June 30, 2023. This is the date that Apollo, ReddPlanet, and Sync will shut down. Is about three third-party apps for Reddit that, in addition to the date on which they will stop working, they have another point in common: their developers assure that they cannot face the new pricing scheme of the social platform.
At the end of last month we echoed the statements of the creator of Apollo. Christian Selig claimed that after the changes to Reddit’s API, he would have to pay $20 million a year to keep his app running. An amount of money impossible to assume for an independent developer.
Other apps follow the path of Apollo
This week, Selig announced a drastic decision. After eight years, Apollo will eventually close due to the inability to bear the costs of API utilization that establish the payment of $12,500 for every 50 million requests. Apollo makes about 7 billion requests a year, which equates to several million dollars a year.
The truth is that the movements with third-party applications continued. As The Verge tells, other apps decided to follow a similar path. “The obstacles that Reddit places on third-party applications are simply not a feasible obstacle to overcome,” wrote the ReddPlanet developer, who even went further and assured that “Reddit has shown that its intention is to extinguish all third parties.”
The person in charge of Sync, a Reddit client for Android, said he came to the conclusion about what it was better to close Sync before the new API changes are activated. “To be absolutely clear, I really don’t want to close Sync,” he added, though he confirmed that the app will stop working at the end of the month. “The way things are, I don’t see any other way.”
The new terms of use of the API are not the only changes that are being experienced in Reddit. According to Reuters, the platform joined the wave of cuts in the tech sector last Tuesday by announcing the layoff of 5% of its workforce. Nor is it the only company to implement restrictions on its API. Twitter, let’s remember, cut off access to this tool at the root, leaving third-party clients like Tweetbot useless.
Images: Reddit | pch.vector | Apollo
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