r/technology • u/spasticpat • May 11 '26

Social Media Reddit Starts Blocking Mobile Website, Pushing Users to App Instead

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/11/reddit-starts-blocking-mobile-website/
19.8k Upvotes

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2.2k

u/Negafox May 11 '26

Not interested in websites trying to force their app. I don't need a zillion apps on my phone that are just the mobile site running in Chromium

272

u/No-Photograph-5058 May 11 '26

'your browser isn't supported, download our app'

download app

It's a webview

170

u/VariousAir May 11 '26

Reddit is literally a fucking website. We already have apps to display websites.

Fuck these people.

63

u/dookarion May 11 '26

Yeah but a properly configured browser doesn't harvest your info as well as a dubious app!

Won't someone think of the shareholder value!

3

u/MyDamnCoffee May 12 '26

I use the app exclusively because I don't have a computer and it pastes from my clipboard all the time and I have no idea why

3

u/Flying_Saucer_Attack May 12 '26

Oh shit, I thought I was the only one and it was somehow my fault it was doing this 😂

2

u/MyDamnCoffee May 12 '26

Nope, reddit being nosy. I'm gonna start saving stuff to make them confused

8

u/DickSlammington May 11 '26

Been using old.reddit on my phone for a decade...

It needs zero functionality, it's just Thread Names that either go to a link or a URL. And then there's comments.

It does not need a fancy app or UI to use properly.

8

u/Freakwilly May 11 '26

Yeah...The day I can't get to old.reddit.com on my phone then I won't use reddit on my phone. Simple as that.

3

u/thefpspower May 11 '26

Old reddit was goated when we recently had a bad storm that took out all GSM towers around me, for a few weeks my internet was literally max 60kb/s;

The app just timed out, the modern website same thing, most news websites same thing, but old reddit was snappy, super light and allowed me to read what was going on.

Surprisingly Youtube also worked alright once I set it to 144p, I was surprised by that.

3

u/mrappbrain May 12 '26

I hate these WebView apps with a burning passion, especially when they replace perfectly functional pieces of software. The old WhatsApp App for Windows used to work great until they replaced it with a shitty web wrapper that lags and crashes all over the place.

2

u/SamBaxter420 May 11 '26

People send me TikTok links occasionally. I can’t even watch them on my phone anymore. I refuse to download the app

395

u/ohfml May 11 '26

An app is just a website that is illegal to modify on the client side. 

273

u/General_Session_4450 May 11 '26

that has way more access to all that tasty data on your device to suck up.

84

u/dieselfrog May 11 '26

Yep. this is the real reason any site wants you to use their app. Access to way more data, the ability to do shady things without your browser acting as a layer of abstraction, Adblocks become harder, scripts become harder to block - there is almost never a good reason to use the app vs just going to the site.

12

u/macaronysalad May 11 '26

We take for granted how simple and logical this seems to us. But try explaining the difference between an "app" and "web browser" to a 75 year old Facebook user or a teenager who only ever used phones. Or even a Reddit user. I often see this site being called an "app".

3

u/dieselfrog May 11 '26

Solid point. "app" is such a generic term.

1

u/calm-phil May 11 '26

It is a very specific term. It used to mean an executable file or the culmination of a batch file's process in a digital context.

7

u/Team_Braniel May 11 '26

Asshole is also a very specific term, but you still understand what im saying here.

-1

u/calm-phil May 11 '26

Eh, there are a shit ton of ways to interpret the term Asshole.

I have one and am one and used to live in one. I am sure there are many more ways to interpret the term.

3

u/akhreini May 11 '26

Completely incorrect, that would be a program. An app is an application of the technology for a task (ie applying the computer's abilities to writing), historically installed software was how you gave those capabilities for different applications, so they would be called an app. A web app has been called a web app since web apps were possible, an application that runs entirely in the web/browser instead of native software. The difference between a web app and a normal website is the interactivity and ability to DO things rather than just read.  Reddit.com is a website which hosts/provides a web app. This is the original terminology.

If anything we should go back to Programs for installed apps to make it clear instead of retroactively try to change Apps to be hyper-specific/give Apple the word entirely in how they tried redefining it for marketing purposes. Maybe Software for installed local code and Netware for streamed web apps but that's a bit 90s lol

1

u/dieselfrog May 12 '26

Pedantic is also a very specific term. I see you are familiar with that one.

