I’ve recently developed a daily habit—perhaps one I should cut back on—of visiting several subreddits to keep up on things like audio production and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But I was surprised this weekend to suddenly find myself cut off; Reddit simply would not let me visit the site on my mobile phone.
Instead, a new overlay popped up, saying, “Get the app to keep using Reddit.”
There was no way to skip, bypass, or close the overlay. It did not provide any instructions or alternatives for continuing to use the mobile web version. What it did offer was a large button I could press to get the app. If I did so, the overlay told me, I would be able to “search better” and “personalize your feed”—two things I don’t care to do.
The real reason Reddit banned third party apps has finally come to fruition. I still miss rif is fun.
Red reader is pretty good. There’s also patches in revanced to make rif work. But yeah, reddit is a shell of what it once was.
I still use RIF. Doesn’t work very often but I don’t read reddit that often.