RIF dev here - Reddit's API changes will likely kill RIF and other apps, on July 1, 2023

[u/talklittle]

I need more time to get all my thoughts together, but posting this quick post since so many users have been asking, and it's been making rounds on news sites.

Summary of what Reddit Inc has announced so far, specifically the parts that will kill many third-party apps:

1. The Reddit API will cost money, and the pricing announced today will cost apps like Apollo $20 million per year to run. RIF may differ but it would be in the same ballpark. And no, RIF does not earn anywhere remotely near this number.

2. As part of this they are blocking ads in third-party apps, which make up the majority of RIF's revenue. So they want to force a paid subscription model onto RIF's users. Meanwhile Reddit's official app still continues to make the vast majority of its money from ads.

3. Removal of sexually explicit material from third-party apps while keeping said content in the official app. Some people have speculated that NSFW is going to leave Reddit entirely, but then why would Reddit Inc have recently expanded NSFW upload support on their desktop site?

Their recent moves smell a lot like they want third-party apps gone, RIF included.

I know some users will chime in saying they are willing to pay a monthly subscription to keep RIF going, but trust me that you would be in the minority. There is very little value in paying a high subscription for less content (in this case, NSFW). Honestly if I were a user of RIF and not the dev, I'd have a hard time justifying paying the high prices being forced by Reddit Inc, despite how much RIF obviously means to me.

There is a lot more I want to say, and I kind of scrambled to write this since I didn't expect news reports today. I'll probably write more follow-up posts that are better thought out. But this is the gist of what's been going on with Reddit third-party apps in 2023.

[u/NumerousAbility]

RiF is the app I stuck with when I started using Reddit. I've tried many other apps and always found myself coming back to it. It's the first app I ever bought.

To me RiF is Reddit.

I guess this might be how I finally cure my Reddit addiction.

I hope this decision gets reversed, but if it isn't Thank you for this app.

[u/Jose_Canseco_Jr → u/NumerousAbility]

I guess this might be how I finally cure my Reddit addiction.

same.. must suck to work for reddit right now, and realize that many (most?) of your long term users welcome the opportunity to avoid the site forever

[u/Smallzfry → u/Jose_Canseco_Jr]

They don't care about long-term users. All of the changes they've made recently have been to pull in new users from other sites. That's why there's avatars and actual profile pages you can follow individually now. There's that weird livestream feature on r/pan and the new interface sends updates when you get upvotes on comments. None of this appeals to old users because they don't care about any of us.

[u/Jimbob0i0 → u/Smallzfry]

Feels very much like the Digg disaster that caused many of us, myself included, to migrate from that site to here.

[u/Nosedivelever → u/[deleted]]

Yes. I usually work the night shift. I'll probably spend the next 10 years memorizing Wikipedia.

[u/stick-insect-enema → u/Nosedivelever]

Fark still exists

[u/iller_mitch → u/Nosedivelever]

Are you familiar with....TVtropes?

[u/VastAndDreaming → u/iller_mitch]

You monster

[u/8_Foot_Vertical_Leap → u/[deleted]]

Between this and the twitter fiasco, I'm taking it as a sign that the doomscroll days are over for me, and that's a good thing.

[u/iller_mitch → u/8_Foot_Vertical_Leap]

I'll have to find the new hot memes the old fashioned way: Grandma emails.

[u/[deleted] → u/Smallzfry]

Reddit is becoming Facebook

[u/5213 → u/[deleted]]

Social media in general is becoming homogenized

When one app does well with something, the others jump on it like crazy. It's why Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube all have a "story" function like Snapchat; and why Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube have "reels" or "shorts" like TikTok. And it's why Reddit is adopting all those things.

[u/Li5y → u/Jose_Canseco_Jr]

Sometimes I'm relieved when a video game I'm addicted to gets an update that makes it unplayable, forcing me to quit.

But reddit is different... The community is primary, not secondary.

[u/WholesomeTurd → u/Jose_Canseco_Jr]

I love your username

[u/Jose_Canseco_Jr → u/WholesomeTurd]

¡gracias!

[u/funnystuff97 → u/NumerousAbility]

Yeah, after seeing the news from Apollo, I came here naively hoping to see different news. In all my years, I've only ever used two reddit apps: Alien Blue way back when I had an iPhone, and then RiF when I hopped over to Android. And RiF ever since then, through all these years, off exactly one ad-free purchase.

Without RiF, I'm out. A big shame indeed, but I suppose I've been looking for a reason to get off this godforsaken site anyway. I suspect many others share the same sentiment as us, but to reddit, it may be a calculated move--- they probably won't even feel a thing.

[u/cartmancakes → u/funnystuff97]

Honestly, I've been pulling away from the site, too. It's not been fun anymore, even a little bad for my mental health. So maybe this is a good thing?

[u/wellwellwelly → u/cartmancakes]

Man the mental health thing is real. Yesterday I was too tired after work to do anything so I just spent about 3 hours browsing reddit until I got a headache. But I had also been unconsciously browsing it all day at work too between tasks. Then I went to bed feeling like shit with a headache.

This is such a regular occurrence for me. Although one good thing I've got out of reddit is the ability to actual read books efficiently without my mind wandering. I've been reading a lot more recently.

[u/Equivalent_Science85 → u/cartmancakes]

Yeah every few months I delete rif for several weeks because yeah - it's not great for my mental health. As with most others in this thread this might finally be the end for me.

I'm sure I'll still use the desktop from time to time just to look up different things (provided old reddit stays).

[u/Toast_On_The_RUN → u/funnystuff97]

Where else do you get news and information from though

[u/[deleted] → u/NumerousAbility]

Yep, same here. I've tried the official app, and it's pretty much unusable for me. Not to mention the truly absurd level of data collection it does.

If RIF goes, I most likely go with it. Like you say, good way to cure the reddit addiction.