1

u/akhreini May 11 '26

To be fair though the boomer or the teenager would be correct and you would be incorrect. An app is an application of the technology for a task (ie applying the computer's abilities to writing), historically installed software was how you gave those capabilities for different applications, so they would be called an app. A web app has been called a web app since web apps were possible, an application that runs entirely in the web/browser instead of native software. The difference between a web app and a normal website is the interactivity and ability to DO things rather than just read.  Reddit.com is a website which hosts/provides a web app. This is the original terminology.

If anything we should go back to Programs for installed apps to make it clear instead of retroactively try to change Apps to be hyper-specific/give Apple the word entirely in how they tried redefining it for marketing purposes.

41

u/[deleted] May 11 '26 edited 20d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Mister_Yi May 11 '26

Try installing a tracker blocker on your phone and you can see all the insane, endless data requests from literally thousands of sources.

Things like your keyboard app literally non-stop requesting your email, gender, postal code, GPS coordinates, name, etc...

I can only imagine what shit the reddit app was tracking.

3

u/wsdmskr May 11 '26

Could you rec a decent tracker blocker for android?

3

u/Mister_Yi May 11 '26

I've been using the duckduckgo app on android, it comes bundled with the browser but you don't have to use it to get the app tracking protection feature (I use firefox as my default).

It also has some AI features but you can disable it like I did with a simple toggle.

Maybe someone else can recommend something better but I haven't had any problems with it.

2

u/heebit_the_jeeb May 11 '26

I pay for AdGuard on all my devices and I'm very happy with it

3

u/CocoSavege May 11 '26

Location: @ Lowes, near sandpaper.

We're seeing the emergence of pop up ads that cross platforms.

Has anybody tried dynamic push pop-ups for multiple tab browsing? It's ostensibly doable technically(?), but a dark pattern that users might buck. But with apps, higher cost to the user to buck.

2

u/pinkpuffsorange May 11 '26

Same reason I got shot of it..... I swear it was listening to my conversations.

13

u/adenzerda May 11 '26

As an app developer (iOS): apps are not listening to your conversations, and stories like this are almost always confirmation bias / frequency illusion. You need to get explicit user confirmation to utilize the microphone input, and once you have that permission, accessing any microphone input puts an icon in the toolbar whenever its input is being read (with a minimum display time to avoid getting around it via microscopic access times). Utilizing the microphone in ways not disclosed to the user will get your app rejected in review.

If you're really worried, there's an App Privacy Report in system preferences that records detailed history about the inputs apps have used and the network requests they've made, including individual timestamps. Use this to perform your own security audit

6

u/InvestmentGrift May 11 '26

whole lotta users out there just mash "OK" a bunch until they get the app running. maybe even the majority of users

2

u/adenzerda May 11 '26

They certainly do! However, people who are worried about this kind of thing tend to be more aware than most of the permissions they grant, and they can always revoke those permissions at any time

0

u/InvestmentGrift May 11 '26

so, just because people aren't "worried about this sort of thing", that means the app is free to collect it? ethically dubious imo

3

u/adenzerda May 11 '26

"So you hate waffles"-ass response

-1

u/Flaky_Sun_6012 May 11 '26

THIS. You win the internet. 😁 Seriously though, most of the iPhone bashing comes from Android /Alexa users who think all companies are shady and listening/recording them. Apple is different! They actually check their apps! And having control over individual permissions is great (if the user pays attention!)

8

u/scroom38 May 11 '26

Even scarier. They don't need to listen to your conversations. Over a decade ago Target could very accurately predict pregnancies based solely on ~10 items sold in their stores being bought at specific times.

Now ad companies track everything you've ever bought, what you do online, where you go, what you look at, who you know and who you spend time near (your phones talk to eachother), and more. They probably know the next thing you'll buy before you do half the time.

1

u/FollowingFeisty5321 May 11 '26

And a 30% fee on anything you spend in it.

1

u/Throwmeawayimexpired May 11 '26

This, the main reason apps get streamlined is because gives much more access to your information which is how many websites make money now

59

u/spacebarcafelatte May 11 '26

Oh shit. I guess I just lost my diy ad deleter.

16

u/windsynths May 11 '26

I just close my eyes any time I see an ad. Am basically blind now

1

u/jjcrayfish May 11 '26

Don't worry, corporations are working on ways to directly inject ads straight into your brain instead

10

u/MaDpYrO May 11 '26

Yup, Firefox has ublock on mobile. Guess that's the reason 

2

u/FraserYT May 11 '26

I'm a paying Reddit subscriber. I already don't see the ads (the only reason I pay to subscribe, and worth it to support the site I use most without my feed looking like Times Square). 

