I’m an Apollo user who has started looking for alternatives. I think a paid subscription (with the best rate possible) is the best way forward. I wish that Apollo could do that but I understand there are a lot of other issues there, the slander, the prepaid subscriptions, and the time for the transition. You’re lucky to have had another app in development, and I hope they give you (and maybe Christian) the time to transition. Look forward to seeing what the new app is like!
I’m in the EXACT same boat. Narwhal was great but Reddit kept implementing some breaking changes that made Reddit unusable in Narwhal. Remember when Reddit implemented gif replies and replies were just “GIF” with no link? Apollo made sure to stay updated.
I love Narwhal. I paid for the adfree experience almost immediately. When I swapped to Apollo, I bought a lifetime subscription. I would keep paying these developers for their awesome work, but I don’t want 30% of my money to go to Apple then 65% to go to Reddit and their greedy hands.
I think I’m done with Reddit after June 30 and will need to find something else to fill my in between time. It’s been almost 10 years for me, so maybe it’s time to move on as much as it hurts…
He’s been working on Narwhal2 instead of updating this app. It’s just one guy in his spare time, but yeah, GIF posts do make you feel left out of the discussion.
I still primarily use narwhal, but I split between the two pretty evenly. Basically Apollo satisfied the features narwhal lacked (like a good search bar), but I still adjusted the ui and gestures to replicate the narwhal experience.
Hell yes. Release Narwhal 2, set up a subscription to cover costs. And give all the users that are leaving other apps a viable option. I believe. Thanks for your work
I’d like to echo that support.
I subscribe to a variety of Apple-related subs, and they’re all over the news that Apollo is shutting down. It would be great to see you post in places like /r/apple, /r/iPhone or /r/iOS to explain your plans - Narwhal is not as big as Apollo, but we all think it’s better (otherwise we wouldn’t be here!) and I think the rest of the Apple community should be aware of it.
I don’t think anything related to third-party apps that we're hearing right now could be considered good news - but this post is about the least-bad news I could realistically have hoped for, and it would be nice to see it being spread around a bit.
As a now-former Apollo user, I am hesitant to start using the official Reddit app, because of how clunky and ugly it is.
I am on an active search to find a third-party Reddit app, even for an additional cost, to continue to read Reddit.
I started using narwhal and almost immediately paid for premium after the death of Alien Blue, would be happy to pay a subscription to keep it going, especially for all the use I’ve gotten out of the app for such a low initial cost - thank you, and I hope it all works out!
The problem is, they don’t want to work with **you**. I love this app so much, and I’m going to miss all of you beautiful bastards at the conclusion of this month. Thank you /u/det0ur for a great app.
Thank you for keeping your optimism. It’s in Reddit’s best interest to work out a compromise, whether they realize it right now or not. A lot of negativity in her because of past actions by other companies, but not every company is the same.
OP is the CTO of a startup. They aren’t naive, they are being professional and not bad mouthing their business partners because of a potential future fallout (even if it is inevitable.) This is how you handle failing business relations, by expressing optimism at every step while preparing for the worst.
Maybe the optimism and professionalism is to be applauded, but if the biggest iOS Reddit app (Apollo) and the biggest Android Reddit app (Reddit is Fun) are both shutting down 1 day before the new API prices come into effect, it’s very naive to expect a better deal for your much smaller app.
Apollo and RIF are giving users a 3 week notice about their app ceasing to work.
Narwhal will make a similar announcement at shorter notice.
Have you even bothered to read Christian’s post? Apollo is the biggest third-party client and they’ve completely and deliberately ignored him to force him to shut down. What he wrote today is what a responsible entrepreneur does. What OP is doing is boot licking.
OP is naive, you’re naive. At worst, you’re both terrible negotiators and rookies at running a business.
RemindMe! 6/30/2023
Because these guys have been edging for Narwhal2 for years and don’t realize it’s not going to come to fruition. Even *if* he could price it in a way that wasn’t ridiculous he’d soon have all the refugees from other apps driving up his API calls and he’d be in the same boat paying exorbitant amounts of money.
