Apollo dev calls out Reddit in eulogy as API changes force shutdown

Christian Selig, the creator of the popular third party Reddit app Apollo, has hit out at Reddit in a message to fans prior to the app being shut down for good.

Back in early June, Reddit revealed that they would no longer allow third-party apps connect to their API for free.

For Christian Selig and his super popular app Apollo, this meant he was going to be faced with an API bill of over two million dollars a month.

Apollo is set to close down on the night of June 30, 2023, due to these changes and Christian has a message for Reddit as the time nears.

Pexels/Reddit

Apollo dev shares eulogy as Reddit forces app shutdown

In the post on the Apolloapp subreddit, Christian shared his love for his fans and the community that has been built over the last nine years.

“So I just really want to say thanks. I set out to build Apollo right out of university and an Apple internship, and wanted to create a Reddit app so good it felt like Apple themselves built it.

“The initial version was a little rough, but the community grew and grew, and people kept providing such phenomenal feedback that shaped the app into something absolutely unique that was enjoyed by so many people over the years,” he said.

“It feels disingenuous on the surface to say ‘I want to thank all of you’, but in this case it’s demonstrably true. I’ve worked on this app for over 9 years, and I’ve never felt burned out, I get such a crazy amount of energy and enjoyment out of building something so publicly alongside such an awesome community, and you seriously have no idea how easy product development is when your north star is just ‘listen to what people are saying’.

“So much less guesswork, A/B tests, focus groups, stress, when instead you just talk to people every day and listen. It’s hard to believe I’ve made almost 20,000 comments in this subreddit!”

In his message, Selig hit back at Reddit for making the massive API changes and mentioned that he “drank the Kool Aid” and thought he could get them to revert the changes.

“I’m really heartbroken with how this whole process unfolded, I truly drank the Kool Aid talking to Reddit at the beginning that this was something they were going into in good faith with the interest of developers, moderators, and the community as a whole, but as many people pointed out to me, it’s clear now that ultimately wasn’t their intent,” the now-former Apollo dev lamented.

“If they wanted something that could work for everyone, they would have simply made an effort to listen, instead of being dishonest, callous, and punitive in pricing. I’m sorry to all the folks who, like me, lost Apollo abruptly as a result of this. I had so much more I wanted to do with this app!”

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman went on record stating that third-party apps like Apollo “don’t add value” to the platform and made it clear he had no intention to revert the API price changes.

Apollo was by far the most popular third-party app for Reddit, and, with the app now being shuttered, many will have to revert to the official app or leave the site entirely.

As of writing, though, Reddit’s traffic has returned to normal after the viral protests came to an end.