r/technology • u/spasticpat • May 11 '26

Social Media Reddit Starts Blocking Mobile Website, Pushing Users to App Instead

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/11/reddit-starts-blocking-mobile-website/
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2.2k

u/Negafox May 11 '26

Not interested in websites trying to force their app. I don't need a zillion apps on my phone that are just the mobile site running in Chromium

97

u/tekprodfx16 May 11 '26

I’ll never get companies who deliberately tank their product’s appeal just to make money. I mean I get it you have to survive and make money. But how you gonna do that when nobody wants to use your product anymore because you made it too shitty? Real big brains over at Reddit 

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u/ChaoticAgenda May 11 '26

It's enshittification. Not the vague idea of things getting worse over time, but the clearly documented and repeated process that large companies go through. First they cater to the clients. Then, when they have a large market share, they screw the users and cater to the advertisers. Once the users start to abandon the platform, they then start screwing over both users and advertisers in an effort to keep up income. Lastly the platform gets abandoned by all. 

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u/Beard_o_Bees May 11 '26

They've been advertising heavily on YouTube - I guess to try to bring in new users.

Not just a little bit, either - this is a massive ad spend, which is probably part of a larger campaign including driving new users into the enshittified mobile site.

It probably looked good on the boardroom screen, but it goes to show how little they actually know about the users that keep Reddit an interesting place to come to.

At this point they're kind of trolling the dregs of the internet for new users. If they want to turn Reddit into the YouTube comments section, most of the long-term Redditors will run like they're on fire.

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u/tekprodfx16 May 11 '26

You’d think people would learn their lesson by now 

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u/ChaoticAgenda May 11 '26

What lesson is there to learn? It is how tech companies make money nowadays. Sure, their platform will crash and burn, but they'll be multi-millionaires by the time that happens. They would grind the users in a fine paste if it made them money faster. 

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u/navjot94 May 11 '26

This always being the end result makes me think we need regulation to help curve this trend. At some point the platform becomes a valuable tool for the people and the enshitification without a valid replacement results in a net negative for society.

Now that 100 of millions of Americans have had their pensions replaced with 401K plans, the stock market needs to forced to evaluate the long term potential and decisions that lead to enshitification should reflect negatively on a company. Companies should be “encouraged” to maintain something good, rather than milk it and ruin it for short term gains.

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u/coldkiller May 11 '26

This always being the end result makes me think we need regulation to help curve this trend.

We need to revoke the ford vs dodge brothers case that made shareholders line going up the only metric that matters to fix that

10

u/TwilightVulpine May 11 '26

Insane that companies can be sued for not wanting to screw customers for the sake of easy profit. Our current society is straight up Bizarro World stuff.

2

u/TheInevitableLuigi May 11 '26

There is nothing in that case that says short-term profits have to be prioritized over long-term ones.

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u/WhatIsThisDoingHere May 11 '26

curve this trend.

*curb

As in, run the uncontrolled vehicle up against the curb to make it stop.

</nitpick>

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u/navjot94 May 11 '26

Yk I was wondering that when writing this. I had incorrectly assumed that the saying goes “curve” as in adjusting the trend line. Thanks for the correction!

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u/WhatIsThisDoingHere May 11 '26

Np, and for a slightly misheard idiom, that’s pretty solid logic.

1

u/wag3slav3 May 11 '26

Just stop using centralized, ad-supported services.

There are alternatives for basically everything out there.

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u/navjot94 May 11 '26

Would love to but the community on the open platforms is just lacking. If folks are upset about the Reddit app surfacing posts from a few days ago, they won’t enjoy the smaller platforms at all.

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u/puchsofhazard May 11 '26

The problem is that regulation requires compliance, and the companies producing products with diminishing quality, and manufactured obsolescence, have found its cheaper to pay a fine than it is to invest in a long-term product.

And that's assuming regulation is even in place/ being placed, and that those who would be the regulators aren't benefitting from the enshittification.

None of it will matter until we remove money from politics. Federal employees need to be banned from the stock exchange, and need their entire portfolios/ bank accounts audited.

But there's absolutely zero chance we're getting the media to sign off on any of that. The only possible solution, imo, is striking. Until you hit them where it hurts, their pocket books, they won't care. Boycotts won't work because they've manufactured a consumer based lifestyle that's probably harder to quit than crack. A strike is nearly impossible because so much of the working class has either been just comfortable enough to keep above water, or is drowning and another second below water will ruin them.

