Best Free Reddit Apps For iPhone, iPod touch And iPad
Reddit is the world’s most popular social news and entertainment website today, with billions of monthly pageviews and unique visitors. Now, a majority of these visitors use the desktop website, but an important fraction of them use their smartphones and tablets to get their daily doze of reddit on the go. With that in mind, we’ll be discussing five of the best reddit apps/clients for your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. If you happen to own an Android device, we’ve still got you covered with our list of the best reddit apps for Android.
Alien Blue
Alien Blue is the undisputed champion of reddit clients for iOS. It’s the most mature, feature-rich, and attractively designed reddit app that I’ve seen on any platform. Period.
Pros
- Awesome customization options: Multiple themes, Night mode, Ultra-low-contrast mode, bold post titles, the ability to change text size, show voting arrows and so much more!
- Excellent use of gestures for switching between comments, shared links and home page.
- Multiple account support so you can switch between your novelty accounts and standard-use account.
- Reddit Pics HD-like Canvas Mode for quickly viewing images.
- Optimizes content from websites with Instapaper/Readability mobilizer, images/GIFs from Imgur, and videos from YouTube
- PIN lock support
Cons
- Bugs show up from time to time in the form of GIFs that just don’t load, comments that disappear etc., but these are far and few between.
Need I say more? Get downloading!
Karma
Karma was launched a few months ago with the intention of offering a Reddit content consumption experience without all the additional bells and whistles of Alien Blue.
Pros
- Captures the essential features of reddit. Vote, read the comments, share with friends, move on.
- Excellent use of swipe gestures on front page stories for quick voting & sharing, and on user comments for quick replies.
- Elegant UI
Cons
- Somewhat unstable.
- No customization at all. I would’ve liked if it had some sort of dark/night theme, and support for larger fonts
- Some small niggles: no way to view an image/link directly if you are already in the comments section, and no way to collapse comments.
If you’re looking for a simple Reddit experience, Karma is the way to go. With an active developer, it’s only going to get better!
iReddit
iReddit is the official Reddit app for iOS and surprisingly, it’s the poorest when it comes to feature and design. Condé Nast appears to have spent no money at all at to ensure a good experience on mobile, leaving it all up to enthusiastic third-party developers.
Pros
- Neat “Serendipity Mode”: shake your iOS device to load a random piece from Reddit for those times when you’ve purpled every link.
- Comment thread collapsing, yay!
Cons
- No search option
- Looks and works like an iPhone app from 2008.
- Very limited sharing options; you can only email, save to Instapaper and open in Safari.
I feel as this app will only appeal to those users who use the desktop website without Reddit Enhancement Suite.
If you’re an iOS developer looking to sharpen your skills, you can consider contributing to the app’s development on its GitHub page.
Upvote
Upvote is the newest Reddit app for iOS. It promises to be refreshingly simple by eschewing power user features – like the ones you would see in Alien Blue – for a lightweight and fairly straightforward Reddit experience.
Pros
- The neat in-line image display feature. Most of the popular submissions on reddit are images from Imgur, so being able to see them without having to tap anything was a pleasant surprise.
- The ultra-dim mode for when you’re redditing late at night.
Cons
I feel that the app is a little too lightweight.
- App isn’t as easy-to-use as the developer claims. The buttons in the right sidebar, for example, make no sense until you try them out, only to find they aren’t exactly what you wanted.
- Among many other small niggles, there is no way to order subscribed subreddits in the left sidebar, collapse comments, or swipe gestures for moving from one page to another.
From what I have seen online though, the developer seems enthusiastic about his app, so one can expect big things from it in the future, as requested features are implemented incrementally.
Reddit Pics HD
Reddit Pics HD plays a different game. Instead of even trying to be a full-fledged Reddit client, it’s focuses solely on letting you easily see the most popular pictures and animated GIFs on Reddit.
Pros
- Comes with an ‘HD mode’ for viewing images in original resolution. This can be turned off if you are using a mobile data connection.
- An Excellent UI that never makes you second-guess your actions.
Cons
- Free version is seriously gimped with ads and inability to view comments and save or submit pictures. Pro version can be unlocked with a $4.99 in-app purchase.
Reddit Pics HD is made for people who like their daily dose of entertainment the way 9GAG serves it in form of easy-to-consume images. Highly recommended!
Download Reddit Pics HD For iOS
For full reddit client I’d choose AlienBlue. For pictures only Flippit is better than Reddit Pics.
Alien blue hands down is the best.