Redditors and avid users of the Reddit site often take to specific subreddits to post questions, suggestions and maybe even violent reactions on any topic under the sun — and the site's own app, of course, isn't excluded from receiving a whole slew of reviews from the community.
It didn't take long for Redditors, active users of Reddit, to voice out their opinion on the subject, a behavior so rampant on Reddit boards.
On Google Play, the app garnered an average of 2.9 stars out of 5 stars based on 2,293 ratings, as of April 7. Some of the reviews on Google Play are:
- 5/5: "Professional, clean and easyI love the design choices made here, it truly feels like Reddit is moving forward in the app mobile industry. You have a fancy graphical user interface with a great design." - Richard Butterton posted on April 7.
- 4/5: "Beta and improvingBetter than the rest but still missing obvious features. No horizontal view. Download of images etc doesn't work. Good adblock (whatever) on the few news article links I've tested so far. Full-disclosure: I infrequently use reddit and only lurk, so all of my commentary is w/o login." - Jims Maher posted on April 7.
- 3/5: "It's a good start.I like that there's finally an official Reddit app. But there are still a ton of kinks to be worked out. It looks good. Please also add some more customizability. And make videos play in the actual app, not the browser." - Ben Wilcox posted on April 7.
- 2/5: "Good start, long way to goIt looks nice, but it's certainly not on the level of other apps that have been out for years. My biggest complaints would be that images and gifs open a new window (would be much smoother with a pop-up like Sync for Android has), and overall smoothness of the UI. I was hoping for something of a RES-Sync crossover, but this is nothing like that." - James Masco posted on April 7.
- 1/5: "Phones only?Short list of issues encountered before giving up on the app: Locked into portrait, doesn't make use of larger screens (tablets), and doesn't show progress indicator when logging in." - Nicholas Pike posted on April 7
On the App Store, the Reddit App scored an average of 4.5 stars out of 5 stars based on 593 ratings, also as of April 7. Some of the reviews include:
- 3/5: "I have been Alien Blue Pro user for the past few years now and with that said, thank you Reddit for the gifted four years of Reddit Gold as well as the additional three months for downloading this app. I downloaded the app just a moment ago and upon opening it I noticed that it looked very nice, but that it was also going to need some work in comparison to Alien Blue.
Pros: the inbox is well managed, the subscribed subreddits are well sorted, the feed interface is very user-friendly and pleasant to look at, the app overall is generally easy to navigate.
Cons: there is a severe lack of customizability (the night theme and compact view are very nice, but I'd like more features such as app text size, comment formatting, behavior settings, the ability to format comment/post interfaces, etc.), it is difficult to keep track of individual comment karma (c'mon Reddit, you know we care about our fake internet points!), and there are a few bugs such as "See more comments" not working when under an individual comment tree, etc.
Overall, I think the app is decent. It is a serviceable replacement to Alien Blue, an app I've loved for years, but it still needs some work. I'm torn between giving it 3 or 4 stars, but ultimately the customization factor is too important in my opinion.
You guys have a great foundation there. Now you just have to build on it." - FoamBornNarwhal - 3/5: "I have been using the alien blue app for iPhone since it came out. I am incredibly grateful for the four years and three months of free Reddit gold. However, in order to make this a better app, I felt that I needed to voice my opinion.
My biggest issue is the layout. There seems to be no visual cue as to where one post starts and the other next one ends. The alien blue app did a nice job of easily separating posts so you know what you're upvoting or downvoting. Also, I now have to tap twice to get to the actual content. Seems like a minor thing, but when you are on the app for a long time it gets annoying fast.
Lastly, and this is just a personal opinion, I get freaked out by the constant orange icon indicating that I am viewing posts on the bottom left. Coming from alien blue, it feels like I have new mail when I don't." - Viniguez487 - 1/5: "Dear Reddit. I'm a 10-year user who spends an approximate 2-4 hours on your site a day FWIW. I've purchased a few advertisements and a bit of gold via your site. in short, I'm what you might consider a reasonably valuable customer of yours.
The reason I'm rating this app a 1 star, for now, is that I also happen to have real vision issues. So the need to adjust font sizes is imperative to me, this need is not a "nice to have", but a "must have". Until this feature gets in, for me at least, the app is a nonstarter.
Though I appreciate that you have to make decisions in product management, it appears by the decisions you have made, that this app is a rush to get to market rather than a true "best" effort on your part. You've created something somewhat pretty, (or at least "pretty" much like Facebook or Twitter) but largely lacking in functionality, it's features and quality are blow many third party clients. I'm sure that you are aware that many users are complaining about missing features that exist in Alien Blue, which you just removed from sale and have made "end of life"
I suggest that a better approach for you to take on this product release might be for you to leave Alien Blue available on the store until such time as you get this app to where it needs to be, continue fixing bugs for those of us who love Reddit but have special needs until you can fully support the things that we need inside this "official" app." - Dave Bloomberg
On Reddit's "App Launch Version Feedback" Page, some of the reviews noted that certain features are still missing, which could greatly improve the graphical user interface (GUI) for more efficient browsing. Here are some of the top suggestions Redditors have offered, as of April 7:
- "The ability to save images needs to be added. And push notifications don't seem to work." - LScottSpencer
- "Maybe I'm just unable to find it, but is there a way to mark posts as read. For posts from subs like r/me_irl where all the titles are the same, this gets to be rather confusing. I liked this feature in alien blue, so I'm hoping it's still available." - herbivore74
- "Just a few suggestions: subreddit groups are what I love the most (AlienBue had that down perfectly in my opinion, better than Narwhal even); 3D Touch support (peek,pop, maybe 3D Touch the app icon and you'll get 2-3 favorite subs); Inline gif viewing; Easier toggle for night mode; More gestures (upvoting, downvoting, save, hide; Marking posts as read." - Color09
- "I think we need a more compact view. I just don't think the regular "compact view" the app offers is good enough. I don't think the "compact view" should be removed altogether, but there should be an "ultra-compact view" in addition" - jlaviolette
- "Long press to view content needs to return. Also, notifications for the inbox would be nice. Edit: Spoiler support too" - JadedDarkness
The new official Reddit app for iPhone and Android is available for download on the App Store and Google Play. The app features a lightweight installation file, which lets it download within a few seconds and launch even faster once installed. The Reddit app also features a "Speed Read" button that allows active users to browse through content without worrying about a sudden flood of entries on their screens.
Alex Le, Reddit's vice president of consumer product, says Reddit knew it had a responsibility to deliver an all-around experience for the site's core users.
The abundance of third-party apps that feature Reddit functions has been "awesome," but the company "sees itself as a "custodian" of sorts for how hundreds of millions of Redditors out there use the site." Hence, the Reddit app was produced for Android and iOS.