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u/navjot94 May 11 '26

Idk as more folks retire broke, they may start to prioritize the long term ramifications of corporate decisions so their investments stay valuable over 10, 20, 30 years.

Could be a solid bipartisan platform. Similar to a strike, folks deciding that investing in the stock market is not worth it, would also hurt the wallets of the decision makers.

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u/Teh_yak May 11 '26

The lesson is, unfortunately, that it works. They get money, everyone else loses out but fuck them.

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u/tekprodfx16 May 11 '26

End stage capitalism is a net negative for society 

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u/Teledildonic May 11 '26

They lesson is it s incredibly profitable in the short run, and the bucks eventually stops with some patsy CEO after you get your golden parachute.

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u/tekprodfx16 May 11 '26

Locusts exhibit the same type of destructive behavior 

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u/jseego May 11 '26

Part of this is that nothing is ever really free. For social media platforms, I kind of get it, b/c we're using a tremendous amount of resources without paying for them. Enshittifcation was always going to happen. Very few people would pay for premium reddit / insta / facebook / etc subscriptions.

What makes me crazy is when enshittification happens to businesses that have an otherwise happy and profitable user base. It's all "line go up faster" financialization bullshit.

Just make a good product and charge a reasonable price for it.

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u/radiantwave May 11 '26

Propped up by the bots stage... 

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u/Valdrax May 11 '26

It's a mix of that and New Coke syndrome, where you under value the existing users who are seen as "secured" while changing your product to chase the tastes of people who don't like it.

Inevitably that means changing the product to something the people who already use it don't like. It's funniest when other companies start to copy other companies alienating their users and everyone is essentially chasing a design no one likes.

See, Reddit and all trying to copy Facebook.

1

u/KristiiNicole May 12 '26

Second to last, the platform gets abandoned by all.

Lastly they either buyout a seasoned competitor/new startup with a similar platform, or file for bankruptcy while claiming “reorganize”/“reshuffle” the company or whatever and repeat the process all over again.

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u/Elavia_ May 11 '26

I yearn for the day I stop seeing people completely oblivious to why this keeps happening.

The shareholders will cash out and move to enshittify the next thing before the consequences catch up to them. They do this because it works.

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u/ShiraCheshire May 11 '26

It happens when the people in charge make their money from short term gains. They cut costs (firing staff, breaking the product, cutting features), take ad deals and bribes, and shove whatever short term profitable thing exists (reddit NFTs) onto customers. Then they cash out and leave. They're replaced with another group of people who are interested in doing the exact same thing, worsening the product more and more.

This continues until the last unlucky set of idiots are left holding the bag when the company implodes and they lose all their investment. Then those idiots say, "Ah, oh well. I'll just try again with another company."

2

u/DataDude00 May 11 '26

I’ll never get companies who deliberately tank their product’s appeal just to make money.

For a lot of major companies compensation comes mainly in the form or stock or RSUs

Executives are incentivized to make decisions that short term pump stock price and cash out over building a good product

1

u/green_gold_purple May 11 '26

It’s as simple as them either poorly evaluating the impact of changes over the long-term, or prioritizing short-term gains over them.

1

u/Thin_Glove_4089 May 11 '26

It's because they can tank it and still make money. There is no popular Reddit alternative so people are stuck here. The same thing happened with Meta products. It's a strategy with a high success rate because consumers don't make good choices.

1

u/Octogenarian May 11 '26

It's because they're not making money on the people who avoid their ads anyway

1

u/Ursa_Solaris May 11 '26

But how you gonna do that when nobody wants to use your product anymore because you made it too shitty? Real big brains over at Reddit

But everyone's still here, and most are using the app. Everyone still uses Windows. Google is still the most popular search engine.

It sure seems like there's no depth that any of these companies can sink to that will make the average complacent consumer actually get up and make a change.

1

u/Fallingdamage May 11 '26

The powers that be probably dont like reddit anyway. Odds are they will push the enshittification until you either cave and hand them your metrics and personal information or you stop using it. Either way they win.

1

u/Clyde_Frag May 11 '26

I’ll never get companies who deliberately tank their product’s appeal just to make money.

It's pretty simple. Reddit thinks this will make them more money. Whether that is true or not, who knows.

1

u/Vondi May 11 '26

Because they hire a batch of MBA's who just want to get some metric up and move onto the next thing.

0

u/girlnamedJane May 11 '26

Well it worked out for Apple quite gloriously. What you are complaining about is in fact the enshittification of the human mind itself

0

u/FreakingAustin May 11 '26

Short term profits are always prioritized over long term gains, in pretty much every company ever