What happened
On April 7, 2016, Reddit released its first official, in-house mobile applications for iOS and Android. The apps replaced Alien Blue, the popular third-party iOS client Reddit had acquired in late 2014, and were aimed at a user base that had increasingly shifted to phones — at launch roughly half of Reddit's traffic already came from mobile, including mobile web and third-party apps. The launch apps introduced a media-friendly 'card view,' platform-specific touches like an iOS draggable 'speed-read' button, and a promotional offer of three months of Reddit Gold for users who signed up during launch week.
The move was a significant step in Reddit's effort to modernize and monetize a service long defined by its desktop interface and an ecosystem of independent apps. Building first-party clients gave the company direct control over the mobile experience, advertising, and data, and foreshadowed later, more contentious decisions about the platform's relationship with third-party developers — most notably the 2023 API pricing changes that shut down many of those independent apps.