(Mirror Daily, United States) – The sign ups are closed, and Reddit’s Android app is officially in beta today to provide users with a mobile app directly from the website. There are several third-apps out there that would be of use to Reddit users, but they are now developing their own.
The thought of an official Reddit app had many users excited at the prospect. The platform has grown significantly in popularity in the last couple of years. It has a major userbase and has become one of the first source of several questionable uploads. The anonymity of the service has certainly drawn numerous internet users and will continue to do so.
Now, official app project is officially under way, and those who signed up should already have access. So, the opportunity has passed for those who might’ve been interested in participating and missed the chance to sign up.
For the moment, the closed beta is available only for Android devices, though Reddit CEO, Steve Huffman, stated that an iOS version will follow “soon”. There was no official date offered, but it’s likely that it won’t be too long before others will have access. The purpose is to both offer users a glimpse into what’s in store for 2016, and receive feedback on their mobile app. As stated by Huffman, smartphones is where the future of news and forums is heading.
They will be working on making Reddit more “engaging”. However, there will be a few changes in the process of “modernizing” the service.
In addition to the announcement of the beta, Huffman also mentioned the upcoming Transparency Report to arrive in March. Naturally for a source where the users remain anonymous and have free reign on posting content, there are several government entities who ask for access to data. Reddit will start being open and begin detailing those requests in order to keep their transparency toward users clearly available.
Things will also start being cleaned up a little on the platform. For now, shadow banning will no longer take place. It’s a clever and useful method of getting rid of spam bots, because they did not know they are banned. Thus, it would stop them from creating additional accounts and resume spamming. However, things are a little different when dealing with actual humans.
Reddit will start suspending accounts instead, and it will be done only by Reddit admins, as opposed to subreddit moderators. This will reportedly stop incidences of frivolous banning. It should also put a halt to some user complains, but it remains to be seen if matters will still be held in control. At the very least, to the level Reddit has been doing so far.
Image source: wired.com