The official Reddit app, at least on Android, is a buggy mess from a UX experience.
- Half the time, clicking on a push notification takes me to the front page instead of the post that was interesting enough to click on. And then the notification is gone, and I can't get to said post easily at that point
- Sometimes, there's two articles that show up on the main screen that I want to read. I have to pick which one I want to read more, because there's a 50/50 shot that when I hit back, I will get a fully refreshed home page instead of being taken back to where it was.
- Overall it feels less natural to navigate through than the Reddit web interface, let alone the 'classic' (old.reddit.com) user interface.
- Probably not related to the design of the mobile app, but the hostile behavior of web reddit on mobile, constantly trying to force me into their subpar mobile app, is also irritating and painful.
I am going add my experiences here, in hopes someone from Reddit sees them, but they are more or less the same as everyone else's criticisms.
The reddit mobile site takes 13 seconds to load on my Nexus 6 over wifi. Then it has the nagware ad to try to get me to install the app, which only has a tiny 'go to mobile site' link directly underneath the large 'continue [to download]' button. Once reddit has finally loaded, every link will then first ask you if you want to view the link the app, before allowing you to continue. Meanwhile the UI, while cleaner, is debatably worse off UX wise as everything is now small and laggy.
So to summarize, it is terribly unperformant app, filled with dark patterns and dubious UI improvements.
Might be an android thing, but the reddit app keeps malfunctioning for me. For example, very common behavior is that I click on a post, and nothing happens. I click on the post again, nothing happens. I start scrolling, and after 30-60s, the post I clicked on finally opens twice (so to get out of it, I have to press "back" twice).
The Reddit app, for me, is garbage. I am surprised it's not better; it feels like the devs aren't really using it.
There's a rich ecosystem of incredible third party reddit apps on android, as an alternative. Reddit is really unpleasant to use on the mobile web, even without the dark patterns.
In almost all situations, I prefer the mobile web over apps. But reddit's mobile offerings are _so bad_ compared to Reddit Sync. I know at some point Reddit will pull the plug on third party apps, and that's when I stop using Reddit.
I have a different take: The main problem with reddit is in how badly it's bungled its several different redesigns over the last few years, and how it's slowly ruined its users' experience in misguided attempts to drive mobile traffic to its app.
Right now, here's the process for browsing a subreddit on mobile without the (ads and tracking loaded) reddit app:
1. Navigate to subreddit. Find out which of two (non-NSFW) or three (NSFW) "experiences" reddit decides to give me on mobile.
2. Depending on experience, jump through hoops including random "get the app!" prompts, failures to load content, failures to load nested comments, and outright refusal to display all the content in a thread unless I install the app.
3. If on an NSFW subreddit, and on about 50% of "unapproved" non-NSFW subreddits: Be blocked from viewing any additional content by an unremovable prompt. (Often, content loads in before the prompt, so you enjoy about 30 seconds of looking at your content before it's blocked.)
4. Give up, and go to old.reddit.com, which is ugly and not designed for mobile, but at least works okay.
Desktop isn't much better, but I have long had browser extensions installed that redirect everything to old.reddit.com on most of my browsers, so it becomes less of an issue.
If reddit took away my ability to use old.reddit.com, I'd probably stop browsing the site within weeks.
Here is another tangent. What the hell is with Reddit's popup on mobile to get you to install their app?! That thing is plain destructive, and you used to be able to dismiss it but not it even redirects you to /r/popular. So I guess your only option to read reddit on mobile is the app despite having a perfectly functional website
Reddit on mobile is a disaster. It's clearly designed with one goal in mind: pushing as many people to their app as possible. You can't even read threads without logging in.
Reddit user experience is awful. I like the Reddit communities I follow but my god is it annoying af to use it on mobile browser or even the desktop client. I don’t want to install your app. Deal with it, because I’m dealing with it by not using it and I hope more people follow. The app which I’ve tried crashes often, and the video auto play sometimes breaks which is annoying and requires a restart. If I was logged out and login, I get taken to the fucking home tab. Why doesn’t it redirect me on the page I had open, I mean I can understand not being able to code (considering half the other stuff that doesn’t work) the position in the thread I was in, but at least put me on the same thread. Anyway GG no RE, barely use Reddit anymore because of this poor ux.
Reddit has the worst mobile site i've ever seen, with constant pop-ups that make the site basically unusable. Sometimes a good idea and first to the market is better than good execution.
I was on Android until a few months ago. If I was sent a Reddit link it would open in the Reddit app I liked, no need to ever even look at the mobile site. I was shocked that that seemingly basic feature ISN'T available on iOS. Instead my options are view the Reddit link in browser or on the official Reddit app.
Most of the time I just choose not to click the link because of that.
For all the shit that the desktop web experience gets, the mobile web experience on reddit is a 1000 times worse. It sometimes blocks you from viewing certain (cough NSFW cough) subreddits unless you use the app, umm what??
I think it's funny how on iOS (at least for me) whenever I come across a reddit link it'll ask me whether I want to continue to view in whatever webView it's using or switch to the app. I usually prefer the app, so I click on it and 9 times out of 10 it'll take me to the app store for the default reddit app WHICH I ALREADY HAVE INSTALLED AND REGULARLY USE and it won't open in the app no mater what I try. Like this should be pretty basic functionality, especially if they're trying to drive users to their app, but nope.
It's easy to make fun of UI changes but... reddit on mobile without using their app is near unusable. You can't see all the comments and both the top and bottom of the screen is telling you to use their app.
The web experience on mobile is bad, largely because reddit makes it bad. The overlays and prompts to push web visitors over to mobile/native is in itself atrocious, hostile design.
The Reddit mobile website might be the worst. Every aspect of it is geared to making it as annoying as possible to use so that you are forced to download their app (or go find a better 3rd party one).
Most mobile websites are intentionally gimped because native apps can target ads better.
But Reddit is one of the worst. I wouldn't ever visit the site if it didn't rank so high on search results. I've noticed the frontend has gotten worse and worse every time I look at it. Ever since they changed to a React type frontend, at least 5% of the time the comments won't even load. It just doesn't work. Reddit really is a cautionary tale of attacking your users. I expect it to follow in Mozilla's footsteps as another company that makes no money but pretends it's a unicorn.
- Half the time, clicking on a push notification takes me to the front page instead of the post that was interesting enough to click on. And then the notification is gone, and I can't get to said post easily at that point
- Sometimes, there's two articles that show up on the main screen that I want to read. I have to pick which one I want to read more, because there's a 50/50 shot that when I hit back, I will get a fully refreshed home page instead of being taken back to where it was.
- Overall it feels less natural to navigate through than the Reddit web interface, let alone the 'classic' (old.reddit.com) user interface.
- Probably not related to the design of the mobile app, but the hostile behavior of web reddit on mobile, constantly trying to force me into their subpar mobile app, is also irritating and painful.
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