Upcoming Reddit changes may spell the end of free third-party apps

Reddit has begun having discussions with app developers on a change that would likely spell the end of free third-party Reddit apps, shifting toward a paid subscription model.

While Reddit can easily be accessed across two different web experiences (old and new) and official apps on Android and iOS, the community-oriented social sharing platform also offers an API that has enabled a surprisingly wide field of third-party apps. Some people choose to use these apps simply because they do not like the official Reddit app, while others reach for apps that offer an experience that looks native to their phone – for example, Apollo on iOS and Sync on Android.

Another key feature that many appreciate is that some Reddit apps offer paid versions that remove the ads that you’d normally find while browsing through posts. This one-time fee to remove ads is quite the value compared to the official Reddit Premium subscription, which removes ads and brings other premium features for $5.99 per month.

Unsurprisingly, that discrepancy was never going to last forever. On Tuesday, Reddit announced a sweeping set of changes to its API and terms, and it loosely explained how these will affect developers. The developer of Apollo, Christian Selig, got quite a few clarifications from Reddit and shared more details on what the changes will mean for third-party apps going forward.

To ensure that third-party apps can continue to exist while also minimizing the lost revenue from people using those apps, Reddit will begin charging developers for access to the platform’s API. The amount charged will be based on each app’s overall usage, and the company reportedly intends “to be reasonable with pricing, not prohibitively expensive.” The company hasn’t finalized the pricing yet, though it’s set to do so in the coming weeks.

The goal is not to make this inherently a big profit center, but to cover both the costs of usage, as well as the opportunity costs of users not using the official app (lost ad viewing, etc.)

That being the case, though, it’s all but certain that free Reddit apps will cease to exist if this change goes through. Instead, apps would need to shift to a subscription-based model. For instance, Selig suggests that Apollo would only be available to “Apollo Ultra” subscribers.

On the plus side, Reddit has said it would be better able to put third-party apps on a level playing field with its own app. This would mean API access to features like Reddit Chat that are currently only available in the official experiences.

However, for those who use Reddit to browse for NSFW content, it seems that the company may intend to entirely block adult content from appearing in third-party Reddit apps. Though, according to Selig, the Reddit employees he spoke with “were not 100% sure of the answer,” so it’s possible this may change.

Overall, most of the changes seem like they’re reasonable compromises that can allow third-party apps to continue to exist without Reddit being forced to continue eating the losses that those apps currently cause. Selig came away with a similar sentiment, being glad that Reddit is getting direct feedback from its developer community early on rather than enacting sweeping changes immediately.

I think if done well and done reasonably, this could be a positive change (but that’s a big if). If Reddit provides a means for third party apps to have a stable, consistent, and future-looking relationship with Reddit that certainly has its advantages, and does not sound unreasonable, provided the pricing is reasonable.

What’s your favorite Reddit app, and how much would you be willing to pay per month to continue using it? Let us know in the comments below.