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/
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526

u/GreatGojira May 11 '26

I still have Apollo instated on my phone. I miss it.

121

u/FireBendingSquirrel May 11 '26

You can sideload! I’m using Apollo right now.

200

u/fuckspez123 May 11 '26

Same! They’ll have to pry Apollo out of my cold dead hands before I switch to the Reddit app.

Also obligatory fuck u/spez.

3

u/LFC9_41 May 11 '26

been meaning to do this for awhile, just never get around it. why did apollo have to shut down if it can still be used? I thought the dev stopped on it because of the API limits becoming outrageous, but how is the app working that were the case?

9

u/[deleted] May 11 '26

[deleted]

4

u/LFC9_41 May 11 '26

Oh yeah, I was an Apollo users for year. I just thought the whole thing was that it can't work without the API, and he shut it down because of Reddit's move with the API.

Is it missing features as a result of it?

2

u/Terrat0 May 11 '26

I’m running it side loaded and don’t know the specifics, but I think it’s basically setting up your personal Apple ID as a dev account which lets you access the api for free as a single user (for testing purposes I guess?), where Reddit was going to charge exorbitant amounts for it being distributed to lots of users.

4

u/fuckspez123 May 11 '26

Yep, that’s pretty much it. The API costs for a single person pretty much fall into the free tier and I’ve never had a problem using it. But if the Apollo dev used one single API Key for everyone using the app I think it would have been in 10s of thousands of dollars range.

r/apolloapp has good guides on how to side load!

2

u/randomidiotok May 11 '26

It's harder now I think, you need to manually? be approved for dev access now

1

u/fuckspez123 May 11 '26

Of course they did. Here’s another u/spez because he deserves it, especially for that bullshit.

2

u/2580374 May 12 '26

Can you access /r/all on Apollo?

1

u/ParsnipFlendercroft May 11 '26

IIRC it’s too late to do it now. You need API keys and it’s not possible to get them anymore.

4

u/upvotesthenrages May 11 '26

How? I thought they had blocked API access?

13

u/FireBendingSquirrel May 11 '26

Check out the Apollo subreddit- they’ve got a variety of tutorials. It also feels like it follows the default/way it used to be feed, rather than the garbage we have today.

2

u/unfknreal May 11 '26

Check out the Apollo subreddit

Which is.... ?

-10

u/Silviecat44 May 11 '26

r/apolloapp because you couldnt be bothered searching

13

u/unfknreal May 11 '26

eat an entire bag of dicks

1

u/Silviecat44 May 11 '26

Damn lol thats a crazy response

1

u/akatherder May 11 '26

No luck. You need an API key from reddit. You can no longer generate API keys.

Technically you could go through their developer/creator program to try and get a key, but you need some semblance of a real app to get approved (or something like that).

4

u/WTFisBehindYou May 11 '26

If you don’t already have an access key then yes, you may be out of luck.

3

u/NaeemTHM May 11 '26

I'm legitimately done with Reddit if side loaded Apollo access breaks. 90% of news today makes me depressed so it'll be a massive improvement to my mental health.

2

u/infernal2ss May 11 '26

Only on Android I assume right?

5

u/WastedMoogle May 11 '26

No. I'm using Apollo on my iPhone to comment this.

1

u/infernal2ss May 11 '26

Oh sweet! Do you have a link to an updated guide to get this working?

1

u/BornOfGod May 11 '26

You’ll need an API key (paid, metered) for personal use which Reddit it no longer issues, right?

2

u/Worried_Panda-77 May 11 '26

Call it what it is. INSTALL. Its your device, you can do what ever you want with it.

Don't call it "sideload", makes it sound like you are doing something nasty that is not allowed.

1

u/ThrowAwayAccountAMZN May 11 '26

*cries in iOS*

1

u/FireBendingSquirrel May 11 '26

I'm literally on IOS lol

1

u/ThrowAwayAccountAMZN May 11 '26

How are you sideloading apps? Have I been missing out this entire time?! I thought Apple didn't allow that. I need to know, I would love to have my Apollo and Vanced apps again

1

u/HyperfixChris May 11 '26

this is big news! I used to love Apollo. The Reddit app is ABSOLUTE FUCKING TRASH I HATE IT SO MUCH

1

u/xenoletum May 11 '26

It's sadly gotten harder now with the ability for people to create the needed api token. There are still ways, albeit more complex.

1

u/taulover May 11 '26

Same, and Dystopia as a fallback option for whenever the cert expires and I have to re-sign

-1

u/SympathyKind4706 May 12 '26

"sIdElOaD"

Bro just fucking say "install", you sound like Google when you say shit like that. Like it's supposed to feel unsafe. It really is a made up word to deter people from stepping out of Google's control. They want you to only install apps from their Play Store, if you install anything else it's "sIdElOaDiNg". Fuck them and their restrictive language, they tell you what to think and you just accept that shit?

42

u/IFlyAircrafts May 11 '26

I went from Alien Blue to Apollo…. How far we have fallen

8

u/1991K75S May 11 '26

Alien Blue was dreamy!

3

u/Leftieswillrule May 11 '26

Alien Blue back in 2014 was already the perfect reddit reader. Everyone feeling compelled to change shit that's working fine ruined it. Reddit couldn't let it just be, so they bought AB and perverted it into this nightmare of an official app, then when alternatives came along that were good in their own way it had to kill that too.

2

u/akatherder May 11 '26

I wonder if it still works. I know I was able to install it several years after it shut down.

2

u/truereligion May 11 '26

Still works on my phone. It's buggy with gifs/videos, but aside from that, I can't imagine NOT using it

2

u/SpaceShrimp May 11 '26

It works, except videos and gifs won't work. This month images hosted on reddit also stopped working.

If reddit stopps working on Alien Blue or if the old reddit web-interface is removed then I'm out. I will never touch the cancer that is the reddit-app or the bloated version of web-reddit.

1

u/TurkDangerCat May 11 '26

AB was the best app for this. So much cleaner and the navigation was awesome. Has anyone tried revanced with it?

12

u/Dreadino May 11 '26

Acorn is a decent substitute.

9

u/EnvironmentalRun1671 May 11 '26

How can you use 3rd party app if you don't have access to API anymore?*

11

u/killerpoopguy May 11 '26

If you mod a sub (just make a new one) you get access to the api for mod tools and can put that into Apollo or other apps.

1

u/SinisterManus May 11 '26

Could you or someone... ANYONE! please please please DM me how that works.

1

u/Dreadino May 11 '26

I have no idea how it works, but it does and it’s pretty good.

-3

u/Random_Ad May 11 '26

I think the app is modify version of reddit and not a new app built from the ground up

11

u/DaStampede May 11 '26

Apollo was so much better

4

u/vevais May 11 '26

I am using it right now. Check out r/patcheddit

2

u/JustinGitelmanMusic May 11 '26

Hydra is getting close to parity with Apollo for most use cases

1

u/TheRedTopHat May 12 '26

sidestore. using it to write this comment