By contrast the official mobile app has become the overwhelming way that people consume the site's content.
Edit: added uniques
because it's forced down people's throat. you can't read anything there except possibly for the default subs populated with shills and redditors. you get "unreviewed content, please install our botnet to proceed" popup as soon as you scroll down half a screen past the op
Everything about these nags is idiotic to the point of insulting the user's intelligence. The randomness, the timing, and the messages themselves.
What is the browser for then? Is a browser such as Chrome not enough for a fucking forum in 2022? This circlejerk is completely out of control.
If it's true that the majority of users are using the app, does that not suggest that it's effective?
Mine says "come to the app, it has more cats/dogs". Some "UX engineer" ab/testing usage patterns, maybe?
It annoys me to the point of sadness. Some of the greatest minds, the most capable programmers of our time spending their meager existance using their skills to make people "install our app". Disgusting.
Same. It's still awful though. It really is insulting. How is it that I could do this perfectly fine 10 years ago but _now_ I have to use an app?
1. Product Owner: "Users want to use [crappy feature]."
2. Make [crappy feature] the default, add pop-ups nudging people to use [crappy feature], constantly "forget" when users opt out of [crappy feature], limit other product benefits only to users of [crappy feature], do everything possible to sabotage users who deliberately avoid [crappy feature].
3. Product Owner: "Look, boss, the numbers from last month are in: 92% of users are using [crappy feature]. I was right!"
4. More investment into [crappy feature], since obviously users love it.
By virtue of them making it unpleasant to use the site on a mobile device other ways.
Of course “most people using Reddit on mobile do so via the app” masks the fact that a fair few, including myself, simply no longer use Reddit on mobile at all. Though I assume we are a small enough minority that they don't care about losing us in the push to force the rest towards the app.
Seriously, they are killing themselves for no reason. Whoever greenlighted the new web should be fired immediately, if not already.
I believe the problem is that there's a significant frontend/JS team (along with managers, etc) that needed something to do so a rewrite was planned. It probably started with good intentions (and the initial MVP/prototype probably was lightning-fast), but now once all the bloat is they ended up with a pile of shit, but bonuses have been paid, people have been hired/promoted and can brag about this new "achievement" on their resumes, so turning back while saving face is impossible.
In the end running the old version probably doesn't cost Reddit much, nobody expects them to update or maintain it and so they have no reason to shut it down as long as it keeps working. It isn't worth the inevitable backlash.
I honestly think one of the biggest issues with axing old reddit is that old reddit users are disproportionately moderators (even though new reddit has unique mod tools). Reddit survives off of unpaid labour, it may be a bit wise to rock the apple cart too much.
Which is why they don't phase https://old.reddit.com out.
They know the contributors use the "old" reddit.
Also the reason why they don't publish those stats. Too ashamed.
For the vast majority reddit is just the 15 or so default subs ran by a tiny number of power mods regurgitating content. Has been for years now.
At this point I would consider moving a valuable community that I was invested in and considered worth saving to one of the reddit alternatives.
This skews the numbers on how many people will bail once they drop support for the old layout. I'll definitely be part of that exodus and it will surely be bigger than 2%.
Yes, let's just phase it out, and drive away people who actually contribute to that forum by adding the comments and posts that are reason d'etre of reddit.
Go figure, you didn't include posts, comments, and karma breakdown in that analysis.
The information you provided may not serve as a basis for such conclusion.
Since 72% of Reddit users are on mobile [1], the difference is smaller than your comment suggests.
78% - official mobile app 14% - new reddit 6% - mobile web 2% - old reddit ??% - 3rd party mobile apps (not counted)
Uniques are basically the same way but skewed towards the desktop more than mobile.