What was so special about the Apollo app?

dkn@sh.itjust.works to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 78 points –

I've seen the app Apollo as the center of the reddit protest (it was mentioned and cited more than any other app in relevant posts). I've also seen many Lemmy clients in development taking inspiration from it.

As a lifetime Android user I've never been able to use it, and I've never gotten a proper answer to "why not just use the official app?" What made it different from the official application and other unofficial clients that consequently made it so popular among Redditors?

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I can't speak for Apollo but I used RIF and old.Reddit

I work with a bunch of techies with various opinions on this; he said I like "an app that looks like it was from 10 years ago", which was meant to be an insult, but I think is actually the point: it was text-first, list view, "get out of your way" to enjoy the content.

I don't like advertising pretending to be content.

I don't like the integrations that pushed paid crap like their version of Bitcoin.

And I am here because even though Reddit is still active, it's clear that the ship is being sailed solely by momentum at this point and the company is, well, only going up be able to do so much until they can't pay what little staff they have. The way the mods and app developers were treated this month was the lowest of the low and sealed my decision.

You may be surprised to learn that reddit has 2000!!!! employees. What the hell 2000 people do at reddit, I have no idea.

Haha, “an app from 10 years ago” is so true. I kept using AlienBlue through thick and thin for exactly the reason – it’s heavily text focused and all about the comments. No “cards” design or auto-playing videos or what have you.