Following recent announcements by the developer of Apollo to cease maintaining the application as of June 30 due to the price changes that Reddit will be implementing for access to its API, another app developer has announced that it will be doing the same.
Reddit is Fun (RIF) is a popular third-party Reddit client for Android which touts over five million downloads on its Google Play store page. The developer has since taken to Reddit to announce that it will be shutting down in direct response to the API changes. The key statement that /u/talklittle shared highlighted that Reddit have shown "unwillingness to compromise" during discussions.
The three key points that the Reddit is Fun developer highlighted during these discussions are:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
Reddit has yet to comment on the planned blackout of subreddits across the site for 48 hours by its users, who run and maintain most of these popular communities, as well as the recent announcements by leading developers to shutter their applications.