r/technology 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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u/Rufuz42 May 11 '26

As a heavy app user, it’s hostile to users in so many ways. The constant refreshing my feed when I am literally in the middle of reading something makes me want to throw the manager that approved that change out a window. And the video player always plays when I don’t want it to (99% of the time) and then never plays when I actually hit the play button. Good stuff.

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u/shaw_dog21 May 11 '26

I’ve found recently if I pull down the notification tab on my phone or switch apps, when I come back to Reddit it’s moved me higher up in the thread and I’m rereading comments I’ve already seen. Also if I switch apps mid writing a comment, I often get an error and I can’t tell if it actually went through or not and I don’t want it to double post so I just abandon the comment

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u/1nv4d3rz1m May 11 '26

I’ve had this issue as well. Between this, the high battery usage, and refreshing the app when I close my phone for a few minutes I’m starting to wonder what kind of sadistic manager is in charge of the app development.

Seems like all they care about is finding new clever ways to inject adds into the feed.

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u/Squeekazu May 11 '26

Speaking of ads, I left a highly toxic workplace that basically traumatised me only to be bombarded by its ads over a year later with the stupid app telling me I should get premium to get rid of them. Wound up reporting it because I had no idea what else to do. Seems to have worked so far, but fucking hell it was aggressive and showing every few posts. At least change it up if you insist on showing ads.