Why are big platforms shutting down third-party Apps? Should an average user be worried?

Because they want to mine their platforms for more profit at the expense of their users/customers. It's just how capitalism works.

If you look back over history corporate changes like this tend to happen in waves. like for example a few years ago Disney and Warner Brothers and HBO etc. all took their programmes off Netflix and created their own platforms at around the same time. This is because they are all copying each other. One corporation thinks up a new way to harvest money from their consumers and all of that corporation's competitors do the same because they don't want to miss out on all that cash.

Reddit is pushing their third party apps out of business because they want to force their users onto only the official reddit app. Probably they also have a plan to further monetise their app in the near future as well (e.g. way more ads or paid subscriptions tiers that unlock more features). Youtube closed down all the third-party apps because people were using them to get around the ads, and YouTube wanted to force more and more ads and also the subscription service because that's where they get their money from.

Literally the only reason they do it is to increase profits.

Essentially it boils down to - ways in which they can turn users into money.

• Control the content you see - Especially ads which provide income. Also injecting posts into your stream regardless of preferences to direct views towards sponsors preferences or to try to extend engagement.
• More visibility over user activity - It gives them better tools to manipulate users habits (that pesky engagement), and better (for them), user telemetry can be sold (people who like X like Y is useful knowledge but it can go far deeper than this).
• They want to discourage content that discourages advertisers - mostly this is NSFW content (since the advertisers don't want their ads showing beside NSFW content) but I expect it'll begin to span more than that over time.

With the elimination of third party apps, you can bet that 'old Reddit' is on the chopping-block soon too (mostly to boost ad views)

From my understanding, it’s probably multiple factors, including pushing users back to their app so they can track more and server more apps (3rd party apps usually block apps). Another is de-freeing the API access, which effectively kills many 3rd party apps in reddit case. The charge for API access is possibly very tied to the rise of data scraping demands for training AI models, and reddit has a lot of good content.

As for the reasons, there are many, but all of them boil down to the company losing money (or thinking it's losing money).

For example Reddit, they don't show you ads in 3rd-party apps, so you access the content but don't make them money (directly).

should I be worried about it

About what exactly?

go back to the official Apps just in case the third-party apps would be shut down in the future

Why go back preemptively? If they shut down, switch to official apps (or leave the site), before that enjoy any 3rd-party app you like.

Third-party apps are being shutdown for the simple reason of there is less profit in them existing. Most third-party apps block ads and paid promotions cutting into revenue of the platform. As platforms grow and there is more ad views to be had they’ll inevitably come for the third-party apps. Cherish the ones you still have.

Most third-party apps don’t show ads which lessens the potential revenue for the first-party. Their idea is that by stopping these options, people will use the “official” methods which will allow serving of ads.

Remember the adage: if you're not paying for it, YOU are the product.

I believe there is a push to reduce/cut out 3rd party apps so that the "parent" site has more traffic driven towards their official app, so that they have more data (ie, the value you as a user provide to them) coming to them directly.

I feel like this is going to happen more and more with these companies in order for them to extract as much value as they can, thsu ensuring the Enshittification of the internet in general.

I think the play is to force everyone onto the official app so we're totally locked in. Then, they can enshittify it for maximum lucrativeness, and we won't be able to switch away from it.

Main reason is advertising. On third party app we don’t see ads. I used Apollo and there where no adds. Also there was to ticktok scrolling stuff like in official app. I did not use non official YouTube apps but I think it’s similar case. Also if you use there apps they can serve you content in a way that is more engaging like instagram is to get you even more addicted to the platform. Hope I explained it well, let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂

In general it’s because it’s difficult or impossible to fully monetize a user on a third party app. This could be because the API doesn’t serve ads (like Reddit) or because it’s harder to track and harvest user data when they are not using a first party app.

Essentially, platforms like Reddit make deals with advertisers that they will display an ad in a certain format near certain types of connect (and away from other kinds) and will show them to users with specific interests. They can’t really do that if the user isn’t coming through a platform the company fully controls (so their website or apps). On top of this, their apps are designed to keep you engaged as long as possible and to harvest as much information about you as they can without you getting upset and leaving. This lets them target ads more specifically (which means they can charge more for them) as well as sell that data to brokers for even more money (who then sell it to advertisers). It’s all about how to best turn your attention into money, and a third party app doesn’t allow that (either at all or as much as a first party experience).

Reddit specifically also wants to sell access to their data to companies like OpenAI to train large language models as additional revenue sources, to do that they need to lock down the API used by apps to work with the platform.

The reason usually revolves around data and advertising. In Reddit's case, they do not gain any advertising revenue from 3rd party app users since they are not delivering ads; they also do not collect any kind of usage data/metrics on 3rd party app users such as post linger time, time of use patterns, any amount of data outside the app it mines for (because the Reddit app sure mines a fucking lot). The API is effectively opaque to all that, and it sort of has to be, because there is no standard of display or data handling on the 3rd party's end that reddit could rely on to actually be feeding them trustworthy data- if they collected any of this from a 3rd party, all data they collect would become trash, because there is no way to verify the endpoint collection.

So, ultimately; Their platforms cannot be as effectively monetized unless they have excruciatingly minute control over every tiny aspect of the platform's layout, display, and data collection to maximize ad space and increase user interaction, linger time, and click rate. Late stage capitalism tells them this is absolutely unacceptable for shareholders, so they must eliminate the waste and consolidate control. Interest rates have jumped, the "free money" policy is over, and the investor-leech hawks are closing in- the "open" centralized internet filled with free, effective services will be dead within another couple years.