This Third-Party Reddit App Might Survive API Changes But At A Cost

At a time when most third-party Reddit applications are likely to shut down, Relay for Reddit application on Android could likely survive Reddit's expensive API changes. However, it will come at a cost.

What Happened: David Brady, developer of Relay for Reddit application on Android, has outlined a possible solution to the expensive API changes by Reddit. This involves dropping the application's free version and switching completely to a monthly subscription model.

"There's no possibility to continue the free version of Relay; a monthly subscription price of $3 (or less) might be achievable," Brady said in a post.

This is at a time when 96% of the subreddits on Reddit have gone private to protest Reddit's upcoming API changes, according to live tracker. The Reddit API is an interface that allows external applications and services to connect to Reddit.

Why It's Important: Underlining the need for changes to its API and charging third-party applications a fee to continue operating, Reddit's co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman said that the company is "not profitable" yet.

On the other hand, Christian Selig, developer of the third-party Reddit application Apollo said it would cost $20 million a year to run the application as-is after Reddit's API changes come into force.

As a result, Selig has announced that Apollo will shut down on June 30, as will many other popular third-party applications like Sync for Reddit, rif is fun for Reddit (formerly Reddit is Fun), among others.

This has sparked widespread protests by subreddits, with 8,396 out of 8,733 subreddits currently dark. This includes renowned subreddits like r/funny, r/todailearned, r/apple, r/iphone, r/Android, among others.

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