The official app is hot garbage

On a whim I decided to give the official app a try because a lot of people will be forced to use it, if they decide to stay on Reddit.

Holy hell, it's just slow. Can't scroll through a subreddit without annoying hitches and stutters. Comments aren't any better also.

On the other hand, Sync is just fucking gorgeous and runs immensely better than the encumbered official app.

How can apps made by small teams or even a single person be better optimized than one supposedly made by a larger team with a larger development budget?

Chronoman,

The thing that killed the official Reddit app for me was the battery drain. It felt like three hours of browsing would be enough to drain my phone’s battery. Also the video player was trash. So I jumped on a third party app. I later deleted it, as I felt I was spending too much time on Reddit, and stuck to accessing it on web browser more sparingly. Then I hear that Reddit is experimenting with preventing people from using a mobile browser to access it… Yeah, I’ll break from them before I bend for their IPO.

BitingChaos,
@BitingChaos@lemmy.world avatar

I'm using an early Mlem beta and it already seems better than the official Reddit app.

kemsat,

The apps made by small teams and solo devs can be better because large teams at companies can get bogged down by politics & greed.

corytheboyd,
@corytheboyd@kbin.social avatar

A single competent, seasoned app developer can not only replace hundreds of engineers, but vastly outperform them. But. Only when the vision is clear. Apollo, Sync, etc.? Extremely clear vision, it is a Reddit client, everyone knows what a good Reddit client should be, so a competent developer can make it happen, it’s just a function of time and money.

Businesses work differently, especially VC backed businesses. The actual app to such a business doesn’t matter, what matters is:

  1. Is it making us money?
  2. Next year, will it make us twice as much money?
  3. In two years, will it make us five times as much money?
  4. Ad infinitum (pun intended)

The shit that ruins the official app is shit attempts at the above. Because again, the app does not matter.

archomrade,

Their web app is trash too, old.reddit was the only way to use it on browser IMHO

Crayon8027,
@Crayon8027@kbin.social avatar

The worst part of the redesign is how slow it feels. I also noticed how cluttered everything looks on the redesign. The buttons below the titles are unnecessarily big. The multicolored flairs are very distracting. Some flairs are basically an entire sentence long, others have emojis. It makes reading the post titles extremely difficult.

Lippy, (edited )
@Lippy@kbin.social avatar

Sync is so good, it's what I use(d) Reddit with. Good news is that Sync isn't dead, it's being reborn with support for Lemmy.

https://teddit.net/r/SyncforLemmy/comments/14ee1ul

Edit: Redirect link to old Reddit for sanity.
Edit2: Redirect link again to avoid Reddit altogether thanks to aidenxy's better solution.

aidenxy,

https://teddit.net/r/SyncforLemmy/comments/14ee1ul
ftfy

aidenxy,

https://teddit.net/r/SyncforLemmy/comments/14ee1ul
ftfy

inventa,

!syncforlemmy

May,
@May@kbin.social avatar

Don't download it just to try! It has trackers be careful. Is better not to ever download it really.

danc4498,

Reddit stuffed their app to the brim with tracking. This tracking is probably what slows the app down and also is the only reason they're killing 3rd party apps.

Ni, (edited )
@Ni@kbin.social avatar

So I found the official app awful and insanely slow, I always assumed it was my phones fault though. Literally gave up on things loading several times.

Happy to be on kbin instead!

Haunting_Tale_5150,
@Haunting_Tale_5150@kbin.social avatar

I used Narwhal most of the years I used reddit, it also had ads like the official app, but the difference is it ran so much smoother for many years! Main reason why I switched off it was slow development was causing it to become a bit buggy, not the ads.

LinkOpensChest_wav,
@LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.one avatar

Same with the ad supported version of RIF. The ads were so unobtrusive that the only reason I ever bought the paid version was to support the dev.

aeternum,

RIF was always my favourite reddit app.

FermatsLastAccount,

The fact that they bought AlienBlue, worked on it for 10 years, and made it so much worse is crazy.

Madison_rogue,
@Madison_rogue@kbin.social avatar

Odds are they didn't work on AlienBlue...only shelve it for their own UI.

yarr,
@yarr@lemmy.fmhy.ml avatar

The real question is… how many ads did you see?

Thalyssa,
@Thalyssa@kbin.social avatar

At least one promoted post everywhere.

Plus most of them are garbage crypto pump and dump schemes.

sentient_loom,

How can apps made by small teams or even a single person be better optimized than one supposedly made by a larger team with a larger development budget?

Bloat!

WytchStar,
@WytchStar@kbin.social avatar

Reddit's priorities aren't the same as someone developing an app for ease of use, readability, accessibility, etc. Reddit only cares about the backend tech that helps them control and serve ad space. And if you want to believe the bts tea that recently spilled, Reddit doesn't even structurally prioritize coding and development in the first place.

I was an rif die-hard. Such an elegant, useful app. It's nothing like its source site.

OtakuAltair,
@OtakuAltair@lemmy.world avatar

Sync is amazing

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