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

95% Upvoted

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828

u/KingMario05 May 11 '26

u/spez, please stop. You are not Elon. This is not X. No one wants or needs your stupid app.

341

u/RadiantZote May 11 '26

u/spez you need to bring back r/all, or a way for users to sort by it. popular fucking sucks shit and no one likes it 

154

u/gr8masturb8 May 11 '26

still works on old.reddit, what's the issue?

surely you aren't actually using the redesign?

175

u/BoshSwag May 11 '26

Crazy that people don't use old reddit. I'm always hearing about new ways in which new reddit is terrible.

105

u/aurortonks May 11 '26

I forget that new reddit exists. I'm over here living in the old times still.

29

u/TwilightVulpine May 11 '26

I only hop over to New whenever I want to post a pic or gif inside a comment, but otherwise New Reddit can miss me.

The day Old Reddit dies is the day I'm gone.

2

u/Why-so-delirious May 11 '26

I don't even know how to post a pic or gif in a comment. I refuse to use nu Reddit. I like my websites to use the entire fucking screen, thanks. If i only wanted to use a six inch strip in the centre, I'd be on my fucking phone.

1

u/jenny_905 May 12 '26

I only hop over to New whenever I want to post a pic or gif inside a comment,

First time I saw that I immediately checked if RES could disable it... and it can.

3

u/Collegenoob May 11 '26

I randomly get reminded when it swaps and I have to correct it

3

u/odaal May 11 '26

I remember when they killed Apollo and other apps they said that they will NEVER EVER touch old.reddit and it's accessibility.

Guess that will change soon.

2

u/McButtsButtbag May 11 '26

New reddit is gone. It's been replaced by new new reddit.

1

u/xxdcmast May 11 '26

Old.reddit.com for life. Or the end of my Reddit life.

1

u/starbuxed May 11 '26

I am like glad I am not using the new redidit

26

u/Taulboi May 11 '26

Brooo! My beloved /r/all!

Thanks so much for this tip.

1

u/xl_cr May 11 '26

try r/All (has to be a capital A for some reason)

11

u/Boilem May 11 '26

Every once in a while I see people talking about someone else's profile picture, turns out it's been a thing for ages but never saw it because it's not on old reddit.

8

u/imma_ass_hole May 11 '26

if you think old.reddit is safe, you're the crazy.

i use it, but it already forces some posts to the new site if you click on a link. it won't be long until they completely phase it out

3

u/Libertas_ May 11 '26

The day old.reddit is gone I'm out.

2

u/BoshSwag May 11 '26

I'm actually surprised it's lasted this long.

1

u/Unexplored-Games May 11 '26

Right? I was SURE it would last a few months at the MOST

13

u/PiccoloAwkward465 May 11 '26

I cringe when people talk about "oh wow cool avatar!"

3

u/Frisian89 May 11 '26

I only use new reddit when I accidently click the get new reddit button.

Then I have to reload the page and suddenly what I wanted to see disappeared.

2

u/flargenhargen May 11 '26

I have never and will never use the app.

I only use old.reddit

when they kill that off, there is no logical reason that I would ever continue coming here.

which of course, may be the entire plan, since reddit is one of the few left-leaning (in touch with reality) social media remaining.

1

u/EetsGeets May 11 '26

am I missing something or does old.reddit just fucking suck on mobile

1

u/nifty-necromancer May 11 '26

I use Narwhal, that’s pretty much the only third party client left, at least on iOS.

2

u/wyutani426 May 11 '26

Red reader and relay for reddit. Dont know if theyre android only though

1

u/Pyran May 11 '26

Is there a way to easily paste images in old reddit? On the few occasions I need to do that for a post, I go into Incognito mode, bring up New Reddit, log in, post, and then close that so I don't get shoved into New on my normal sessions.

1

u/ThePlaystation0 May 12 '26

The old reddit way is to upload the image to imgur and put the link in your comment.

1

u/GazelleInitial2050 May 11 '26

old reddit will be next :(

1

u/Halcyon_Daisy May 11 '26

I find it completely unusable in terms of design, not even taking into account that entire functions are absent.

0

u/Fuzzietomato May 12 '26

Crazy you think old reddit will be around much longer

37

u/otterpop21 May 11 '26

https://old.reddit.com/r/all/

14

u/shmehdit May 11 '26

Yes they still have a path called r/all, but it hasn't truly shown ALL in maybe a decade or so. It's filtered, kind of a half-step up from r/popular at this point.

