Why Reddit blocked my daily visit to its mobile website - Ars Technica

[rcjordan]

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/05/why-reddit-blocked-my-daily-visit-to-its-mobile-website/

[ergophobe]

I've been having the same thought. Not with respect to Reddit but other things, including "work" things.

My phone storage is maxed and I don't want to get a new phone. I deleted all the photos and a lot of other things, but lately have been trying to get rid of apps.

I genuinely like the Merlin bird app from Cornell - not at all enshittified and it is a case where a website doesn't do the job (because you need internet for a website and you generally don't have that when trying to ID birds). But it was well over a GB.

As I've done that, I realize that websites that once worked fine are now unusable. A service I use to manage our rental has a crappy app (it's one of those that basically seems like a wrapper for the web page). It offered a slightly better experience than the website, but only slightly. So I went back to the website to find that it is now unusable on mobile.

[Drastic]

This is because the guy didn't sign up for an account. Reddit has trouble selling ads to display to random visitors.

The enshitification continues.

[Brad]

>apps

I try to keep apps to a minimum on my phone and use the browser for almost everything, because the apps have a lot of tracking stuff in them, plus they take up space.

MSN news mobile started freezing me out and telling me I needed the app, so I just quit using MSN. They are not that special.

[ergophobe]

In many cases, though, a browser is just not a replacement for an app.

- Merlin works offline to identify birds by their song

- Gaia works offline to map terrain and show your position and, if you want, your track.

- Coros for my watch GPS has no website interface until after you've gotten your track off your watch

- iNaturalist only works with a camera

- audiobooks and podcasts need an app

- the Mountain Project app gives me all the data from the website when offline and basically there is almost never service at a climbing area.

And so on.

For about a year I had removed my browser and kept my apps. The apps are more useful to me. The problem was that when we were traveling I couldn't even open map links because they all pass through a browser before redirecting to the app.

But my preference is a phone with key apps and no browser.  That forces me to go to the computer if I want to, say, check The Core or The NYT, so it's more of a conscious act.

A phone with just key apps and no browser is super useful for tasks I care about but also very limited for task I would be better off avoiding, like my impulse to look something up. 

To me, the browser is the worst app to have on my phone.

https://raisedbyturtles.org/yodas-last-teaching