App developer Christian Selig announced the news on Twitter.
Selig made the decision after Reddit began charging developers for access to its API.
Reddit’s proposed API fee would cost Seliga $20 million a year before it even makes a profit from the app itself.
Selig’s detailed post describes exactly what an API request is:
Some people are confused about this situation and don’t understand what API is. An API (Application Programming Interface) is just a way for an application to communicate with a website. As an analogy, pretend Reddit is a bouncer. In the past, you could ask Reddit “Can I get comments on this post?” or “Can you list AskReddit posts?”. This would be every single API request, and Reddit would respond with the appropriate data.
Everything you do on Reddit is an API request. Upvoting, downvoting, commenting, uploading posts, uploading subreddits, checking for new posts, blocking users, filtering subreddits, etc.
The situation changes so that for every API request you make, the developer of that app is charged a fraction of a penny. I think this is very reasonable, provided the price they charge is reasonable.
Reddit gave Selig and developers of other third-party clients only 30 days between the price to use the API and the start of billing.
The situation is similar to Twitter’s decision in early 2023 to cut off access to all third-party apps. Instead of making a unilateral decision, Reddit is simply making its API too expensive for third-party developers like Selig to continue.
It’s sad to see yet another social media company sacrifice third-party customers for the possibility of more profit. Apollo has always been my favorite way to browse Reddit, and now that it’s sitting, I doubt I’ll be using Reddit as often.
https://appadvice.com/post/popular-third-party-reddit-app-apollo-will-shut-down-june-30/777621