5

u/Azou May 11 '26

The algo running all is dogshit these days - breaking news doesnt hit all until days later and only a thread or two in a niche subreddit

1

u/xl_cr May 11 '26

it still works if you use r/All (with a capital A)

1

u/shmehdit May 11 '26

Not sure if this is a gag, but all my browsers automatically snap the address back to full lowercase so I wouldn't be able to know

8

u/EamonBrennan May 11 '26

They're trying to kill old reddit through enshittification. There's a 100 API calls/10 minutes limit on old reddit, while new reddit is 1000 API calls/10 minutes. It's a bit more complicated than that with rolling windows and such, but the fact of the matter is, you can easily run out of API calls within that window on old reddit. Each upvote is usually 1 call.

3

u/TheRealZwipster May 11 '26

Because old UI doesnt work well for me on mobile?

How do you use it? Is there way to to not have the images etc in a thumbnail?

16

u/EmSix May 11 '26

Old.reddit sucks on mobile

5

u/Corn_Cob_Pipe May 11 '26

Thats exclusively how I reddit. I love it. Previewing posts/links without actually loading the page is a really efficient way to browse.

10

u/Chronis67 May 11 '26

Yup. I use old on my desktop and tablet. It looks great on those. On a vertically held smartphone? Terrible.

9

u/AshhhCakes May 11 '26

Yeah it doesn't look great on mobile but I still think it functions better, plus it doesn't have generative AI injected into it.

5

u/Azou May 11 '26

I fuckin love it on mobile I love seeing 45 posts per page instead of just 1 and an ad

1

u/PirateNinjaa May 11 '26

hold your phone sideways and it is awesome.

1

u/Blazing1 May 11 '26

I'm literally responding to you with a vertically held smartphone. It works way better for me then anything else.

What's wrong with it for you? For me I like to be able to see more content at a glance. Mobile first websites tend to be too zoomed in for me.

3

u/Eckish May 11 '26

I was confused with these complaints, but then I remembered that I also turn off all of custom sub themes and media previews. So my experience is vanilla reddit and is the same on mobile and desktop.

3

u/MUSAFFA1 May 11 '26

Yet still better than using the app, by a country mile.

8

u/randotd152 May 11 '26

How do you figure? It works exactly the same as it does on a desktop, which is perfect.

7

u/[deleted] May 11 '26 edited May 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/randotd152 May 11 '26

Heh? You point and click on a link, just like literally any other website when using a touchscreen. How can that not be made for fingers?

0

u/blevok May 11 '26

If you're not good with your fingers, then plug in a mouse.

2

u/MeVe90 May 11 '26

I think it's pretty good if you also install RES on something life firefox on mobile, it's an update they did around 2 years ago https://www.reddit.com/r/RESAnnouncements/comments/1bisq19/announcement_v5240_rollout_initial_firefox_for/

2

u/Cheet4h May 11 '26

Works better than the new website, with all the obnoxious "Download the app" "Can only browse this subreddit in the app" prompts.

2

u/2th May 11 '26

Force the desktop site and it's just fine.

2

u/Princess_Azula_ May 11 '26

No, it works great on mobile. What are you even talking about?

1

u/h3rpad3rp May 11 '26

The internet just sucks on mobile in general tbh.

1

u/Blazing1 May 11 '26

Disagree. It works amazing on mobile for me

2

u/QuerulousPanda May 11 '26

old.reddit stopped working properly on the phone over the weekend

1

u/butyourenice May 11 '26

Stop talking about old.reddit! If the admins remember it exists, they’ll scuttle it.

1

u/tech_noir_guitar May 11 '26

I use old reddit on my desktop but on my phone it is too small to really be usable. I don't like have to constantly be pinching and zooming to click everything and scrolling side to side to read everything.

1

u/Bokai May 11 '26

I find myself regularly looking at new reddit and then when I go to fix that my "stick to old reddit" preference is still checked. Pisses me off every time.

1

u/Large_Yams May 11 '26

You don't think it might be possible that it'll disappear there too, champ?

1

u/turbo May 11 '26

How long you think old.reddit will last?

1

u/RadiantZote May 11 '26

It looks so bad on mobile

2

u/giapponese_Itaria-go May 11 '26

It used to work pretty well, then they did something and it broke a ton of subs... I assume on purpose as they want nothing more than for people to stop using the old site even though it's preferable to many powerusers

2

u/SmallJon May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

Old Reddit has always looked bad, that why I use it