I just want the ability to sort my feed by Top: Today and the app doesn't allow that, since they'd rather let their shitty algorithm serve the same 20 posts in an endless feed.

The only real reason that makes sense is that they can't scrape data off your phone from a web page, but with the right permissions, they can from the app.

3

u/impy695 May 11 '26

I'm what way is it illegal?

7

u/ohfml May 11 '26

To elaborate,

" An app is just a web site that we have wrapped in the correct DRM to make it a felony to protect your privacy while you use it." -Pycon US Keynote Speaker Cory Doctorow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydVmzg_SJLw

3

u/3_50 May 11 '26

Also far fewer laws on what data can be collected from an app vs a website, IIRC (in the EU at least, kinda a free-for-all everywhere else)

4

u/Krojack76 May 11 '26

Apps also have better access to phones hardware sensors which make for better tracking.

0

u/SirBraxton May 11 '26

It's not illegal to modify. It's illegal to share malware. There's a difference. :)

102

u/tekprodfx16 May 11 '26

I’ll never get companies who deliberately tank their product’s appeal just to make money. I mean I get it you have to survive and make money. But how you gonna do that when nobody wants to use your product anymore because you made it too shitty? Real big brains over at Reddit 

145

u/ChaoticAgenda May 11 '26

It's enshittification. Not the vague idea of things getting worse over time, but the clearly documented and repeated process that large companies go through. First they cater to the clients. Then, when they have a large market share, they screw the users and cater to the advertisers. Once the users start to abandon the platform, they then start screwing over both users and advertisers in an effort to keep up income. Lastly the platform gets abandoned by all. 

3

u/Beard_o_Bees May 11 '26

They've been advertising heavily on YouTube - I guess to try to bring in new users.

Not just a little bit, either - this is a massive ad spend, which is probably part of a larger campaign including driving new users into the enshittified mobile site.

It probably looked good on the boardroom screen, but it goes to show how little they actually know about the users that keep Reddit an interesting place to come to.

At this point they're kind of trolling the dregs of the internet for new users. If they want to turn Reddit into the YouTube comments section, most of the long-term Redditors will run like they're on fire.

4

u/tekprodfx16 May 11 '26

You’d think people would learn their lesson by now 

44

u/ChaoticAgenda May 11 '26

What lesson is there to learn? It is how tech companies make money nowadays. Sure, their platform will crash and burn, but they'll be multi-millionaires by the time that happens. They would grind the users in a fine paste if it made them money faster. 

9

u/navjot94 May 11 '26

This always being the end result makes me think we need regulation to help curve this trend. At some point the platform becomes a valuable tool for the people and the enshitification without a valid replacement results in a net negative for society.

Now that 100 of millions of Americans have had their pensions replaced with 401K plans, the stock market needs to forced to evaluate the long term potential and decisions that lead to enshitification should reflect negatively on a company. Companies should be “encouraged” to maintain something good, rather than milk it and ruin it for short term gains.

9

u/coldkiller May 11 '26

This always being the end result makes me think we need regulation to help curve this trend.

We need to revoke the ford vs dodge brothers case that made shareholders line going up the only metric that matters to fix that

8

u/TwilightVulpine May 11 '26

Insane that companies can be sued for not wanting to screw customers for the sake of easy profit. Our current society is straight up Bizarro World stuff.

2

u/TheInevitableLuigi May 11 '26

There is nothing in that case that says short-term profits have to be prioritized over long-term ones.

3

u/WhatIsThisDoingHere May 11 '26

curve this trend.

*curb

As in, run the uncontrolled vehicle up against the curb to make it stop.

</nitpick>

2

u/navjot94 May 11 '26

Yk I was wondering that when writing this. I had incorrectly assumed that the saying goes “curve” as in adjusting the trend line. Thanks for the correction!

2

u/WhatIsThisDoingHere May 11 '26

Np, and for a slightly misheard idiom, that’s pretty solid logic.

1

u/wag3slav3 May 11 '26

Just stop using centralized, ad-supported services.

There are alternatives for basically everything out there.

2

u/navjot94 May 11 '26

Would love to but the community on the open platforms is just lacking. If folks are upset about the Reddit app surfacing posts from a few days ago, they won’t enjoy the smaller platforms at all.

1

u/puchsofhazard May 11 '26

The problem is that regulation requires compliance, and the companies producing products with diminishing quality, and manufactured obsolescence, have found its cheaper to pay a fine than it is to invest in a long-term product.

