Not long ago, gentle reader, I worked at an Internet content factory. Back then, Reddit was at the forefront of the social Internet. Each day we journeyed there to drink deep from its seemingly endless well of cat videos, planking pictures, and troll foods. But despite its influence, Reddit has missed the boat on mobile, until now. The official Reddit iPhone app, long in development, does a good job of bringing the familiar Reddit experience to the iPhone. But like the site itself, it's not particularly friendly to new users, and will likely appeal most to hardcore redditors.
Getting Started
You may wonder why Reddit needs an official iPhone app. It's because, unlike PCMag, Reddit does not make use of responsive design and looks the same on the smallest smartphone as it does on a desktop. Sure, you can zoom in and get something that's more or less usable, but more complicated tasks like posting to your favorite subreddit are nearly impossible.
The official Reddit app is, apparently, an off-shoot of the Alien Blue Reddit client, which is no longer available in the App Store. There are other Reddit clients, such as BaconReader, but this, as the name implies, is the official app. It's available for free in the App Store, and I had no trouble loading it onto my iPhone 6 ( at Amazon) . An Android version is also available.
When you first fire up the app, you're prompted to log in with your Reddit account, create a new account, or skip accounts all together and just jump in. I really like that the app acknowledges that some users aren't interested in engaging with Reddit beyond looking over its endless fields of funny videos, viral photos, and occasionally insane rantings.
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Creating an account does have its benefits, however. When you log in, you can save posts to read later and view your messages, posts, and replies from the settings pane. Posting content also requires an account. If you have multiple Reddit accounts, you'll be pleased to know that the app lets you switch between them from inside the app.
While researching this app, I saw reports that future versions may be ad supported. I saw no indication of this in the Reddit app, but I will update the review if the developers switch to an ad-supported model.
Meme Me, Bro
The app's main page mirrors the front page of Reddit, sometimes called the "home page of the Internet," but that assumes a lot about the race, geographic location, and gender of the Internet. Also, who uses home pages anymore?
Large thumbnail images invite easy tapping, along with buttons to vote the post up or down and the number of comments on a particular story. By default, the page puts the most popular posts at the top, but you can sort the list however you like.
Tapping an entry takes you to the post on Reddit, with thousands of comments from other redditors, not the original content. You have to tap again to view the posted image or link. As on the home page, comment threads with the most upvotes move to the top. The app smartly collapses less popular responses to keep the page legible. This is a huge problem on Tumblr, where text responses get rammed further to the side with each successive response.
A feature I really like is the ability to save posts for later. Tap the bookmark icon atop any post on Reddit and you can access it later from a handy list. Given the sheer number of posts on the service, it's a great way to keep tabs on something you'll refer to again or will read later. Note that saving an article will not make it available for offline reading. For that, you'll want to stick with Pocket (Visit Site at Apple.com) .
A handy arrow in the lower right lets you jump from one popular comment thread to the next, saving you scrolling through what feels like endless miles of responses. How many of those responses are witty pop culture references? The mind boggles. Add your voice to the conversation with the textbox at the bottom, where it will be buried under thousands of people reciting a scene from a television show, line by line, to prove that they all get the joke.
You can easily make your own post to Reddit by tapping the pencil icon on the main page. Your post can be either be text, a link (usually the most popular), or an image. You can post whatever you like, for the most part. Did you know that until recently, Reddit did not explicitly prohibit posting revenge porn or child pornography? It's true.
Unlike Instagram , Reddit doesn't offer any tools to touch up or create new images. Even Snapchat ($0.00 at Apple.com) , which is more focused on sharing the moment, offers some image editing tools.
There's an additional step to creating posts on Reddit, and it's a particular nuance that's not explained by the app at all. Posts live on specific boards called subreddits. As the name implies, these are groups within reddit that are focused on particular subjects. The latest news lives at r/News, and the best swords can be found at r/SWORDS. Many subreddits have particular rules about posting, and some long-lived ones have developed their own social mores, which can be confusing to newcomers. I'd like a future version of the app to include a tutorial that brings new users up to speed on the ins and outs of using subreddits.
Recently, several subreddits devoted solely to posting hate-filled racist garbage were shuttered—causing an uproar among redditors. That says a lot about the site, but it's not to say that Reddit has been completely cleaned up. Or even mostly cleaned up. Reddit is very much a use-at-your-own risk sort of community, and there's still something there to offend everyone.
Within the Reddit app, a panel marked unintuitively with four circles is the entrance to the platform's communities. From here, you can search subreddits and posts for anything that interest you. If you find a subreddit that seems interesting, you can subscribe with a tap. Note that you'll probably want to sample the community before you commit to it. What's the difference between r/sword_porn, r/SWORDS, and r/Sword? Who can say. By default, you're subscribed to 50 of the most popular subreddits.
If you're not sure where to start, a helpful Discovery button shows subreddits organized by subject. That said, it's a bit tedious. Other apps, like Apple Music ($10.99 Per Month at Apple Music) , have an onboarding process that attempts to match you to relevant interests. The Reddit app would do well to add something similar.
Never Gonna Give You Up
The Reddit app does a great job compressing its content onto mobile devices, but I was confused because I couldn't find any settings—in the app or in my iPhone's Settings—for notifications. A few days after I started using the app, it suddenly prompted me to enable notifications. That's a bit odd, but it's a welcome addition.
Another note on the subject of Settings: there's an option here to view hidden content. Throughout the app, you can flag comments and posts for a number of criteria, or you can hide entire posts. This is an apparent compromise between the desire to make Reddit accessible to new users but not actually change anything that might draw the ire of its existing users.
Already Reddit
If you're already a Reddit user, the official Reddit iPhone app probably offers a lot of what you've been waiting for. The interface is very clean, if sometimes confusing, and it does a great job recreating the experience of using Reddit. It's a smart move to mobile, and one that feels just as useful as the desktop Website experience. But there's a steep learning curve for beginners. Rather than act as an easy entry point, the Reddit app actually seems less welcoming and more confusing than the site itself.
If it's not clear from my previous statements, I have a pretty dim view of Reddit as an institution. Its history of allowing questionable, indefensible, and, in some cases, outright illegal activity has marred its reputation in my eyes. It's also been used a homebase for online harassment campaigns. I've been told many times that there are many good and worthwhile subreddits amidst all of this, but it's not a place I'd want to spend my time.
But more than that, I wonder if a platform like Reddit is still relevant today. The early part of the decade has seen viral content being shared on social media sites like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Vine . Services like these are more fluid than Reddit, which has more in common with a BBS than any new social platform.
Besides, if you'd like to read interesting content with thousands of wildly uneven comments posted by total strangers, you can investigate the comment section of any website. Or, you could track your favorite websites' updates with G2Reader or read content formatted for your mobiles device on Flipboard .
After years stuck on the desktop, this hub of viral content finally makes its way to iPhone, but the app can be confusing and lacks some features. Its appeal will probably be limited mainly to longtime Redditors.
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