The company confirmed to me that it’s moving in the direction that other platforms have taken: converting users to the app. Reddit says the purpose of the test is to find out whether people like me — who use the service but aren’t normally logged in — get a better experience with the app.
I prefer to be open web often and really don’t want another app cluttering my phone. And while I’m open to learning about a “much better” experience in the app, the hardball blocking strategy seems like a strange way to educate users about something that’s supposedly of interest to them. (After clearing the cookies in my browser, I was able to access the mobile website again. It looks like you can alternatively log in to Reddit, although the overlay doesn’t say anything about this; I cleared the cookies before I could try it.)
User feedback on this move seems to be somewhat negative. Futurism ran an angry article last week saying that Reddit “deliberately breaks its mobile website.” And Redditors have posted numerous complaints in places like r/bugs, r/help, and (naturally) r/enshittification. (Representative sample comment: “Reddit is a website; why is it forcing me into an app?”)
Some of this carping feels a little harsh for a free and (usually) useful service. maybe i Needed Switch to app. maybe i Needed Browse while logged in to enable a truly customized feed. maybe i would really like it Better search options.
But as I mentioned at the beginning, I often wonder if I could be spending my Reddit time in more productive ways; Signing up for a more targeted feed that works better on my dopamine triggers doesn’t really seem helpful. I think that’s one reason why I resist these pressures to log in, to customize, to spend even more time on the site. In fact, if more force continues to be applied, perhaps the better option would be to walk away altogether.
Disclosure: Advance Publications, which owns Ars Technica’s parent company Condé Nast, is the largest shareholder in Reddit.
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