Most people don't want third party Reddit apps because they inherently like third party apps (some people do want FOSS apps, but that's the minority). People largely want third party apps because the first party app is terrible.
Third-party apps were first. Reddit bought Alien Blue in 2016 IIRC, a reasonably mature third-party app, to turn it into their official app and promote it very aggressively in mobile browsers.
yes, and they did a horrible job of that. And instead of listening to feedback to improve the app (some improvements of which mods rely on to do their free labor) they aquired and then butchered, they reduce choices.
There is an api you can use to make a third party client, last I saw it's actually just the same as the bot api but you just identify as a "human" instead.
Users risk getting banned for "self botting" if you do this though. AFAIK there is no option to pay to do this either.
They give you one option, but people like that option. It isn't annoying, it isn't buggy, and it works roughly as well as the web interface (which you can also use on mobile).
In my experience it's the instability (YMMV on that, for me in manifested in videos not working more than they did, heavy stuttering while scrolling. Not issues I have in RIF), low content density, significant number of trackers. Obviously I don't like all the ads being shoved in the middle of my feed, but I'm not against monetization.
I mean inlined ads for one thing - we're talking paid marketing posts masquerading as user-created content, some of which are utterly obnoxious (e.g. the 'he gets us' jesus ads)
Same as the redesign, it's optimized for consuming images in a platform I came to to read discussions. And it does a horrible job facilitating text for long form discussion. It's trying to be instagram, I don't want instagram.
Also, I don't think it's at all controversial to suggest the video player is one of the worst I've used. I dread trying to load up native videos on desktop (new or old design), I can't imagine it being better on the app.
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those are the biggest issues that will never be reconciled. Others include features you probably don't care about unless you're a power user. Ability to filter posts/users. favoriting certain subs, various mod tools that STILL have no alternative (even on desktop), proper responsive design for tablets, an actual other discussions option, visible flairs etc. I could go on all day with nitpicks (each of which I requested to reddit at some point years ago. Some of which were promised but never realized).
Is it terrible? I know everyone says it is, but for example on iOS it has a 4.8 rating over 2.8M reviews. Apollo, the really popular 3rd party client, has a 4.7 rating over 170K reviews.
So, clearly someone likes the Reddit app, right? Those millions of 5 star reviews are definitely not fake/bought.
Might be an android thing, but the reddit app keeps malfunctioning for me. For example, very common behavior is that I click on a post, and nothing happens. I click on the post again, nothing happens. I start scrolling, and after 30-60s, the post I clicked on finally opens twice (so to get out of it, I have to press "back" twice).
The Reddit app, for me, is garbage. I am surprised it's not better; it feels like the devs aren't really using it.
Most people don't want third party Reddit apps because they inherently like third party apps (some people do want FOSS apps, but that's the minority). People largely want third party apps because the first party app is terrible.