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Update from DBrady, creator of Relay for Reddit (not me!):

Update: Relay will continue to operate from July 1st. It will be moving to a subscription model in the coming weeks but, for now, it’s available for everyone to use free of charge and ad-free!

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in updating everyone on the future of Relay. It’s taken until now for me to work things out.

For the time being, Relay is going to be free for everyone to use (this means no fees and no ads) while i continue optimising API calls and finalising subscription prices. I’m working hard to get call volumes down and i’ll try my best to hit as low a price point as possible, at least for a base tier that covers 85-90% of users. At the higher end of usage it’s looking like i’ll need to implement a few different price points but this is still something i need to figure out. I’ll let you know when i do.

Thanks again for all the incredible messages over the last week. I’ve seen them all and they really mean a lot - knowing how long some people have been using Relay for is amazing. For anyone moving on from here, thanks for supporting Relay over the last 12 years - i’m forever grateful.

Relay Pro (should now be free to use): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=reddit.news

Relay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2sTb4GzEz4

Cheers,

Dave

  • DeluxeparrotEnglish
    18·
    1 year ago

    This seems quite clever by Reddit. It looks like there’s some deal that if they remove ads from their apps they get free api usage for a few months. Seems suspicous that both apps doing this have removed ads.

    This will soften the blow a little for Reddit as now at least 1 decent sized 3rd party app on each platform (Android/IOS) will continue to work for a while.

    A clever PR move that changes nothing.

    • tvbusy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      API fee is not free, only delayed. I have no idea how the devs will handle the combined bill when it comes. It’ll be a huge bill while income from subscriptions have not really picked up yet. I would not take this risk even if someone give me Appollo source code for free.

      • DeluxeparrotEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I don’t think they will be paying anything until they implement subscriptions. They are exempt for now in exchange for removing advertising from their apps.

        Once they implement subscriptions then they get income to cover the cost of the api.

    • Boz (he/him)@lemmy.oneEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      You’re right that this is a PR move rather than a genuine attempt to work with devs, but I think it would have been more clever if Reddit had done this three weeks ago, when they could have undermined the “this will kill third party apps” narrative. Instead, they waited until Huffman had spouted off about how he admires Elon, who killed Twitter’s third party apps, and how the API was “never meant” for third party apps. Basically, he has expressed a personal desire to see third party apps killed, and usually the CEO’s opinion overrules official company statements with this kind of thing. So now, it’s going to be hard for the company to turn around and claim that killing third party apps isn’t their end goal.

    • JBloodthorn@kbin.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      I will continue to work - partially. No nsfw, and usage limits. So all the subs that have gone nsfw in protest are just not gonna show up, unless the app is scraping the rss feed or something.

      • Anomander@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        Reddit has been forcible cracking protest-NSFW subs, though. They’re messaging mod teams and threatening removal and replacement for “turning a sub NSFW” or for encouraging users to submit NSFW content, if the sub wasn’t NSFW to begin with.

    • inverimus@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      The new API requires you to remove ads regardless, they could get banned by reddit for serving their own ads.

      • DeluxeparrotEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Yep you are correct. The new terms require you to earn no income to use the api for free. It’s probably not some sort of deal then.

        Wonder why the devs waited until the last minute to announce it. Makes sense for devs to try and ring some final value from their app.

      • Anomander@kbin.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        It doesn’t, but several apps were previously funded by sourcing their own ads. That’s why the double-whammy of Reddit hiking API charges to 20X their own costs and prohibiting third-party apps from showing their own ads was such a problem - by prohibiting ads, Reddit was saying that apps effectively had to be funded by charging users, they couldn’t just go find outside sources of funding.

      • jiji@kbin.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        I believe Reddit did not provide their ads through the API (aka the ones integrated into the feeds), but some apps still had generic app ads (like the little banner ones provided by Google AdSense glued at the bottom of the app).

      • XGC75@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        Marketers care an unreasonable amount about how their ads show up from a UI/X perspective. It’s meaningless, but these people stake their roles on it, convincing entire industries it matters. Then you get some marketers who are laid off entering consultation and keeping the wheels turning on these ideas…

        Ask me how I know 😮‍💨

        Anyways, imagine Reddit looking to go IPO and asking their customers (marketers buying ads) what they can do to improve their services to these patrons, and you get /u/spez breaking his back to please them ahead of the customers their patrons would reach.