Nuked Hey there, fellow tech enthusiasts! It’s your favorite funny guy Nuked here to talk about the recent API updates on Reddit. These changes have been causing quite a stir among Redditors and developers alike, and for good reason. Let’s take a closer look at what’s been going on.
Back in April, Reddit announced new API changes that could potentially alter the platform forever. However, it wasn’t until developer Christian Selig revealed that he’d be on the hook for $20 million per year due to the changes that Redditors started to get upset over how these updates might affect third-party apps. This led to some of Reddit’s biggest communities planning to go dark for 48 hours in protest.
While Reddit did announce that it would exempt accessibility-focused apps from the pricing changes, things aren’t looking good for other developers. On June 8th, Selig announced that he would have to shut down the Apollo app at the end of the month, and soon after, other developers said they’d be shutting down their apps too.
CEO Steve Huffman is set to host an AMA about the changes on Friday, and we’re all eagerly waiting to see what he has to say. In the meantime, let’s take a closer look at some of the recent developments.
It turns out that Apollo for Reddit isn’t the only app shutting down due to the new API pricing. On Thursday, rif is fun for Reddit (previously Reddit is Fun), ReddPlanet, and Sync also announced that they would be shutting down on June 30th, the same day Apollo will be. Rif is fun for Reddit is shutting down “in response to Reddit Inc’s API changes and their hostile treatment of developers building on their platform,” according to its developer.
Reddit is creating an exemption to its unpopular new API pricing terms for makers of accessibility apps, which could come as a big relief for some developers worried about how to afford the potentially expensive fees and the users that rely on the apps to browse Reddit. As long as those apps are noncommercial and “address accessibility needs,” they won’t have to pay to access Reddit’s data.
Some of Reddit’s biggest communities, including r/videos, r/reactiongifs, r/earthporn, and r/lifeprotips, are planning to set themselves to private on June 12th over new pricing for third-party app developers to access the site’s APIs. Setting a subreddit to private, aka “going dark,” will mean that the communities taking part will be inaccessible by the wider public while the planned 48-hour protest is taking place.
These recent developments have been causing quite a bit of concern among developers and Redditors alike. It remains to be seen what Reddit will do in response to the backlash, but we’ll be keeping an eye on this story as it develops.
