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Jared Peters
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Reddit is an extremely popular site for finding news and information on the internet, but despite that popularity, it’s struggled in building up its own mobile interface. There’s no first-party app available on the Play Store, and Reddit has only recently introduced a mobile-optimized website that’s still in beta.
The good news for developers in this situation is that there is plenty of space for third-party apps to create their own interfaces, and so far we’ve got plenty of options for browsing Reddit in a mobile app. This guide is going to go over some of the best apps available to get you started.
BaconReader
BaconReader is developed by OneLouder Apps, who are also responsible for a ton of other great Android apps like TweetCaster and 1Weather. And like those other apps, BaconReader is one of the best apps on this list thanks to extensive features, a good bit of customization, and a stable, fast interface.
The app was recently updated to bring in some Material Design elements, and thanks to that it has one of the most attractive interfaces for Reddit. Comments in threads are all color-coded to make following conversations easier, and everything is collapsible for quick navigation. There are several different view modes, too, so you can view Subreddits in a list view, card view, or slideshow view, depending on your preference. Because of how image-heavy Reddit can be, the card and slideshow view are especially useful.
As far as customization goes, BaconReader offers a few different themes, including a light, dark, and pitch black mode, plus options for changing font size. It’s not the most extensively customizable app, but for most people it’s enough to tailor itself to how you like your apps to look.
BaconReader also throws in a few widgets, plus a tablet-optimized view for larger devices. It completely supports multiple user profiles, Reddit trophies, and plenty of internal formatting, covering just about all the bases that you’d want from an app.
Best of all, BaconReader is free. It’s ad-supported, with an option to make a one-time purchase to remove ads.
Relay for Reddit
Relay for Reddit, which used to be known as Reddit News before it was asked to change its name, latches on to Google’s Material Design and makes one of the best interfaces and easiest navigation experiences for Reddit. If you like card designs, floating action buttons, and slick animations (who doesn’t?) you’ll be happy with Relay.
Relay uses some standard tricks for making navigation easy, including color coded comments and multiple themes, but it also uniquely supports the option to hide any posts that you’ve already read. This turns Reddit into what’s essentially an Android notification shade, and once you’ve read a notification you can “clear” it to get it out of the way. It definitely fits in with Google’s latest mobile operating system.
Another neat trick Relay uses is its ability to load both content and comments simultaneously, and you can use a gesture to switch between the two very quickly. This means links and images are always ready to go, and it’s easy to jump right into a discussion about whatever that particular post is. But don’t worry about eating up your mobile data here, since Relay uses extremely efficient formats and compression to minimize bandwidth usage. It’s a very nice feature for anyone with a prepaid or low data cap.
There’s also support for AMA threads and functionality for searching for specific words or phrases, and a tablet optimized mode. There’s enough functionality to cover pretty much anyone’s Reddit browsing habits here.
Relay for Reddit is a free app, with an in-app purchase for $2.99 that removes ads.
Now for Reddit
Now for Reddit takes a different but effective approach at a user interface. Instead of using a Material Design UX, it opts for a more image-heavy, sliding tab interface that works extremely well, especially for an image-heavy site like Reddit. Posts shows up as cards with large images and quick shortcuts to up vote, down vote, and share content, which makes for a great experience while swiping through Subreddits.
Navigation is quick and simple, allowing you to swipe left and right through your subscriptions. This can get a little unwieldy if you subscribe to tons of different content, but as long as you keep things organized it’s an effective way to hop around your favorite Subreddits.
An extremely unique feature in Now is its focus on videos. There’s an entire section of trending videos called Reddit TV that covers everything from music to movies to games that pulls content from the currently popular videos on Reddit. It’s a very sensible feature to have considering Now’s heavy focus on images and pictures, but it’s clear that text posts aren’t the forte of this app.
The app does have other standard features you’d expect, like tablet mode, the ability to write and edit comments, and widget support are all here. If you use Reddit primarily for visual content, this free app should definitely be one of the first you try. It offers a small $2.99 in-app purchase to knock out ads.
Cast for Reddit
Cast for Reddit is a standout on this list, and not because it’s a fantastic Reddit client. It’s solid, with most features that’d you expect here; easy Subreddit browsing, a nice, Material Design inspired interface, and no ads. Cast stands out as a utility, because, as the name suggests, it’ll allow you to easily cast Reddit content to a Chromecast.
Reddit doesn’t really natively support Chromecast, and since most content tends to load within the app’s built-in browser, that can make casting pretty tricky. Cast solves this by making any video or any image able to be put on your Chromecast-enabled screen, and even offers a queue for lining up multiple pieces of content back to back.
The app does offer Subreddit recommendations, which is unique to Cast, but it functions best as a utility to complement one of the other apps or the new mobile site. Plus, it’s totally free, there are no ads, and there are several new features in the pipeline for the app, including the ability to cast any website to a television.
Closing
These are the best and most unique apps for browsing Reddit on your mobile device that should all offer an improved experience over using the mobile website. Did we miss any of your favorites? Drop a comment below and let us know.
Come comment on this article: Best Reddit apps
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