You are killing the golden goose by trying to force people toward the app - by gradually removing features and usability from the mobile web site and constantly reminding people they "should" use the app.
I don't want reddit as an 'app', I want reddit to be readable/scrollable on mobile and web without any form of coercion.
Incredible how a billion dollar corporation can be so bad at doing the basics right. Twitter is the same - I still can't play videos on the first try 80% of the time.
I once had to implement deep links for a React Native app and, while I’m by no means a great mobile dev there were plenty of thorny bits. For example, I think iOS doesn’t open a deep link in app if you type the url directly into the address bar. It will only open in the app if the user taps a link. Another complexity is making sure a deep link opens in the app for app users and opens the App Store for other users.
iOS also has two different systems for deep linking, custom protocols (eg myapp://) and universal links (a server side manifest that you register with Apple). These each have their pros and cons.
To be sure, those should be solvable problems for a company with even a fraction of Reddit’s resources.
YouTube links, on the other hand, never work for me. They always open in Safari and then I have to find a way to trigger the app link by opening one of the menus on the YouTube website.
The same thing happens to me with Youtube, but only on iPad, not iPhone. The way I get the app open is, when I get to Safari, I try to open the page in desktop. Youtube app kicks open then.
I think this is the the type of requests that shows the disconnect between the HN crowd and real users. The majority of users will use the app. It's entirely in reddit's benefit to push the app, that's where they have complete control and can add more tracking and ads without the hindrance of ad/tracking blockers.
old.reddit.com is all I use but some new features (like polls) are already a second class citizen and I don't see it surviving long down the line.
The fact they’ve kept the old site still running for so long (4 years now?) I think it evidence they’ll keep it around. I don’t think it’s costing them anything.
It's almost certainly costing them LESS, since there'd be less of a focus on development AND it'll use less bandwidth due to smaller preview thumbnails and no preview video... that's probably outsourced to a different cdn but whatever.
In the same way that the majority of users use pintrest. Until you train them to close the site out of reflex.
It's not merely suggestions though. They have one button - stay in your mobile browser - greyed out and one bright and active - open the mobile app.
It also uses a native-ish looking UI that pops up as the sharing UI does.
It feels like they're trying to trick people into using the app, over merely reminding people that they "should".
Not for me. old.reddit.com flies while the new ui is a stuttery broken mess that requires more clicks for the same actions.
Compared to what?!?
Similarly, on my phone I use Reddit is Fun which again, gives a good UI where their first party app and mobile web view are both aggressively horrible.
Reddit is a valuable resource and full of some great communities, but it's been in steady, gentle, decline for years as the company focused development on bizarre distractions.
I suspect this anecdata is supported by Reddit's metrics, otherwise they wouldn't be pushing so hard for it (barring some other long term goal)
Not that I like the changes. I much prefer the old version.
But the desktop UI is getting worse; navigation is ridiculous and the pages are so junked up that it is actively repellant.
It is too bad. I used to actually enjoy browsing and (gasp) commenting sometimes. Now I tend to hit a single page via search and leave. Can't remember the last time I actually logged in.
- They change you back to the new design every few days.
- They constantly tell you to use the app (thankfully you can disable this at least).
- The old reddit design has a sidebar with helpful content, but this is not automatically present in the redesign. If you're a mod you have to manually copy that content over to the redesign and keep both updated separately. A lot of mods don't seem to know this so some communities just don't have their community information in the redesign.
- The new redesign on mobile web is so bad that those that don't know about how to get the old design will probably use the app to get something that works.
I'm glad old.reddit still exists, but I think if they just scrapped the entire new site it would be a better product. Probably worse for 'engagement' though because without infinite scroll, gifs loading everywhere, and other addictive hacks, people would just read what they wanted to and leave. The horror.
(Also r/hnblogs traffic has most people using the old design, but there's an obvious selection bias in that community.)
This is so annoying that I have to use this chrome extension to force it back to old.reddit.com:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/old-reddit-redirec...
Disclaimer that I'm also the author.
The funniest part is plenty of 3rd party apps had been doing an amazing job already. All reedit had to do was acquire one of them on the cheap or steal design cues from the ones that were most popular.
Instead they created this monstrosity which till date lags behind many 3rd party apps in features and fluidity.
> old.reddit
RES is the only way to use reddit, and they can pry it from my cold dead hands.
They already tried this with Alien Blue
Doesn't seem to be the case with mobile app, last time I checked.
Seems like another way to push App adoption.
There was never a golden goose, Reddit revenue numbers are not good and have never been good.
As an added bonus if you subscribe to the subreddit, /r/ApolloApp it’s like /r/ChoosingBeggarsLite with the complaints and feature requests for a free app.
It's the same with the Amazon app. The website is atrocious because pressing back after viewing anything shoots you back to the top of the page, but the app only lets you see one thing at a time.
> As an added bonus if you subscribe to the subreddit, /r/ApolloApp it’s like /r/ChoosingBeggarsLite with the complaints and feature requests for a free app.
Apollo isn't really free, is it? And I don't see what's wrong with asking for things for an app in the subreddit which seems designed for exactly that?
eh, except for those who paid the 2.99 for the Pro upgrade.
Agreed. But I think they've made up their minds already.
In the meantime, you can use "old.reddit.com" until they decide to take that away.
Too bad there's no clear successor this time.
The new site looks like someone was told to design a generic social media app for mobile. It doesn’t make any sense. The old site was pretty ugly, but at least used screen real estate effectively and allowed for quick browsing.
Depending on what exactly I’m looking at, I will prefer mobile or web. That said, I am not a fan of the official app and prefer third party ones.