\n<\/p>\n
After a month of outrage, protests, and unrest from the community, Reddit has finally flipped the switch to shut down some third-party apps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Apollo, an iOS app that became a rallying point for the recent protests against Reddit\u2019s imminent API pricing, no longer loads any content from the platform. When I open it up, all I see is a spinning wheel. Developer Christian Selig confirmed to me that Reddit is the one that turned things off, not him: \u201cwould have been nice to have been given a time,\u201d he says in an email to The Verge<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n BaconReader, another popular app, shows an error message for me: \u201cRequest failed: client error (429).\u201d When I tap the \u201cTap to refresh\u201d link, I just get the same error message.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sync, an Android app, has stopped working too, displaying this message: \u201cError loading page: 401.\u201d We\u2019ve additionally found a tweet showing an error<\/a> and Lemmy comments about lack of functionality<\/a> in a fourth app, reddit is fun (RIF), but at the time we published this article, one Verge<\/em> staffer could still see content on the app when not logged in. He wasn\u2019t able to log into his account, though. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Users were outraged at the company\u2019s treatment of Selig and the developers of some other popular third-party apps, organizing protests<\/a> to try and get Reddit to budge. But despite more than 8,000 communities going dark, Reddit held its ground<\/a>, and now some apps are officially kaput. (Not every app is going away: Narwhal<\/a>, Relay, and Now<\/a> will still be available, though they will eventually become subscription-only.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When reached for comment, Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt pointed to the company\u2019s fact sheet about its API changes<\/a>, which was just updated on Friday, as well as a Friday evening post from a Reddit admin confirming that the new API rate limits would be enforced \u201cshortly.\u201d<\/a> (According to the fact sheet, the rate limits were technically supposed to go into effect on July 1st. I\u2019m not sure what time zone Reddit was measuring that by, but if we\u2019re basing it on US time zones, that means that Reddit decided enforce the limits a few hours ahead of when it said it would.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This week, I asked Selig if he planned to still use Reddit after Apollo shuts down. \u201cHonestly, not sure,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m certainly using it a lot less.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n