Apollo, one of the most beloved and used iOS apps for browsing Reddit, will be shut down due to the company’s new API pricing that will make the app more expensive to run.
The app will be shutting down on June 30, according to developer Christian Selig. “Reddit’s recent decisions and actions have unfortunately made it impossible for Apollo to continue,” Selig wrote on Twitter.
Selig went into more detail In an extensive post on Reddit. He reiterated that based on Reddit’s current API pricing plans, it would have to pay more than $20 million a year to run the app. “Going from a free API for 8 years to suddenly incurring huge costs is not something I can do practically in just 30 days,” Selig writes. “There are a lot of users to migrate, build plans, things to test, pass app review, and it’s not economically feasible. It’s much cheaper for me to simply shut down.”
Selig also dismissed Reddit’s claims that Apollo is “less efficient” of other apps, saying Reddit unfairly frames its data, because Apollo uses a fraction of a percentage of Reddit’s pre-set API rate limits.
Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt declined to comment but said the company plans to post more information Thursday and Friday.
Many of Reddit’s largest communities will go dark or block new posts on June 12 to protest the platform’s API pricing changes, including r/gaming, r/Music, r/Pics, r/todayilearned, r/art, and r/DIY. And r/EarthPorn, r/Likeimfive Explained, r/tools, r/LifeProTips… This is an unofficial list.
On Tuesday, after news of that outcry, Reddit announced that it would create a specific exception to pricing the new API for accessibility app makers, but it didn’t appear to have made any arrangements that would allow Apollo to stay.
Selig says it will delete the Apollo API token “on the evening of June 30th” PST, and until then, “Apollo He should Continue doing as I did.” If you’ve signed up for Apollo, Selig says he plans “over the next few weeks” to offer cashback to get money back for the time left on your subscription.
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