If you’re not an avid Redditor, you’re probably unaware of the fact that so far there hasn’t been an official Reddit app. That’s right, Redditors on both iOS and Android have been waiting patiently since the dawn of the smartphone for an official app to access their favorite subreddits.
Well, friends, that day has finally arrived.
Available for both iOS and Android, the Reddit app serves as a way to access the website, but it also replaces Alien Blue, an unofficial Reddit app that was acquired by the company back in 2014.
As such, Alien Blue will no longer be available on Google Play or the App Store — however, those who have already installed it will obviously continue to be able to use it. The decision to get rid of Alien Blue was reportedly not an easy one. Originally Alex Le, vice president of consumer product, wanted to simply improve Alien Blue, but in the end the team found that it would be able to make an app that was faster and more modern if it just started again.
In addition to the totally new code, the goal is to deliver faster updates to the app than with Alien Blue. In fact, the team reportedly wants to deliver at least one update per month.
There are a number of ways that the new app is different from other Reddit readers on the market. First up is the “card view” option, which is aimed at showcasing media-based content like photos and videos. The app also features customizable subreddits, which wasn’t even on offer in Alien Blue.
Of course, Reddit will have to do a lot if it wants to convince users to use the new app. Alien Blue wasn’t the only third-party Reddit reader on the market. One of the more popular ones is called Reddit is Fun, available for Android. It currently has a 4.7 rating (out of 5 stars) on the Google Play Store, suggesting that many Redditors may not want to use a different app, official or otherwise. Others include Delay for Reddit, which has a 4.6 rating, and BaconReader for Reddit, coming in at 4.5. At the time of this writing, the official app clocked in at 3.5 stars on iTunes, and 2.9 on Google Play.
Reddit has been teasing mobile apps for a while now, and its nice to see those teasers finally come to fruition. You can download the Reddit app for yourself from Google Play or the iTunes App Store.