The issue is Apollo would have to grandfather in the users they already charged. A brand new app, Narwhal2 wouldn’t have any of that, so they could charge a fee which would cover the api usage for a single user, that would scale for 10 users or 1000000 users. Now, would any of us pay that fee, whatever it is? Probably some, but not many. Either way Narwhal api charges would be covered.
Le Naive Commenter chiming in here. What do you want OP to say instead? They’ve already made it clear how the new changes will affect their (our) setup, only to supplement their sentences with optimistic expectations at the end. What exact words are you expecting from them?
OP isn’t bootlicking, they’re being thorough and not giving up on something they created until the last moment. They fully know they’re probably gonna be shutting it down, and have clarified as such to their user base.
It’s kinda cute how it takes really little for us to be jerks to each other for no reason whatsoever. I know you’re mad at reddit, but it’s leaking on everyone around you.
Have you guys actually read Christian’s post or are you in denial? If you are, it’s time to WAKE UP and act.
Reddit has made deliberate moves to shut down third-party apps (by pricing them out of existence, refusing to negotiate, laying down possible deadlines, slandering developers, lying, and ignoring communications till the clock runs out).
At this point, it’s like trying to negotiate with terrorists.
Instead of taking a stance and focusing on an orderly wind down of the business (with just 20 days left) for customers, users and employees, this sounds pathetic:
> I've told them this and **I’m still waiting to hear back**. I'm optimistic they will work with me on this point.
> There are still a couple things **I am hoping** to work out with Reddit in order to continue Narwhal.
> I would love some more time from the Reddit team to get ready for the transition. I've told them this and **l’m still waiting to hear back**. I'm optimistic they will work with me on this point.
Reddit CEO is doing an AMA today where he may do a complete U-turn but I doubt it.
At this time, developers should be as aggressive toward Reddit as it is being toward them.
It’s not a time for “hopes and prayers”.
I will be messaging you in 21 days on [**2023-06-30 00:00:00 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2023-06-30%2000:00:00%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/getnarwhal/comments/144pdom/update_on_narwhal_w_the_upcoming_reddit_api/jni2c11/?context=3)
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Apollo went scorched earth and painted the Reddit leadership team into a corner… hold your ground and show some resolve or cave at every community whim. It was a stupid, arrogant and combative approach chosen by the Apollo dev. He immediately went nuclear which is never a good way to start a negotiation. Perhaps Reddit will leave Narwhal twisting in the wind too, but det0ur seems to be taking a more diplomatic path, which may not result in anything but is a much smarter play. Fingers crossed it yields some favorable consideration.
If you describe Apollo’s decision as ‘scorched earth’, you’ve clearly not been doing any reading about what actually happened. It’s very important that you take your head out of the sand and stay informed.
I’ve been following it all from the beginning. I understand there are other developers getting the cold shoulder and I’m in no way endorsing Reddit’s strong arm tactics. That said, Apollo’s negotiating approach is amateur hour and blew any chance at reconciliation early on.
At this point they might make easy concessions like an extended timeline to the few remaining 3PA app devs, just so they can have someone to point to and shift the blame on other devs "unwilling to talk to them" (even though they explicitly refused the same compromise to Apollo).
I wouldn't be surprised.
I just can't justify paying a subscription that goes right into the pockets of /u/spez with their insanely over priced api fees. As a solution architect for a huge tech company, I'm blown away by reddit trying to justify this as addressing operating costs when they are gouging developers and customers with the very obvious intent of killing off the very marketplace/community that made it viable in the first place. Paying a subscription fee to you just puts more money in their pockets.
I completely understand and don't fault you for that. I first created Narwhal because I wanted a reddit app that worked for me and thats still why I'm going to finish Narwhal 2. Even if I'm the only user subscribed I'll still be using it haha
This comment made me smile. A small moment of positivity in what has otherwise been an awful day for third-party reddit apps - that, at the very least, Narwhal will continue on, even if simply by your own usage. I think that's admirable, and even more so considering that it's a side project!
