Bad news for fans of Reddit: Apollothe best client for iPhone, iPad and Macs with Apple Silicon, it will stop working this month. This was announced by Christian Selig, its creator, alleging that it is not feasible to assume the costs that the implementation of the new Reddit payment API will demand.
As Selig explained, Apollo will stop working on June 30. In this way, the application will cut off access to the API and will not generate expenses under the new policy implemented by Reddit. In an extensive publicationit was the developer himself who made it clear that the determination was based purely and exclusively on the recent measures announced by the platform.
“Unfortunately, Reddit’s recent decisions and actions have made Apollo unable to continue. Thank you so much for all the support over the years,” the app’s creator wrote. In his text, Christian Selig explained that under the new payment API, keeping Apollo running would cost millions of dollars a year that he could not afford.
Recall that on April 18, Reddit announced the aforementioned policy change for access to your API. It would no longer be free for third-party customers, but during the announcement there was an important missing piece of information: its price. From the company they announced, anyway, that the cost would be implemented in an “equitable and reality-based” way. Basically, Reddit did not want to suffer the same type of criticism that Twitter had for a similar situation a few months ago.
However, Selig’s calculations showed that maintaining Apollo would be impossible, even as one of the most popular and successful Reddit clients on the market. “The reported price was $0.24 per 1,000 API calls. I quickly entered this into my calculator and saw […] that with my current use would cost almost $2 million per month, or more than $20 million per year“, public.
Apollo, the popular Reddit client, says goodbye on June 30
Christian Selig has also commented that increasing the price of Apollo Ultra subscriptions is not feasible to cope with the new Reddit API. And to this is added short notice time between the price to be implemented and its entry into force.
“Even more than the huge price tag associated with the API, the 30-day timeframe between when the price is announced and when developers will be charged is a much, much, much bigger issue and I can’t address it. It would take a lot more time to review the payment model in my app, transition users from existing plans, test the changes, and get users to upgrade to the new version.”
The creator of Apollo also explained that he had multiple communications with Reddit about it, and that not all of them were friendly. He also assured that he asked for more time to deal with the situation, but that the answer was negative. In this way, then, the only way out was that the client stops working on the indicated date.
Selig assures that he does not intend to work on projects of competitors -despite the fact that he has already received proposals-, and that he does not intend to sell his app. “Maybe [la vendería] if the perfect buyer came along who thought they could turn Apollo into something cool and sustainable. But I would rather the app just die if it were to go to a company that would turn something I worked so hard on into a thing that would ruin its legacy,” he said. iPhone, iPad or Mac with M1 or M2 chip, start thinking about looking for a replacement.
Beyond the controversy over the closure of Apollo, Reddit has already backed down on the scope of its payment API. Yesterday, The Verge reported that the platform will keep its free API for some applications focused on accessibility. Keep in mind that, in previous days, the platform received strong criticism for how its new policy would affect certain tools, such as Moon for Redditintended for blind people.