Reddit has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently. The company’s new API guidelines, which go into effect on July 1st, willkill all popular third-party Reddit clients. That is unless they are ready to pay millions of dollars in fees every month. This move has led to outrage among hundreds of thousands of Redditors, with manysubreddits going dark as a sign of protest. Now, it seems like at least one popular Reddit client for Android might survive the ordeal.
In apost on the Relay for Reddit subreddit, developer Dave shared the outlook of the app’s future based on his preliminary data (viaThe Verge). Right at the outset, he makes it clear that the free version of Relay will have to be discontinued as it is financially not viable. Instead, the app will have to move to a monthly subscription model, which on the bright side will mean getting rid of all ads.
The base subscription could cost $2 per month, with an extra $1 for message notifications to account for the additional API calls that such polling incurs. Dave’s estimates are based on the latest Relay for Reddit release, which included several bug fixes and other changes to reduce API calls. The changes seem to have worked, as the app now averages about 100 API calls per user daily.
But there are issues. The model is “ultimately subject to how many, and what type of, users choose to stay with Relay as a subscription-based app.” This is a problem, especially since Reddit will limit ‘Recommend’ and NFSW content to its official app. Dave also admits to hidden spots in his cost analysis, as the subscription could cause only power users to stick to Relay for Reddit. This could push the average API calls per user to more than 100, making the subscription model untenable.
And as if these issues were not enough, there’s also the problem of the “alarmingly tight” timeline. Reddit has given third-party apps around thirty days before its new API rules go live. That is simply not enough time for developers to re-model their apps in a big way, though Dave hopes Reddit offers some flexibility on this front.
Relay for Reddit developers notes that if the model works out, “there should be a good amount” of money left for him after paying Reddit and Google Play. This is all theoretical for now, but it is good to know that one ofour favorite Reddit appsmight survive the API drama.
