mobile browsers. However, it's important to note that information and developments can change over time.
To get the most accurate and up-to-date information about Reddit's policies or any potential changes related to blocking mobile browsers, I recommend checking official Reddit announcements, news articles, or Reddit community discussions that might provide insights into any recent developments. Additionally, you can visit Reddit's official website or their support pages for any official statements regarding this matter.
1This happening in the middle of the API gate seems like a pretty dumb move, even for Reddit.
1Blocking all mobile access except for the official client is the whole point of “API gate”. Don’t want people to just fall back on something with equally poor monetization, gotta show them all the ads.
1
Fuel on the flames huh? Got to love their tactical timing with this. Let's piss everyone off in every possible way?
It's almost like Elon bought Reddit as well as Twitter the way this is going.
1I hate when people use passive voice in these things. It's such a slimy way to try and avoid responsibility.
"We have blocked you from using a mobile browser." is the active voice. It includes a subject ("we") and a verb ("blocked"). It says that someone made a decision, executed that decision, and is responsible.
"It looks like ... ", " ... is currently unavailable" is so fucking weaselly and irresponsible. You are 100% a complete piece of shit if you ever say something like that. You are not responsible enough to handle a Wendy's drive-through order, let alone a large organization.
1Of course they are, gotta make everyone use the shitty app to farm as much data as possible!
1They've already made the "new" reddit web view unusable for any sub marked NSFW. I feel sorry for the web devs at Reddit that spent all this time making a responsive site that works on mobile, then to be forced to artificially block access to push app usage.
1It almost looks like Reddit is trying to commit suicide in the fastest possible way.
I still have an account there. But I will delete it the moment the Apollo goes dark.
1Are they legally allowed to just do that? Just shadow ban certain users temporarily for an 'experiment'?
If so... Why is that legally allowed??
1Permanently Deleted
0The amount of projecting going on in some subreddits the past days is telling.
People are quite afraid that in fact the "leavers" won't come back.
1Tbf, there are a ton of comments that I think are genuine, not projection, about the API changes and blackouts, along the lines of "who cares" and "neckbeards!". And those are the people who haven't moderated a subreddit, weren't there when old. was the default, and that I'm fine with leaving behind- the commenters who might as well be spambots.
1
TBH this is nothing new. They already randomly restrict you from viewing any type of nsfw content on the mobile browser version. It prompts you to download the app with no option to close the prompt.
0Oh yeah, i noticed and it pissed me off so much. Thank god people made stuff like viewditt, where you just need to replace parts of the URL to at least see the content. Regardless terrible user experience that gets worse each year.
1