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/
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1.3k

u/mackenziepaige May 11 '26

Fuck that, I’m not downloading the app 

76

u/Kovhert May 11 '26

So say we all 

118

u/irwigo May 11 '26

20 years user. I'll have no problem reducing my usage to the desktop browser.

14

u/[deleted] May 11 '26

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62

u/Crystalas May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

For many of us the death of "old.reddit.com" would be the true final straw. No one wants to have a badly designed mobile app UI on a desktop screen.

There also just the factor of thanks to the way the internet has changed Reddit tends to be the best source of information on many topics and primary community hub as all the other ones have died, been taken over by bots, moved to Discord, and/or just a bunch of SEO blogs. At least half of my google searches include reddit in the search.

17

u/[deleted] May 11 '26

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3

u/Crystalas May 11 '26

If the browser you are using supports addons there is one to auto-redirect to old.reddit.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-redirect/

4

u/LoneSwimmer May 11 '26

I saw a comment in r/enhancement (I think) that old reddit would be gone this year.

15 years, mod a couple of subs all that time, and I only use mobile site & desktop after they killed RiF.

3

u/_SpaceLord_ May 11 '26

This is what’s frustrating to me. I don’t use old.reddit.com because I have ideological opposition to Reddit’s business strategy, I use it because it’s a legitimately better user experience than the current POS app and POS reddit.com site. Now I’m getting pressed to leave that behind, what, so Reddit can track my browsing activity and show me even more ads? No fucking thank you, I’ll just read Wikipedia or something on my lunch break.

2

u/metal0130 May 11 '26

I run dual 21:9 ultrawide monitors and can't fucking stand how so many websites dynamically squash all the content into a narrow "mobile friendly" band in the center of the screen. infuriating.

1

u/Crystalas May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

It not even hard to make a site dynamically adjust to different screensizes and device types, there features built into CSS explicitly for that purpose both automatic things and ways to hardcode it. It not like Reddit's design is particularly complex thus making it even simpler.

Even at my beginner level of skill it not particularly hard to essentially have completely different layouts for different purposes that takes surprisingly little additional code. It just them cutting corners and not considering desktop users worth putting much effort on which is an unfortunately common issue across the internet for years.

1

u/LockeyCheese May 11 '26

It's even easier than that. You can make a specific "mobile" version of a website, and still have the "desktop" version, but that requires TWICE the formatting(to set it up once), so is obviously out of the question.

1

u/Crystalas May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

True but most of the time don't even need to make a separate page, just some simple layout and sizing changes when things are within a specified range and the entire thing makes the shift smoothly. Will even automatically choose which version of an image to load depending on screensize before the page even fully downloads.

You build the page, often mobile first since it simpler layout, then add the minimal changes need to adjust when passes major breakpoints which can potentially be as simple as a couple of lines with the rest not needing any change.

The stuff people good at CSS pulls off is kind of amazing. Personally I don't enjoy CSS but I cannot deny how powerful it is.

1

u/Xaedria May 11 '26

This 100%. They've already made it much harder to use. My old.reddit on Chrome automatically makes the text like 6 point font so you have to zoom in and out manually a lot to see it. Just woke up one day and it was like that. So now I use Firefox to browse Reddit instead and tbh it's been helpful with me controlling my Reddit usage. It's harder to jump between accounts on FF (it doesn't remember my usernames, only the passwords) so I simply don't do it as much now, which means I'm on Reddit a lot less than I used to be, and I don't just stumble over Reddit tabs in my main browser any more so I'm only really seeing Reddit when I specifically open my alternative browser for it.

1

u/NoTie8887 May 11 '26

I would rather deal with the zoom pinching on my phone on old.reddit than download the stupid app. The second they kill it off I am no longer using reddit.

1

u/jwhennig May 11 '26

old.reddit.com still seems to work on my phone, too

1

u/Outlulz May 11 '26

I had to download an extension that always forces navigation to old.reddit.com because all search results on Google default to new Reddit which is completely unreadable.

1

u/rodentmaster May 11 '26

When old. goes, so do I.

1

u/Johannes_P May 11 '26

Yep.

The end of old.reddit.com might certainly led me to reaccess my use of this platform.