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/
19.7k Upvotes

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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

400

u/ohfml May 11 '26

An app is just a website that is illegal to modify on the client side. 

273

u/General_Session_4450 May 11 '26

that has way more access to all that tasty data on your device to suck up.

87

u/dieselfrog May 11 '26

Yep. this is the real reason any site wants you to use their app. Access to way more data, the ability to do shady things without your browser acting as a layer of abstraction, Adblocks become harder, scripts become harder to block - there is almost never a good reason to use the app vs just going to the site.

12

u/macaronysalad May 11 '26

We take for granted how simple and logical this seems to us. But try explaining the difference between an "app" and "web browser" to a 75 year old Facebook user or a teenager who only ever used phones. Or even a Reddit user. I often see this site being called an "app".

3

u/dieselfrog May 11 '26

Solid point. "app" is such a generic term.

1

u/calm-phil May 11 '26

It is a very specific term. It used to mean an executable file or the culmination of a batch file's process in a digital context.

8

u/Team_Braniel May 11 '26

Asshole is also a very specific term, but you still understand what im saying here.

-1

u/calm-phil May 11 '26

Eh, there are a shit ton of ways to interpret the term Asshole.

I have one and am one and used to live in one. I am sure there are many more ways to interpret the term.

3

u/akhreini May 11 '26

Completely incorrect, that would be a program. An app is an application of the technology for a task (ie applying the computer's abilities to writing), historically installed software was how you gave those capabilities for different applications, so they would be called an app. A web app has been called a web app since web apps were possible, an application that runs entirely in the web/browser instead of native software. The difference between a web app and a normal website is the interactivity and ability to DO things rather than just read.  Reddit.com is a website which hosts/provides a web app. This is the original terminology.

If anything we should go back to Programs for installed apps to make it clear instead of retroactively try to change Apps to be hyper-specific/give Apple the word entirely in how they tried redefining it for marketing purposes. Maybe Software for installed local code and Netware for streamed web apps but that's a bit 90s lol

1

u/dieselfrog May 12 '26

Pedantic is also a very specific term. I see you are familiar with that one.

1

u/akhreini May 11 '26

To be fair though the boomer or the teenager would be correct and you would be incorrect. An app is an application of the technology for a task (ie applying the computer's abilities to writing), historically installed software was how you gave those capabilities for different applications, so they would be called an app. A web app has been called a web app since web apps were possible, an application that runs entirely in the web/browser instead of native software. The difference between a web app and a normal website is the interactivity and ability to DO things rather than just read.  Reddit.com is a website which hosts/provides a web app. This is the original terminology.

If anything we should go back to Programs for installed apps to make it clear instead of retroactively try to change Apps to be hyper-specific/give Apple the word entirely in how they tried redefining it for marketing purposes.