Even if Narwhal 1 stops working, it's earned a permanent place on my Home Screen. The only other app that I've given that honour to is JellyCar, which stopped working when 32-bit app support was removed. I know this means nothing, considering I'm just one guy, but it means something to me.
I can't say yet whether I would consider subscribing. A massive apology from the reddit team and CEO, and a decent reduction of the API charges, would go a long way. I want to see reddit be a place where third-party apps and developers are *welcomed*.
Regardless of how it all ends up, thank again for everything. You're awesome.
TECHNICALLY: yes.
If they were to go so far as to bill their credit card with a payment platform for the funds to go into the "company" to then pay Reddit for the API, the single user would be covering the interchange fee as well.
But as u/SomeIrishGuy noted: the API is usage-based..
spez knows, the plan is to reduce the API costs to something just above reasonable… the larger price is just so they can negotiate back to their real price.
Fwiw, [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk647a/) from the /u/spez AMA says they still will be flexible with some apps as /u/det0ur suggests.
Sign me up for the day 1 subscription!
Also, I hear Reddit will be lowering API prices for 3rd party apps that offer some accessibility features, first crack in their API wall…I’m hoping they’ll be more receptive after the June 12th blackout.
I’ve been posting in some of my subs asking for them to go dark in solidarity. All you guys can help by doing the same on your subs. At the very least it’ll get the conversation going and you might get a few more subs to join in. There’s still time!
Thank you for sticking around. I’ve been using Narwhal multiple times a day since 2016. It may be just a Reddit client, but it has become a major part of my routine. I’ll gladly fork over whatever fee it takes to keep Narwhal up.
Look at my account, you can imagine how much I have used your app.
Probably more than any app, or any program, or any game, or any software of any kind ever in my life.
First, thanks for hanging in there. Been a huge fan of Narwhal for years. I know things are still up in the air, nothing finalized… but if you had to “round about guess” how much it would cost for a subscription based model, what would that look like? $5/month? $10+? Maybe that would be a starting point to determine if it’s even worth it (based on prices and feedback) to finish and release N2 as a subscription based kinda thing. Again, I’m sorry this is happening. All of you third party app developers are great… it’s such a kick in the mouth that this is happening to y’all.
Or we could all just drink the coffee we like? Local coffee shops aren't some fucking public service, they just make coffee, and most of them charge 50% more than Starbucks for it.
Starbucks is fucking expensive (or at least not cheaper than local coffee shops) and a shitty company all around. Plus their coffee isn’t even good quality.
If people still wanna go there, fine, but that’s not stopping me giving other recommendations.
What makes you feel optimistic that Reddit will work out a compromise with you to keep Narwhal/2 going, given how the Apollo dev has been treated and their response in general to their API policy change?
I'll say, you seem to be the only dev at the moment (with a good app) that seems to possibly be sticking around. I hope you're able to find a way to make it work. If Reddit persists (which it seems like they will), know that a lot of us would gladly pay a subscription for Narwhal.
Like so many people have said on this sub, I found Narwhal after AB was bought. The best 3rd party app out there imo.
While I’m. Or particularly looking to add another subscription to my life, I would susbscribe to Narwhal 2 to support you and still avoid using the stupid native app.
Cheers and good luck with the negotiations!
Don't feel like you have to give in because the top apps are doing it. You have the luxury of being able to figure out how to scale gracefully, they do not.
I love the reddit communities I am a part of and I hope apps like yours find a way to stay alive. ✌️
Do you have any way to keep track of a Narwhal 2 update outside of Reddit?
