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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?

#421

Post by throawayobvsly »

Here's why I think this is actually good.

I used to be regular surfer of reddit's nsfw subreddit and also lurked around randnsfw for quite a bit of time.

The simple idea that being able to open incognito and browse indulge in porn and erase all (I mean most, uhh ahem) traces of your browsing activity is quite soul destroying in my opinion.

The upside of this limitation even though it is extremely annoying is it stops (to an extent) this mindless indulgence.

It actually made me be less addicted to reddit and the dark and wild usage pattern.

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

#422

Post by cma »

Causality1 wrote: post #375
sixo wrote: post #331

It is pretty offensive that they say "reddit works better on the app" when the only reason for that is that they broke everything on mobile (on purpose?) in a series of badly-implemented redesigns. I'm never going to install it, and I have all but stopped reading it because these prompts are so obnoxious. That's probably +$ for Reddit though. I don't understand why companies constantly do stuff that serves only _them…

The same thing happened to Imgur where they slowly stripped features from the mobile site to force users onto the app, culminating in preventing mobile users from even logging in at all.

The worst part about mobile apps is it destroys tabbed browsing.

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

#423

Post by fauigerzigerk »

zozbot234 wrote: post #280
PakG1 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've never seen an ad on HN. They must be really hard to spot.

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

#424

Post by maerF0x0 »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #405
sixo wrote: post #331

It is pretty offensive that they say "reddit works better on the app" when the only reason for that is that they broke everything on mobile (on purpose?) in a series of badly-implemented redesigns. I'm never going to install it, and I have all but stopped reading it because these prompts are so obnoxious. That's probably +$ for Reddit though. I don't understand why companies constantly do stuff that serves only _them…

MIT economists Acemoglu and Robinson wrote a book "Why Nations Fail" that analyzes why countries at similar starting points can have extremely divergent paths in terms of economic development. One example is South and North Korea. Their conclusion is that some countries have established extractive institutions, while others inclusive . The extractive ones exclude the population from the decision making process and se…

What does it say about the United States?

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

#425

Post by chipotle_coyote »

zozbot234 wrote: post #280
PakG1 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

AFAIK, the only ads are the ones described in the FAQ:

> A regular "Who Is Hiring?" thread appears on the first weekday of each month (or Jan 2). Most job ads are welcome there. Only an account called whoishiring is allowed to submit the thread itself. This prevents a race to post it first.

> Another kind of job ad is reserved for YC-funded startups. These appear on the front page, but are not stories: they have no vote arrows, points, or comments. They begin part-way down and fall steadily. Only one is on the front page at a time.

I'm not sure either of those qualify as ads in the sense we're talking about Reddit ads -- the first one doesn't bring in any revenue to HN (or cost "advertisers" any money); the second one seems like it's a perk for "graduating" YC and it's unclear whether it's something HN makes revenue from, either.

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

#426

Post by jackietreehorn »

comprev wrote: post #395
PlotCitizen wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a similar vein, I use Apollo for iOS[1] and it's also magnitudes better. The official reddit app is starting to catch up, but it's designed with advertisers in mind, whereas you can use a different app and pay for ads to go away, or use the old, web version with a blocker. [1] https://apolloapp.io/

Apollo is among the best. The developer Christian is super engaged with his user base, and the local animal shelter. He has donated $10,000s to them through fundraising!

I second this. Big fan of Apollo and I have bought it as well.

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

#427

Post by amitlzkpa »

I thought I was the only one irked by this. The instagram web-page does a great job acting as a web-app without trying to force the user to do their bidding. I hope Reddit atleast stops trying to force users to install their app if not making a mobile-friendly website.

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

#428

Post by pmarreck »

jakevoytko wrote: post #10

Other people are saying "ads," but the story is probably more expansive. Mobile apps have better hooks for pulling people back into the app, like popup notifications. Reddit has natural lifecycle points where they can do this: when people respond to your comments or comment on your posts. They could also notify users of events like their yearly Secret Santa. I wouldn't be surprised if their engagement numbers were mu…

Apparently the only platform that you can't send notifications direct from websites on is iOS.

So that needs to get fixed, and then this problem might go away naturally

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

#430

Post by Chris2048 »

sixo wrote: post #331

It is pretty offensive that they say "reddit works better on the app" when the only reason for that is that they broke everything on mobile (on purpose?) in a series of badly-implemented redesigns. I'm never going to install it, and I have all but stopped reading it because these prompts are so obnoxious. That's probably +$ for Reddit though. I don't understand why companies constantly do stuff that serves only _them…

> then expect users to engage with it because it exists

Kinda like saying something must be done because it is "company policy"; passing the buck in the hope you don't question it, and realise company policy is also decided by the company.

It exists, because they decided it does.

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