Even more disappointing since both twitter and reddit didn't create their first mobile apps. They both owe these developers a great deal of gratitude but instead they'd just rather screw them over.
I mean, yeah?
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Popular Reddit App Apollo Would Need to Pay $20 Million Per Year Under New API Pricing
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You have missed nothing, it is just another pointless ‘social media’ app.
You - and the rest of society are far better off without it.
There is one: Lemmy. https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy
It’s federated, like Mastodon. My favorite instance is https://beehaw.org
Cold facts. Elon's handling of Twitter APIs served as fair premonition. But still I'm not without heart and I do feel quite badly for Christian. And I'm sorry you can relate so directly.
Recent API updates seem to be a result of "big tech" using Reddit to train their AI on conversational data. Reddit understandably wants to wet its beak and I don't blame them — it's a shame smaller outfits including Apollo got caught in the crosshairs. Goddamit, Reddit. Selig was the best thing that happened to your platform.
Popular Reddit app Apollo might not be able to operate as is in the future due to planned API pricing that Reddit is implementing.
Apollo developer Christian Selig was today told that Reddit plans to charge $12,000 for 50 million API requests. Last month, Apollo made seven billion requests, which would mean Selig would need to pay $1.7 million per month or $20 million per year to Reddit to keep the app running.
The average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would be priced at $2.50 per month, more than double the current subscription cost, or a sum that Selig is not able to afford. Right now, Apollo Pro is a one-time $4.99 fee that unlocks additional features, and Apollo Ultra is an even more premium tier that costs $12.99 per year.
Selig says that he is "deeply disappointed" in Reddit's planned pricing, as the company promised that it would not "operate like Twitter" and charge developers an unreasonable fee. Twitter, for comparison, charges $42,000 for 50 million tweets. While Reddit is charging less at $12,000 for 50 million requests, it is still too high of a cost for an independent developer.
According to Selig, he pays image storage site and social network Imgur $166 per month for 50 million API calls, and that is closer to what he expected Reddit to charge. Selig says that while Reddit has been "communicative and civil" over half a dozen phone calls, the pricing is not "anything based in reality or remotely reasonable." Reddit has claimed that the pricing is not flexible, and this is the price that developers will be charged.
Apollo is the most popular third-party Reddit app, primarily because of the work that Selig has put into it. He regularly adds new features and updates, and interfaces with users to get feedback on new functionality.
Reddit maintains its own app, but it does not have the same feature options as Apollo. Charging developers an exorbitant price could force third-party apps to cease to exist, pushing users to the official app that Reddit has more control over.
News that Reddit would begin charging for API access came in April following Twitter's decision to eliminate third-party apps. Reddit use is free for bots and researchers who take advantage of the site for academic purposes, but apps like Apollo will need to pay in the future. When speaking to The New York Times in April, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said "It's a good time for us to tighten things up," adding that he felt it was "fair."
Apollo users are understandably upset about the change, with numerous complaints on Reddit and other social networks like Twitter. It is not clear what will happen with Apollo when Reddit begins charging for API access. At the very least, Selig will need to significantly increase subscription prices, and the app will likely no longer be able to support free users.
Article Link: Popular Reddit App Apollo Would Need to Pay $20 Million Per Year Under New API Pricing
Reference: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/technology/reddit-ai-openai-google.html
Unfortunately this is the free market at work. We don't complain about not having alternative Facebook or Instagram apps to access that site on mobile without viewing ads (or add functionality) and it seems now we won't have any choice here. Perhaps it's time for legislation to regulate these kinds of things or these kind of moves (effectively only allowing the 1st party mobile app for a platform to work) will become the default for every web platform.
Maybe reddit should do something about all the bot accounts if they think they're worth that much. r/all is nothing but reposted spam and OF junk constantly.
Try taking a moment to realize that Apollo is merely a wrapper that someone created around someone else's service. It is not entitled to exist, nor was it ever sanctioned. Since it is such a good app, that displays no ads, of course people use it. And people using it takes away from Reddit's own revenue. So Reddit is pricing the API requests to ensure that it doesn't detract anymore.
So, worst case, no more Apollo and every one goes to the Reddit app.
Doesn’t that then mean Reddit will still have to service the same amount of requests every day, but actually get no money for it, rather pricing developer access at a reasonable and sustainable level, and getting some return on the user base and access?
What do Reddit get out of users using their app, rather than 3rd parties like Apollo?