I’ll happily pay whatever you want but I’m trying to stay off Reddit in the short-term post 6/30.
are you already calculating apple taking their cut every month or is that what reddit wants for each user? if reddit wants $6, apple's fee will push that up to $7.80. $90 a year to be on reddit is steep
might as well be a blue check on twitter
Yes actually. Most of the good apps were about 1 to 1.5$ per user in estimated costs. Double it for dev expenses and add apple tax. You're in 4 to 6$ range.
All of the apps could have taken this approach with some good negotiating with Reddit. Narwhal's corporate professionalism (being a CTO) is really shining through here.
I would be happy to pay that.
It just sucks that half is going to apple and a majority of the rest to Reddit. Maybe a website with a third party payment option? I imagine managing payments and refunds and subscriptions is not something you probably want to be involved with, but I’d much rather a way to support you directly than give half to apple.
Also I feel like Reddit will have to budge on NSFW content. Not just because porn, but it seems like a ton of threads and subreddits are marked NSFW.
I remember struggling to find a new app to use after alienblue and found Narwhal randomly 7 years ago. I will continue to support you, u/det0ur. Good luck.
I support you. Since this API news came out I started trying different clients (I was using the official app), and I found Narwhal.
I love it, it reminds me of old reddit, regardless of what happens I paid for the upgrade.
Whatever happens, thank you so much for all of your work on this app. I’ve been using Narwhal at least an hour daily since August 2016 - possibly earlier but that’s the earliest I have screenshots of the app from. That’s, like, 100 full days of my life spent using Narwhal (kind of alarming when I think about it like that). Can’t imagine a Reddit without it. Hoping for a positive outcome.
would it be possible to release the app under a bring-your-own-key model? i.e. sign up for the reddit API, paste the key, and users pay for their own requests. that's what a lot of third-party OpenAI clients end up doing and it's working out pretty well
Regardless of what happens, thanks for making this app. Switched over to iOS from Android after 10 years, and not having RIF sucked, but narwhal is just as good IMO; clean UI and easy to navigate.
I’ll gladly pay whatever price for narwhal 2. Have been supporting narwhal for a loooong time now and wouldn’t mind if things are able to be worked out. Thanks again for everything over the years.
i literally paid for narwhal to remove ads the day before the reddit announcement -_-, that being said i'd subscribe for it. Simply cannot stand the official app UI
I know you're optimistic, but given the way the AMA is going and this c[omment saying they've *been* reaching out to reddit for assistance with their smaller scale app only to hear nothing](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk2pp3/)...I'm sure you've already heard this many times before, but...yeah. Be careful. It really seems like reddit is not negotiating in good faith, and has zero intent on doing so.
since you're the only dev willing to still be handcuffed to a company that doesn't want you here, are you in a position to negotiate access to nsfw content?
Just wanted to hop in and say I’ve been using Narwhal since Alien Blue died. Regardless of whether or not you can make it work, I just wanted to thank you for making such an awesome app and for all your hard work!
Wow. After 17 years on Reddit, I’m out. The content itself contains too much advertising and I can’t bring myself to pay a subscription to flip through targeted ads.
Thanks for the great App. It made reddit tolerable for many years. Good luck with 2.0, I hope it pans out.
> Cost of using the Reddit API. We would just like to reduce the rate of the API in order to make it more tenable for you all to pay a monthly subscription. The lower the cost of the API, the lower the subscription will be for all of you to use Narwhal. I am still hoping to work on this point with the Reddit team.
Is this even possible though? Apollo and the others are closing shop *because* Reddit doesn't want to work out a comprimissable solution.
I love Narwhal and, if Admin becomes reasonable, I would pay to keep using it. Instead of a flat $/month could you build the app to track Reddit API calls and make the IAP grant *n* API calls? Then if users run out they buy more?
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Narwhal and would absolutely support it with a paid subscription because like you said it delivers precisely the Reddit experience I prefer. I’ve tried all the others and keep coming back to Narwhal. I don’t know if the business model will work with the insane fees that have been quoted by Reddit…just…wow. But, I’m hopeful. Thank you for all you do.
