Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The third-party Reddit app Apollo will shut down on June 30.
- The developer of Apollo is the person who started the furor over Reddit’s upcoming API changes that threaten all third-party Reddit apps.
- It appears the developer is not ready to wait to see what happens with the planned protests on June 12.
- Other popular Reddit app RIF will shut down, too.
Update, June 8, 2023 (03:18 PM ET): Shortly after the announcement that the Reddit app Apollo would shut down on June 30, the developer for RIF (aka reddit is fun) announced the same. There will be a formal announcement with news about how the shutdown will work, but after June 30, RIF will no longer work. We expect many other Reddit apps to make similar announcements today.
Original article, June 8, 2023 (02:14 PM ET): Last week, app developer Christian Selig created a Reddit post in which he described some huge changes coming to Reddit. In the post, he made it clear that all third-party Reddit apps will face enormous fees for accessing Reddit APIs. The fees were so high that running a third-party Reddit app would be essentially untenable.
Now, Christian’s popular iOS-only Reddit app Apollo will officially shut down in response to the API changes. In a lengthy post on the platform, Selig explains the reasoning behind his decision, some more background on what he tried to do to prevent this from happening, and gives some assurance that he will be fine without the income from the app.
Interestingly, Selig made this decision with only a few days to go before a massive sitewide protest begins. On June 12, thousands of subreddits — including r/aww, r/gaming, r/music, r/pics, and r/todayilearned, all with over 30 million subscribers each — will go dark for at least 48 hours. This protest could result in Reddit changing its policies in such a way that would allow apps like Apollo to continue. However, it appears Selig isn’t going to wait.
Reddit has already made at least one concession in this fight. The company recently confirmed that its planned changes would not affect apps that specifically target accessibility and are non-commercial.
If you use the Reddit app Apollo, things should work as normal until June 30. At some point that evening in the Pacific time zone, Selig will cut off access to Reddit’s APIs, which will render the app essentially useless.
