Reddit Is Blocking the Mobile Version of the Site for Some Users, but There Is a Solution.
If you primarily use Reddit in a desktop browser, you’ll likely have no problem navigating between subreddits. On mobile devices, it’s a different story: Reddit really wants you to use its mobile app, and it makes this clear with pop-ups every time you access the site in a browser. If you don’t want to download another app on your phone, closing the pop-ups is fairly easy—until you don’t need to.
That’s the situation this week. Some users visiting the Reddit homepage or going directly to individual posts on the mobile site are encountering a new issue that completely stops them from browsing. When you first open a thread, everything appears fine, but as soon as you start scrolling, a large pop-up appears at the bottom. It displays the Reddit app with its App Store rating, along with a bold warning: “Install the app to keep using Reddit.” The pop-up states that the app allows you to “better search, personalize your feed, and never miss updates from your [favorite] communities”—all things the mobile site does just fine.
If you’ve encountered pop-ups in the Reddit mobile app before, it might not seem like a big deal. Just ignore it and forget about it, right? But there’s no (X) or any obvious way to close the pop-up. Moreover, the problem isn’t just with the pop-up—as soon as it appears, the entire page becomes unresponsive.
Why is Reddit blocking its mobile version of the site?
This is the most aggressive approach I’ve ever seen from Reddit to promoting its mobile app, but I don’t quite understand the logic. Why ban users from the mobile website? When Futurism reached out to the company for comment, it responded: “We’ve found that logged-in users get a more personalized experience and can more easily find communities that match their interests… So we’re running a test with a small number of non-logged-in mobile app users, prompting them to download the app after visiting the Reddit website.” The company added that it’s also targeting “a small subset of active mobile website users,” as it believes they’re already familiar with how Reddit works and would still find the app more convenient.
I can confirm that in the instances I encountered this issue, I was indeed kicked out of the mobile version of the site. But I didn’t even want to: I don’t usually browse Reddit on my phone, I just check the links that appear in Google search results. So, this pop-up when I’m simply looking for an answer to my question is incredibly annoying. I definitely don’t intend to download the Reddit app for such random moments; in fact, this incident makes it even less likely that I will.
According to the App Store’s privacy information, the Reddit app collects a wealth of data, including purchase information, contact information, search history, usage data, location, identifiers, and diagnostic data. Of course, most of this data isn’t linked to your identity, with the exception of identifiers and usage data, but browsing the web in places like Safari, for example, blocks most of this tracking. In short: thanks, Reddit, but no, I don’t recommend it.
How to bypass the Reddit mobile pop-up
Luckily, you don’t have to choose between downloading the app and giving up on using Reddit on your phone, as there are a few workarounds you can try to continue using the mobile version of the site without interruption. Log in. If Reddit is truly targeting only unauthorized users, log in to your account. I just logged in to my account in the browser, and so far, this pop-up hasn’t appeared again. That’s encouraging.
Clear your cache. If you don’t have a Reddit account or prefer not to log in, you still have a few options. As Futurism notes, some Reddit users have found success by clearing their browser’s cache and cookies, which can trick Reddit into thinking you’re a different user and allow you to get rid of targeted pop-ups. (We have guides for clearing the cache on both iPhone and Android if you’re unsure how to do this.)
Use “Old Reddit.” Finally, before I realized the extent of the problem, I simply switched to “Old Reddit” whenever I encountered a popup. Reddit still allows you to use its original design, which lacks many of the unnecessary “new” features—or, in this case, the popup that interferes with access to the mobile version of the site. To switch to this simplified interface when using the mobile version of the site, tap the address bar, then replace “www” in the URL with “old” (e.g., old.reddit.com) without changing the rest of the link. The page will open in the old Reddit design, and you’ll be able to browse content freely, but you’ll miss out on the more streamlined interface of the current site.