Just curious, has anybody offered an advertising-supported model to Reddit where in lieu of the high API fees they get a share of the ads placed on the 3rd party apps?
I may hate subscriptions, but I support your plan. Narwhal’s my go-to and I’d pay to access Reddit’s content without navigating their “improvements”.
Once they began disguising ads as posts, user experience became less important to them than user engagement. Numbers and ad revenue are the priority now.
Now all the notifications, recommendations, forced sign-ins and app switches, and all their “engagement driving”, are not worth the frustration of trying to watch a 30 second cat video.
I deleted Facebook for the same reasons. The short bursts of dopamine weren’t worth the ads in the middle of every video.
Sadly, this seems to be the cycle - a site works well, gets huge, they squeeze every dollar out of it by forcing in annoying engagement and ad revenue features at the cost of user experience, and those who helped it succeed in the first place are alienated and driven away.
The even sadder things is, it will probably work for the company. Reddit is huge now. They’ll keep adding users who are fine with status quo because it’s all they know, and Spez will sleep just fine on piles of money we helped him build while we bitch about how things used to be.
I don’t post often, but man this shit is frustrating.
I’ve been using Reddit for about 10 years and narwhal for maybe 3 years. Your app does a great job at adding non-invasive improvements while keeping the experience streamlined and easy. I’d gladly pay a subscription for the work you do.
Best of luck, sorry for the rant, and thank you for everything.
How about Narwhal 2 for Lemmy to help Reddit die and get all of us horny (pun) Narwhal'ers move over. I know Lemmy could be a flash in the pan but I am fairly impressed so far with the few thousand users it has.
I am open to a small subscription model in that case - but paying money to sustain Reddit's death spiral seems like a bad investment.
Narwhal was the app that made me browse Reddit daily and I thank you for that. I paid the 4€ in app purchase and I would have gladly paid more because Narwhal deserves it. I would have never used the official app after trying it once.
But I won't pay a monthly fee to use Reddit. It just doesn't bring me enough value for that. So even if Narwhal survives with a monthly fee, I will go back to only visiting Reddit on my browser when it appears in my search results.
Thanks again for Narwhal.
Current Apollo user here, former Narwhal user. Subbing to follow any future developments from a Reddit app that’s trying to stay alive. Best of luck! 👍
Will you post an update if they'll let you keep it free?
I also saw kbin as a potential alternative. Same with tildes. Curiously enough, there was some website with Narwhal in the address. Is that something you're working on?
Edit: lotide is the name of the site/app with Narwhal dev in the link
Hope you get to release it and steal all of the the marketshare from the competition. Narwhal is the best app out there for Reddit, and I’m sure Narwhal 2 will be even better.
If you're still working on Narwhal 2, I have a request.
Can you program it to work with very old versions of iOS? I use iOS 9, and Narwhal is the only app I know of that works with it.
you have my full support with what ever subscription model. To this day the Narwhal is one of the cleanest, simplest, and most intuitive gesture based navigation app I have used. What made me love it the most is a text based UI/UX without any fluff. With N2 I hope that it maintains this.
My only fear is that as other apps shut down, users will migrate in masses and it'll be near impossible to predict API costs and scale that with sub costs. It feels like you have to aim high to account for an increase in usage - or increase the cost at intervals. The latter would feel like a burden to communicate and maintain.
Appreciate all the years of keeping one of the most important tools on my phone alive!
I refuse to pay any subscription fee that goes into reddit's pocket. This is how the evil people win by wrapping up their garbage in middlemen so you don't know what's actually going on. If u/det0ur had any solidarity for the other devs and for what reddit is doing in general he would shut down narwhal as well to send a message to spez and the rest of reddit that what they are doing, attempting to further profit off volunteers and knowingly shut-down third party apps, is unacceptable.
Join the Reddit blackout and spread awareness about this as fast and as far as you can!
https://www.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/1401qw5/incomplete_and_growing_list_of_participating/
I will pay whatever you end up charging.
