Reddit Acquires Alien Blue, The Most Popular Unofficial Reddit App
If you're even kind of active on reddit, you probably know of Alien Blue. As far as perusing reddit on iOS goes, it's pretty much the undisputed champ. — It seems reddit would agree.
Context & Ripple Effects
Reddit had begun building for mobile with a dedicated iOS app for AMA interviews in September 2014, but that product addressed one format rather than everyday browsing. Acquiring Alien Blue brings a widely used iOS Reddit client under Reddit’s control.
The acquisition also drew broad pickup across major technology and general-interest outlets, underscoring how central mobile access had become to Reddit’s audience relationship.
First-order effects
- Alien Blue’s iOS browsing experience moves from an independent developer into Reddit’s product portfolio, giving Reddit direct control over a client many of its users already know.
- Other unofficial Reddit clients face a platform owner that can pair control of Reddit’s service with ownership of a prominent competing interface.
Second-order effects
- Reddit can concentrate its mobile product efforts around an established browsing app rather than only a format-specific AMA experience, raising the importance of its own design and feature decisions for iOS users.
- Independent client developers become more dependent on differentiation outside the core browsing experience as Reddit becomes both the service operator and an app owner.
Third-order effects
- The deal points toward platform operators bringing high-usage third-party clients in-house when mobile becomes a primary entry point, consolidating control over user experience and future monetization surfaces.
The trend: Reddit is shifting from limited, feature-specific mobile experiments toward owning the main mobile interface through which users browse its communities.