I’d like to bet in 3-6 months we get a comment from Reddit along the lines ‘we’ve listened to the users and developers and will now be charging - insert sensible figure- ‘.
Doesn’t that then mean Reddit will still have to service the same amount of requests every day, but actually get no money for it, rather pricing developer access at a reasonable and sustainable level, and getting some return on the user base and access?
What do Reddit get out of users using their app, rather than 3rd parties like Apollo?
I’d like to bet in 3-6 months we get a comment from Reddit along the lines ‘we’ve listened to the users and developers and will now be charging - insert sensible figure- ‘.
Well... unless something changes I'll be slowly putting Reddit out of my life. Apollo is the only reason why I use Reddit (same for my wife as far as I know).
Proud Apollo Ultra Subscriber. Won't be asking for $ back.
Proud Apollo Ultra Subscriber. Won't be asking for $ back.
Apollo is a great app and IS Reddit to me. I will use Reddit a lot less (and probably stop using it completely) if Apollo goes away. It was the same with Tweetbot which WAS twitter for me. I left twitter when Tweetbot folded.
‘Lifetime user’ refers to the app, not their mortality.
Yes extremely insane.
Hope this is not the end.
Oh well all goods things end.
Looking at the numbers, it's understandable that Reddit would want to recover some operating costs.
Seven BILLION requests in a month is an insane number and would put a heavy load on Reddit's infrastructure and servers. That cost needs to be recovered.
$12,000 for 50,000,000 requests = $0.00024 per request, or 24¢ for 1000 requests.
My heart goes out to Apollo. I hope that Reddit reconsiders their numbers. 3rd parties can't profit off of Reddit's hard work without paying back something.
If Reddit switched to the newer-age API tech — such as GraphQL — it would radically reduce the number of API requests required, as it allows multiple resources to be grouped together into a single request.
"Reddit maintains its own app, but it does not have the same feature options as Apollo. Charging developers an exorbitant price could force third-party apps to cease to exist, pushing users to the official app that Reddit has more control over."
That's basically the reason why Reddit is doing it, to force users to use the Reddit app instead of a 3rd party app. It's Reddit's website and app so follow their rules or leave.
Why does that sound familiar?
That's basically the reason why Reddit is doing it, to force users to use the Reddit app instead of a 3rd party app. It's Reddit's website and app so follow their rules or leave.
Why does that sound familiar?
You are absolutely right. Everybody should be entitled to free stuff. Money should always grow on trees!
ok, I just watched the official Apollo promotional video.. it's basically just a reddit reader with Apple Mail GUI.. 🙄 You all are such drama queens..
Now compare that to the absolute abomination of the official app and you will see why people are upset.
Not surprising. On their site they were always trying to force users into using the app. I use Apollo. I'm not going to keep using reddit if I have to use their trash app or even worse mobile site that is constantly nagging me to use their app. It has already been falling off lately. This sort of access is absolutely insane for simple access to text based communications. I mean, do they not realize that entire groups of people only use reddit because of the good third party apps? That's how Twitter was as well and look how it has fallen off.
It seems like things are ripe for change in social media. Who wants to start a company? I have experience in design and development and can coordinate between teams across projects. A decentralized reddit sounds ideal and makes even more sense than Mastodon because each "subreddit" can be a server you join with their own moderators and theme. The key is building in discoverability across the different servers and tying it together in a way that feels cohesive. Build in good ad tools and have a small revenue split where like 10-20% comes back to the parent organization to pay for future development of the core software.
It seems like things are ripe for change in social media. Who wants to start a company? I have experience in design and development and can coordinate between teams across projects. A decentralized reddit sounds ideal and makes even more sense than Mastodon because each "subreddit" can be a server you join with their own moderators and theme. The key is building in discoverability across the different servers and tying it together in a way that feels cohesive. Build in good ad tools and have a small revenue split where like 10-20% comes back to the parent organization to pay for future development of the core software.
There are other more valuable things in life then social media, sleep definitely included ☺️
Too bad that Reddit are going down that road too though. I don't miss Twitter one bit though since I've more or less stopped using it. I only use it to check things through Tweetdeck on Mac. Not using Twitter on iOS at all, and very seldom for Reddit too
What I've use/used most with Reddit is no app. To 99% I use it on Mac in Safari, with quite some tabs.
Not using hardly any social media on iOS at all, is a win win for me, my focus, time and life.
Now go on to the Apollo subreddit, post this, and see how many downvotes you get.
Such a strange fan base for such an average app