Social Media
Reddit’s API Changes Causing One of the Largest Reddit Mobile Apps to Shut Down
Apollo for Reddit is shutting down due to a new cost of API usage imposed by the platform owners and creating a hot debate on social media
So, in my earlier posts, I talked about a bunch of stuff on social media. You can find the links to those at the end of this post, by the way.
It is not a good thing to brag, but for my curiosity to understand this crazy online world, I metaphorically breathe, drink, and eat social media.
But right now, I want to dive into Reddit’s API changes and how they impact Apollo for Reddit. It is a hot debate on social media, creating concerns for the future of social media and managing it with artificial intelligence. I will simplify it for you if you don’t understand these concepts.
What are these changes Reddit is making?
Reddit essentially tells developers, “Hey, if you want direct access to our awesome data and content, you gotta pay up!”
Yeah, they want these developers to cough up a whopping $12,000 for every 50 million requests they make. Crazy, right?
This news came from the creator of a cool app called Apollo, who sounded pretty bummed out about it. They said:
“Apollo made 7 billion requests last month, which would put it at about 1.7 million dollars per month, or 20 million US dollars per year.”
By the way, Reddit is mostly owned by a company called Advance Publications. They’re the parent company of Conde Nast and big-time shareholders in Charter Communications and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Okay, let’s talk about APIs.
They’re how third-party peeps get access to data from big internet companies and hook up their apps.
Reddit has a cool ecosystem of apps, plugins, and services created by all sorts of developers, from amateurs to pros.
Now, API costs have been getting a lot of attention lately.
Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter and new AI-powered tools became popular, people started noticing.
See, these new AI programs use fancy language models that train themselves using tons of stuff from the internet, including posts from Twitter and Reddit.
People and developers got pretty ticked off when Twitter said they’d charge $42,000 for 50 million requests.
And guess what? Even though Reddit said they wouldn’t do anything that extreme, they’re still asking for a hefty $12,000.
Here’s a funny thing.
Apollo said they paid only about $166 for the same number of requests from Imgur, an online image-sharing service. So, you can see why they’re not thrilled about Reddit’s pricing.
Usually, Reddit makes most of its money from ads.
But compared to giants like Facebook, Snap, and Pinterest, they’ve had a hard time cashing in on their active user base.
And get this, Reddit seems pretty determined to stick to their API pricing. The Apollo developer even said they had no problem with Reddit’s post about it.
How is this impacting Apollo?
I’ve got some sad news for all you Apollo users out there. The beloved iOS app that we all use to browse Reddit is going to be shut down soon. Why, you ask?
Well, it turns out that the company behind Apollo is facing some hefty new API pricing from Reddit, making it way too expensive to keep the app running.
According to the developer, Christian Selig, Apollo will officially close its doors on June 30th. Selig took to Twitter to express his frustration, stating that Reddit’s recent decisions and actions have made it impossible for Apollo to carry on.
He even went into more detail in a lengthy Reddit post, explaining that the new API pricing would force him to shell out more than $20 million each year just to keep the app alive.
That’s a crazy amount of money, and Selig made it clear that he couldn’t make it work within the given 30-day timeframe.
He mentioned the daunting task of migrating users, creating new plans, testing everything, and going through app reviews, all of which were economically unfeasible. So, sadly, the cheaper option for Selig was to pull the plug.
Selig also fired back at Reddit’s claims that Apollo is “less efficient” compared to other apps. He argued that Reddit was twisting the data and unfairly accusing Apollo.
After all, Apollo only uses a tiny fraction of Reddit’s own API rate limits, which had been previously stated.
To add fuel to the fire, Selig shared a partial audio recording of a conversation between himself and a Reddit employee.
He wanted to prove that he never tried to blackmail Reddit for a whopping $10 million, as he claims the company’s CEO, Steve Huffman, accused him of doing. Sure, Selig cracked a joke about it, but he insists that Reddit is falsely accusing him.
In response to the uproar, Reddit did announce that they would exempt accessibility app developers from the new API pricing. However, it seems like they haven’t made any accommodations that would allow Apollo to survive.
Selig has made it clear that he will delete Apollo’s API token on the evening of June 30th, Pacific Time. Until then, the app should continue to function as usual. If you’re a subscribed user of Apollo, Selig has promised to offer a pro-rated refund for the remaining time on your subscription.
Keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks. I will keep you up-to-date.
Final Words
So, sadly, we’ll soon have to bid farewell to Apollo, a Reddit browsing app that has captured our hearts.
Let’s cherish the time we have left with it and hope that something equally awesome comes along to fill the void.
Who knows, something good might appear out of this chaotic situation.
If you enjoy my posts and would like to stay updated on the latest gaming-related news, technology advancements, design trends, and social media insights, I invite you to follow my profile.
I will continue to share my thoughts and insights on a wide range of topics in the world of entertainment and technology.
With that being said, thank you for reading my post, and have a good one.
Here are a few of my previous stories relating to social media I believe you will enjoy:
References
Reddit will charge hefty fees to the many third-party apps that access its data.
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