Reddit experimenting with blocking mobile browsers

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.

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?"

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.

This is both informative and unfortunate.

old.reddit.com isn't going anywhere

-- a spez lie

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.

Dollar-store Elon Musk is going full "fuck you" to redditors.

I 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.

My mobile browser is experimenting with not visiting reddit.

It's getting worse by the minute. I really really hope Lemmy usage picks up.

Having already rather violently shot himself in both feet, spez has started aiming for his other body parts.

This happening in the middle of the API gate seems like a pretty dumb move, even for Reddit.

Pretty disappointing to see something I've spent so much time with go down the tubes like this. I know that for a lot of people, Reddit has been dying for years, but I've stuck to old.reddit and my Android apps, and haven't looked at /r/all in a long, long time. I unsubscribed from all of the big/default subreddits, and just hang out in my happy subs where people (mostly) are people and aren't lunatics, and it's still been a nice place.

Killing the mobile apps is pretty much the last straw for me. I'm sure I'll still click on search results from Reddit sometimes, but I won't be logged in anymore and it will only be on a browser with ad-blocking and privacy features. There is no way I'm downloading their app.

If they were to go this route for all users, I would simply never use Reddit again on my phone. And yes, I'm in the minority, and yes, I know they don't care about losing me, but man, what a bummer.

What were they thinking doing this experiment in the heat of the third-party app protest?? Are they trying to aim for their foot?

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..

Between 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.

this is a beginning of the end for reddit as we know it

Their approach here seems inherently broken. People aren't going to use the app they don't want to use.

Elon and Donald taught everyone that when you start being a dick, double down on it.

Love how totally out of touch with human psychology these decision makers are.

As a sysadmin - I sort of welcome every dumb thing reddit does. I'll get more sign ups on my Lemmy instance :D

I want to leave Reddit completely so bad. They're ruining such a good thing, I was a member for 13 years. I hope Lemmy kinda just naturally replaces it for me but I'm sure there's some stuff that's just the best to go to Reddit for, I hope that changes slowly and people start using Lemmy or something else. But hey im here and it feels pretty good. Feels kinda like when I found Reddit for the first time all those years ago. Hello everyone :)

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.

Reddit's unwavering stubbornness to continue spiraling is just plain sad. What a way to go.

Unbelievable. Are they actively trying to get as many people as possible to leave their platform all together?

They already crippled the mobile site years ago and put login walls from a long while ago, way before the pandemic. old.reddit.com was the only thing that let me skip it. They deserve to die out.

The more they push their shitty mobile app, the more people won't use it.

Yikes this is so insane. I'm so sick of the ads and spyware laden apps. Once you look into that abyss it's hard to unsee it. It's uncomfortable to have every aspect of you monetized and viewed. It's unnatural man. I just started hardening my internet and device use this year.

They just keep digging

Reddit finding ways to actively make things worse, while lemmy rapidly improves.

Fuels 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.

Steve saw Elon's work at twitter and thought, "Watch me. I can ruin a company faster."

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.

Wow, I am surprised they would go this far if I'm honest.

Well, that's actually fucking horrible. I would expect nothing less from Reddit tho...

hahah thats ridiculous, removing the last thing that made it actually bearable on mobile, now of all times...

Honestly, 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.

Some asshole at Deloitte is going to make a ton of money writing case studies about this.

Damn they turning into quora

It's funny you post this. Not more than 5 minutes ago I was trying to figure out what was wrong with Firefox on my phone. I kept trying to login over and over again on mobile and it didn't work.

A week or so ago, I really felt like reddit was nearly an S tier social media platform. It's heartbreaking to see it completely destroy itself. It's nearing Twitter in how bad it works.

It's like they're trying to kill the platform

GLaDOS-Voice: This test chamber involves heavy ad-tracking and how test subjects react when locked in a shitty mobile app.

Reddit speedrun to ruin their site

They're really trying to speedrun killing their site lmao

Wow. They really can't read the room.

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.

What awful timing to run this experiment.

Wow, they're really putting some effort into alienating their user base. What a shame.

And what about people who don’t want to install an app for a variety of reasons?

Alrighty, they aren't even trying to be subtle anyone

Or many they still are, in which case wow thats kinda sad

Sure I had fun, but was it good for people? Communities of people did good things, not Reddit. Reddit was a great source for hate speech, propaganda, and ads. People did their best to be good in spite of the noise.

Reddit needs to die. People will find each other again, we always do.

They 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...

What a great time to get off Reddit

The fact they are running experiments on their users without opt-in is disgusting. In what world is that okay? Facebook also ran many psychological experiments on their users like shadow-banning them just to see if they felt more alone without telling people. It's gross.