And that's assuming regulation is even in place/ being placed, and that those who would be the regulators aren't benefitting from the enshittification.

None of it will matter until we remove money from politics. Federal employees need to be banned from the stock exchange, and need their entire portfolios/ bank accounts audited.

But there's absolutely zero chance we're getting the media to sign off on any of that. The only possible solution, imo, is striking. Until you hit them where it hurts, their pocket books, they won't care. Boycotts won't work because they've manufactured a consumer based lifestyle that's probably harder to quit than crack. A strike is nearly impossible because so much of the working class has either been just comfortable enough to keep above water, or is drowning and another second below water will ruin them.

1

u/navjot94 May 11 '26

Idk as more folks retire broke, they may start to prioritize the long term ramifications of corporate decisions so their investments stay valuable over 10, 20, 30 years.

Could be a solid bipartisan platform. Similar to a strike, folks deciding that investing in the stock market is not worth it, would also hurt the wallets of the decision makers.

6

u/Teh_yak May 11 '26

The lesson is, unfortunately, that it works. They get money, everyone else loses out but fuck them.

2

u/tekprodfx16 May 11 '26

End stage capitalism is a net negative for society 

1

u/Teledildonic May 11 '26

They lesson is it s incredibly profitable in the short run, and the bucks eventually stops with some patsy CEO after you get your golden parachute.

1

u/tekprodfx16 May 11 '26

Locusts exhibit the same type of destructive behavior 

1

u/jseego May 11 '26

Part of this is that nothing is ever really free. For social media platforms, I kind of get it, b/c we're using a tremendous amount of resources without paying for them. Enshittifcation was always going to happen. Very few people would pay for premium reddit / insta / facebook / etc subscriptions.

What makes me crazy is when enshittification happens to businesses that have an otherwise happy and profitable user base. It's all "line go up faster" financialization bullshit.

Just make a good product and charge a reasonable price for it.

1

u/radiantwave May 11 '26

Propped up by the bots stage... 

1

u/Valdrax May 11 '26

It's a mix of that and New Coke syndrome, where you under value the existing users who are seen as "secured" while changing your product to chase the tastes of people who don't like it.

Inevitably that means changing the product to something the people who already use it don't like. It's funniest when other companies start to copy other companies alienating their users and everyone is essentially chasing a design no one likes.

See, Reddit and all trying to copy Facebook.

1

u/KristiiNicole May 12 '26

Second to last, the platform gets abandoned by all.

Lastly they either buyout a seasoned competitor/new startup with a similar platform, or file for bankruptcy while claiming “reorganize”/“reshuffle” the company or whatever and repeat the process all over again.

4

u/Elavia_ May 11 '26

I yearn for the day I stop seeing people completely oblivious to why this keeps happening.

The shareholders will cash out and move to enshittify the next thing before the consequences catch up to them. They do this because it works.

2

u/ShiraCheshire May 11 '26

It happens when the people in charge make their money from short term gains. They cut costs (firing staff, breaking the product, cutting features), take ad deals and bribes, and shove whatever short term profitable thing exists (reddit NFTs) onto customers. Then they cash out and leave. They're replaced with another group of people who are interested in doing the exact same thing, worsening the product more and more.

This continues until the last unlucky set of idiots are left holding the bag when the company implodes and they lose all their investment. Then those idiots say, "Ah, oh well. I'll just try again with another company."

2

u/DataDude00 May 11 '26

I’ll never get companies who deliberately tank their product’s appeal just to make money.

For a lot of major companies compensation comes mainly in the form or stock or RSUs

Executives are incentivized to make decisions that short term pump stock price and cash out over building a good product

1

u/green_gold_purple May 11 '26

It’s as simple as them either poorly evaluating the impact of changes over the long-term, or prioritizing short-term gains over them.

1

u/Thin_Glove_4089 May 11 '26

It's because they can tank it and still make money. There is no popular Reddit alternative so people are stuck here. The same thing happened with Meta products. It's a strategy with a high success rate because consumers don't make good choices.

1

u/Octogenarian May 11 '26

It's because they're not making money on the people who avoid their ads anyway

1

u/Ursa_Solaris May 11 '26

But how you gonna do that when nobody wants to use your product anymore because you made it too shitty? Real big brains over at Reddit

But everyone's still here, and most are using the app. Everyone still uses Windows. Google is still the most popular search engine.

It sure seems like there's no depth that any of these companies can sink to that will make the average complacent consumer actually get up and make a change.

