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

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

#271

Post by jampekka »

ashtonkem wrote: post #270
jampekka wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Or how they expect to remain one of the most popular sites in the world if the core functionality doesn’t work right.

Network effects?

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

#272

Post by StavrosK »

loh wrote: post #256
mark_l_watson wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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?

It is not, I haven't seen a browser for which notifications weren't opt in.

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

#273

Post by zentiggr »

loh wrote: post #256
mark_l_watson wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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?

In the history of site and app developers so far, yes, a very poor assumption. Assume opt-.

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

#274

Post by the_gipsy »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #178
vanviegen wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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.

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

#276

Post by ashtonkem »

jampekka wrote: post #271
ashtonkem wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or how they expect to remain one of the most popular sites in the world if the core functionality doesn’t work right.

Network effects?

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.

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

#277

Post by mrlala »

I don't see anyone else mentioning this in the thread- I have used a mobile app called "rif is fun" (it used to be called 'Reddit Is Fun' before reddit forced the change).

I have used this app for like 7 years, it is fast, simple, and keeps the old style format. If you want to use reddit but don't want to use the garbage that their interface has become, check it out.

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

#279

Post by ori_b »

vanviegen wrote: post #169
jawns wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.

I've been on android all along, but I think this just convinced me to give an iPhone a shot for my next device.

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

#280

Post by zozbot234 »

PakG1 wrote: post #268
GekkePrutser wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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.
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