@lynny It's like they don't even want users anymore.

Are they actively trying to make people stop using the site?

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?

ahahaha the reason I finally stopped using Yelp was because their mobile site would only load part of a review and would force redirect to their app if you tried to expand on any reviews. Rather than download the app or change user agent, I just gave up.

every website and their mother wants you to download their app nowadays.

It's all part of the plan to make their horrid app experience the only way to view Reddit content on mobile, in order for them to get not just some user data, but ALL the user data.

So the only option will be their own terrible mobile app. thanks, but no thanks!

Oh man, along with the api changes, blocking mobile browsers really might end Reddit. It’s sad that this is all a self-own that could be reversed if they chose. Oh well, that’s on them.

No fucking way. Dude.

WE BROKE REDDIT?

YAYY

and fkkk spez

Getting rid of old Reddit is a sure way to make sure I never check it. I won't even entertain using the new browser UI nevermind the app

They already blocked it for unregistered users. There's only that annoying overlay, that forces you to install their app.

We're watching Reddit die in real time.

well I an certainly not downloading the app

It 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.

Holy shit Reddit is apparently trying to speedrun destroying itself. Hopefully lemmy gets popular soon because I think it’s going to stop being a matter of preference and will become necessary

Wow, they're really shitting the bed aren't they?

What’s up with Reddit? Have they gone completely insane?

Tiring to see reddits downfall due to corporate greed, just as so many other sites in the past. Honestly surprised old.reddit is still around, seeing how they certainly dont like users using anything but their own inferior app. While spez said it wouldn't go anywhere I have my doubts about that.

This just proves it's not about pricing, just unwillingness to let users choose.

I had no idea that this was happening. But it makes sense with the decision they just made. I'm guessing they disabled X number of users on the mobile site that logged in, and tracked how many X users were converted to the Official Reddit App because of that.

That way they can predict how many users they will lose to the API change (roughly) and made a business calculation that the lost users were worth it. I'd be astounded if they didn't also have a sorting for 'value' of users as well and weighted the calculation with how many high value vs low value users didn't convert.

oh dear. Thats just evil

Monetization at all costs it seems. They really want that IPO bag.

Looks like reddit really doesn't want people to use reddit ... if that weren't obvious already

Awesome, they're making even easier to not go back there.

The experiment just being if you quit?

At least the messaging is clear by the CEO: f*ck you, reddit users

What about if you switch your mobile browser to Desktop Mode? That seems to work for YouTube's fuckery where they pause videos when minimized on mobile.

But still, it's principle. Give them an inch, they'll take a mile. Reddit can burn.

If I never have to use another Meta service again I'll be very happy. Unfortunately I still have to use WhatsApp because that's all anyone I know uses to communicate...maybe one day.

The mobile browsing experience was a huge shitshow anyway. Randomly refreshing webpage, comments never posting or posting 5 times, expanding comments would work sometimes. They actively nuked it to make people use the reddit app. Fuck them

Blocked reddit.com on my router today. Sigh....looks like the end.

And they really don't stop comin, eh? Corporate social media sites in general keep shooting themselves in the foot lately lmao, I think we're about on track for a massive revolution in how the internet landscape looks and works sometime soon. Or, that's what I hope anyways :x

What a bunch of dickheads, I'll stop using reddit entirely if they keep pulling shit like this. Hope Lemmy eats their lunch!

It’s worth noting that this post was from last month before they announced the usurious pricing of the API. However the fact that they were doing this does not bode well for people (like me) trying to avoid using their horrendous app.

Of course they are, gotta make everyone use the shitty app to farm as much data as possible!

Experimenting on their own users...

Reddit: "I wonder how many ways I can kill my platform at the same time?"

As if there was somebody on the fence about what direction Reddit is taking. Glad I left

Reminder that even though reddit tried to remove the compact site, it's still available through https://reddit.com/.i

Well that's nice of them

Not surprised. They need to milk every last drop of revenue from their users free content for the upcoming IPO.

Is there a revanced reddit app?

I had planned to leave reddit by end of June already, and have uninstalled Infinity from my phone a couple of days ago.

But man, this piece of news makes me wish I could do even more to boycott the platform. They are nuts. Enjoy the failure 😉

This feels like a huge joke lmao

This is incredibly pathetic. Why the asshats running reddit want to kill it this hard before an IPO is beyond me

I can maybe think of the thought process of people so far removed from how people use reddit trying to squeeze as much money out of it but killing it in the process, but it feels so dumb that I'm not sure I'm convinced

Oh wow, they're really digging themselves deep into that shithole

What an amazingly hostile move. It's finally pushed me to delete the mobile app altogether.

so in response to subreddits doing a blackout reddit decided to do its own blackout that will effect those who aren't participating in the blackout. Genius 5d chess right here people, some might even call it a sepuku.

