Could Squabbles replace Reddit?

Ace

November 6, 2023

2

Reddit has recently come under scrutiny after it announced plans to charge developer's for its API access, leading many to turn for Reddit alternatives such as Squabbles. But is this just a blip in Reddit's long history of controversies? Will people leave the frontpage of the internet in search of a new social network?

On April 28 2023, Reddit announced sweeping changes to it's API and that it would begin to charge users for excessive use. The Reddit API allows developers who have no affiliation with Reddit to create their own apps, bots and otherwise interact with Reddit via programmable interfaces.

Allowing anyone to use the Reddit API has led to the creation of some of the best apps to use Reddit; Apollo is a iOS app that allows you to browse Reddit, with many agreeing that it works better than the official Reddit app. There are also bots and moderator tools build using the API to help control spam and provide accessibility to users of the site.

With the introduction of paid API, it now means these third party developers need to pay for their usage. When the pricing was revealed to users on 6 weeks after the initial announcement, it caused a site-wide backlash. The pricing would make it untenable for many app developers to continue their work and many soon announced they would be shutting down their apps.

The Reddit Blackout

And then came the blackout.

Starting on June 12th, thousands of subreddits decided to go private in protest at the proposed API changes for 2 days. Making a subreddit private meant no one could post or view content of that community.

Some of the biggest subreddits participated, including /r/apple, /r/aww, /r/gifs, /r/videos and thousands more. If you visited one of these subreddits during that time, you were greeted with a simple message:

We're now private indefinitely due to Reddit Incorporated's poor management and decisions related to third party platforms and content

So what do users do when their favorite social media network goes down? They look for alternatives.

Introducing Squabbles

We've already covered some Reddit Alternatives that have popped up in recent weeks. One that seems to have garnered a lot attention is Squabbles: you can visit the site here at squabbles.io

It has a simple UI and is very user friendly. The sign-up process doesn't require any information from you, other than a username and password; you can even sign up without an email address.

The frontpage of Squabbles is very similar to Reddit. Users can post links and make posts for their favorite communities, and other users can comment, like and even follow users who make those posts.

Challenges New Reddit Sites Face

Squabbles is a very new site, which just hit 15,000 users! Reddit has a reported 52 million daily active users. To create a content site that is as fast moving and community driven like Reddit, it's going to need a lot more users to jump ship.

Not to mention, the costs involved to run a huge site like Reddit; servicing millions of users a day isn't cheap. It also requires a huge technical team to help keep it secure, running 24/7 and rooting out spam.

Despite the Reddit Blackout happening from thousands of subreddits, many are now turning back to normal and a lot of users really don't care too much about the API costs. Getting users to ditch a perfectly good website (in their eyes) and join something that has only just started is pretty hard sell.

We'll update this post in 6 months to see where Squabbles sits among the internet and if it managed to keep up it's user growth rate.

Update (06/11/2023):

Squabbles.io has been renamed to Squabblr.co.

A lot has changed since June 15th. We now have applications for both Android and iOS! We are third-party friendly most definitely! We have chat rooms. New Communities. New users. Check us out again!

www.squabblr.co

Have you found a Reddit Alternative you like? What do you think of Squabbles and does it have a future?