Reddit Migration

exactly. the apps made the site useful on mobile.

the reddit app makes the reddit experience awful. and so does their default mobile site which harasses you to use the app.

Twitter used to have a ton. I used to use one for Twitch myself but it doesn't work anymore. I browse YouTube exclusively through a 3rd-party app that supports several other sites as well. 3rd-party social media site apps being rare is a new phenomenon

I mean honestly, people keep talking about apps for accessing kbin/Lemmy, but I'm not in any hurry. The browser interface works fine on both desktop and mobile, so I don't need an app.

I think the big issue is the long term dedicated users are text driven users. 14 years ago when I joined Reddit it was just linking if I recall correctly.

Now it's all about trying to be tiktok. So 3rd party apps allowed that pure text experience without the cruft. Now this change is basically forcing new Reddit ui on all mobile users, whilst still claiming old.reddit is going nowhere.

If you're around for 10+ years posting and engaging you're a power user in my mind.

Not just that it was awful, Reddit was way fucking late to the game. The official app didn't launch until what, 2016 or 2017? They were at least five years behind the 3PAs and like 10 years behind smartphone apps in general.

It's a fair bet that most people who used 3PAs to access Reddit did so because they had been using it since before the official app and saw no reason to change.