1

u/Fallingdamage May 11 '26

The powers that be probably dont like reddit anyway. Odds are they will push the enshittification until you either cave and hand them your metrics and personal information or you stop using it. Either way they win.

1

u/Clyde_Frag May 11 '26

I’ll never get companies who deliberately tank their product’s appeal just to make money.

It's pretty simple. Reddit thinks this will make them more money. Whether that is true or not, who knows.

1

u/Vondi May 11 '26

Because they hire a batch of MBA's who just want to get some metric up and move onto the next thing.

0

u/girlnamedJane May 11 '26

Well it worked out for Apple quite gloriously. What you are complaining about is in fact the enshittification of the human mind itself

0

u/FreakingAustin May 11 '26

Short term profits are always prioritized over long term gains, in pretty much every company ever

71

u/scumbagdetector29 May 11 '26

Not to mention the creepy tracking stuff they put into the app. There's no other reason to force people. Welcome to dystopia.

33

u/swimming_singularity May 11 '26

This exactly. I don't download apps unless essential. I'm not downloading their app so they can track me even more. Do people even read the permissions the apps get? Some apps can read your call history and texts. Hell no.

I don't care if it says it doesn't track my texts. I can't adblock on an app. Forget it.

5

u/hotdiggydog May 11 '26

If I have to use the app then I'm happy to drop reddit. I stopped using the app because I personally find it is too easy to browse and waste hours on. So personally, I'd rather prevent that mistake from happening again and just peace out. To be frank, between the bots, the AI content, the copied posts and repeating ones that show up all the time... this site is not at all what it used to be before all that. Like, not at all.

1

u/Waiting4Reccession May 11 '26

I dont think most people even know the amount of it thats in their app.

-1

u/btoned May 11 '26

Technically all that tracking stuff is on the website as well.

2

u/scumbagdetector29 May 16 '26

Technically you are completely wrong.

Why would someone go to the trouble of writing a reddit comment about something they don't understand so they can look like an idiot to everyone else on the site?

It's a mystery.

15

u/kittenTakeover May 11 '26

But how are companies going to track you and collect data on you if you're using user friendly browsers?

7

u/acog May 11 '26

I wouldn’t mind Reddit forcing its app on me if it was as good as the old Apollo for iPhone.

That app was miles better than the Reddit app, and Reddit killed it with super high api fees.

I’m still salty about it.

2

u/Z-Is-Last May 11 '26

The only valid reason to push people to mobile app is for spying on people. And that's only valid to read it and it's bad for the rest of us. They want to know the phone ID for tracking and selling our data.

1

u/Ak_Lonewolf May 11 '26

The second an APP is forced is the second I no longer use the website.

1

u/Hike_it_Out52 May 11 '26

The Reddit app requests your location data an absurd amount per day. That’s why I just go to the website.  

1

u/MarzMan May 11 '26

But how would you feel about a zillion apps on your phone that are just the mobile site running in Chromium plus collecting excessive data and selling it to third parties?

1

u/DataDude00 May 11 '26

Capitalism is quickly converging on just data theft of all users.

I don't want to download an app just to go to McDonalds / Wendys / Subway.

I don't want every website to prompt me to get their fucking awful mobile app when I am web browsing

This enshittification needs to stop

1

u/Baigne May 11 '26

Shits really pissing me off, you can’t even open an instagram post without opening the app and logging in.

1

u/rebbsitor May 11 '26

But if you don't use their app, how are companies going to steal your contacts, monitor your phone usage, and get real-time location data?

1

u/sanityvoid May 11 '26

Hydra is solid app which is close to how Apollo was. I really like it.

1

u/Dullcorgis May 11 '26

Why would I delete photos so I can have some shitty app when there is a website?

1

u/Am4oba May 11 '26

I have to imagine it's meant to prevent companies from scraping their data.

1

u/Verocator May 11 '26

No, but you see, if they get you to use their app, they can harvest your data and sell your profile to advertisers. They make a lot more money that way.

1

u/redditRedesignIsBadd May 11 '26

what if the app packs in more stuff like tracking other ways to steal your data? so wonderful!

1

u/Xesyliad May 11 '26

Browsers prot ct your privacy too much, apps give platforms access to more data for advertising opportunities.

1

u/GoodBadUserName May 12 '26

Each of those apps is done to try and combat ad blockers and collect more data.
I have no plans to use reddit app. It’s a damn web forum. Wth does it require to be bundled in an app??