Wow..

Fuck reddit man. They're doing all they can to kill it

Man, he's so professional. He gives answers that I'd expect a very experienced PR person to give, yet he's just a single-man operation developer.

Talk about mask off, lmao

I stopped using Facebook on mobile and now I only go there occasionally on desktop to read and never post.

Reddit’s getting the same treatment.

Is it better to overwrite comments and then delete them, or is just overwriting with whatever message I want to leave then deleting account accomplish same goal of making comments useless.

lmao, this shitshow just keeps getting worse and worse. good thing im currently building by community sub list so eventually i never have to look back at that site

Man, they're really trying their hardest to get rid of me.

Unbelievable. Hopefully this drives more users to the fediverse.

I think they are just trying to get rid of people that care at this point... Lol.

This has been going on for at least a month. They're trying to force their app on people so they can serve them ads. Unfortunately it's just another reason not to return to that god-forsaken website. This all seems motivated to increase their IPO price by touting the number of users for their mobile app.

I literally just had an instance of opening a nsfw reddit link from a Google search and it informed me that I could only see nsfw posts in the app...

Tapping on a Reddit link from mobile has mostly been pretty similar to this already for me. They have had an issue with DDG mobile browser for ages, refused to show more than a page of content and kept prompting me to "get the app", which didn't seem to recognise my third-party Reddit app... So I just hit the back button. Just recently, oddly, I noticed it had started working, but I'm in the habit of ignoring Reddit links on mobile anyway now so almost never go there whether it works or not.

If you want to lurk Reddit without being tracked, please use Teddit.net, they won't complain about using a mobile browser.

You mean the app that a significant portion of Reddit absolutely hates? Good lord. ~Strawberry

Can't you just change the browser's ID string and make it look like it's not a mobile browser?

Holy cow, how is reddit even making itself worse minute by minute...

I will say though that the mobile site has sucked for a long time. Lol

I can honestly say since Twitter did this I’ve hardly ever used it

Wow... just "Desktop Version" or if that doesn't work quit Reddit. The app is that awful.

A few weeks ago, Reddit stopped the one usable mobile interface (.compact). Since then, I stopped visiting Reddit on mobile apart from a few moments of trying out miserable 3rd party apps.

It may be separate from the API issue, but the purpose is still the same: to monetize your eyeballs at the expense of everything else.

To be fair the mobile browser version was already shit.

Is this supposed to be some kind of gotcha so Reddit can say 'hah, you used the app to look at Reddit!'?

What a dirty move, fuck u/spez, i will not download your shitty client

This is terrible! I cannot believe that within the span of few months, reddit has not only shot itself in the foot but now effectively is trying to drown.

As 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 my mobile web browser. 😕

Whelp it was a good run with Reddit. But their app is trash and now experimenting blocking browser access is bullshit. That may be the final straw that convinced me to delete my account.

Wow. Do they even understand how this looks????

Yeah I was planning on using brave if I ever needed to access reddit on my phone now... this is not good. I refuse to use their terrible app.

That will end well. /s

Lmfao looks like they're making it easier for the fediverse to have a chance

Bet they are working on a new mobile app that they will charge for.

The default site literally doesn't work on mobile anyway so it's not like it makes much difference.

This is from over a month ago

Never understood this on Reddit either... What's the difference between "Top" and "Hot"?

Reddit is officially on a bankruptcy speedrun.

They'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.

Well thats concerning. Hope the revenue they get from API access and forcing ads will offset the communities they are pushing away. Im about to delete my reddit account over this. Lets hope lemmy can gain traction.

That’s pretty crazy. Now I’m wondering how easy it is to change a user agent on iOS with either Firefox or Safari.

This is something I wish would stay on Reddit. The hate trains that spawned there should stay there. However writing this I see hate train spewing “fuck spez” and I realize this is a lost cause.

Note: you will most likely still be able to view from mobile browser via teddit even after the api cutoff date

Way to make new holes in an already sinking ship!

How are we not seeing news about reddit devs jumping ship? They've got to see that they're fucked with u/spez at the helm

@lynny@lemmy.world can you fix the archive link, please? The one you shared tries to take a new snapshot :)

https://web.archive.org/web/20230611224026/https://old.reddit.com/r/help/comments/135tly1/helpdid_reddit_just_destroy_mobile_browser_access/jim40zg/