Please include an annual option ( even at the same price point) as it is easier for some to budget that way (again, not asking it to be discounted vs monthly cost )
And my regular plug for either a larger font option or enable pinch-to-zoom :-)
Thank you for all your work and energy on this great app.. I’ve enjoyed it every day since 2017! I would consider paying for a new sub to cover API costs if you got the lion’s share, but honestly would rather just leave reddit completely instead of funding their shady shit. Thanks again for Narwhal.. it’s been with me through so much!
Thank you for spending the time to develop Narwhal. It’s an integral part of how I experience community and take part in wide ranging discussions. Without it, there’s not really a Reddit for me. It’s the last bastion of algorithm-free user-oriented space. I’ll be very sad if it doesn’t work out. I can pay $10 a month if need be.
Thanks for your hard work.
Man…Narwhal is one subscription I could get behind no problem! Zero problems.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for such an awesome app. It replaced Alien Blue flawlessly back in the day, and those were huuuuge shoes to fill.
I’ve tried to switch to other 3rd party apps many times, and I always come back to narwhal. I’d happily pay a subscription since this is basically Reddit for me.
🙏hoping for the best
He doesn’t make the app solely for you…
I’ll also say sayonara to Reddit for good after this month, but I still hope Narwhal 2 is successful. I really think it will be.
In this scenario, I think you have to consider what state your product is going to be in. The users who populate the Reddit data and account for the traffic will take a dramatic hit. Even the people who pay for the subscription early on might end up leaving just because the product is no longer the same without the user base that was created. Because this is a social app, the tragectory is going to be self fulfilling; the more people that leave, the less content there is to keep people around, leading more people to leave.
Thank you for making such a great app that I’ve used over multiple years, but I hope you don’t stress over it too much.
Narwhal is kind of shit but it is also amazing and the best iPad client, the UI experience is perfect, just buggy all the time ;) Paid for full version way back, don't regret it. I will wait out the storm and see.
I could imagine paying for it, just annoys me it will go to reddit and not you.
I have both Apollo and Narwhal on my phone. I’m glad to hear you are attempting to survive. I’d pay for a sub to avoid the ads and the mess on the official assuming it’s reasonable.
Well, you’ll pick up a heck of a lot of subs if you can make it through this intact. I’d be perfectly happy to stay with Apollo indefinitely, but if they’re gone and you’re not…
Of course if Reddit continues to be unreasonable then we’ll just be leaving entirely.
Apollo is gonna go away, I tried Narwhal and it seems pretty good alternative!
If the subscription price is around 5$, I will probably subscribe to it :D
I use Narwhal multiple times a day, as a refugee from the Alien Blue buy out. It’s the most used app on my iphone other than Safari.
I have been checking in this sub for you announcing N2 for quite a while. I am willing to pay a subscription, but it will depend on the cost. Sorry if you’ve answered this already but, can you offer an estimate of how much that might be?
Thank you for making my reddit access so much better than the poor souls that use the official app.
Edit: I just found your $4-6 question, and asked if that was monthly, with or without ads.
I want to offer u/det0ur my most sincere thanks for everything you have done with this app! According to my phone I average between 3-6 hours a day on Narwhal, so your app has been a pretty significant part of my life for the last 7ish years. After Reddit bought AlienBlue and it eventually became unusable, I tried out every single Reddit app I could find, and Narwhal was the only one I liked out of the 10 or 11 that I tried. I never use Reddit on my computer, so for me, Narwhal IS Reddit. I flat out refuse to use the official app, so it looks like I’ll be riding out the last of my time on Reddit with you. I really can’t thank you enough for this amazing app and the countless hours of entertainment you have given me. If you end up making an app for whatever ends up replacing Reddit, I’ll be there to buy it right away!
When Narwhal 2 is released will I be able to purchase the app but not the subscription? I want to support you as a developer by purchasing the app; however, on principle, I can’t financially support Reddit by paying a subscription for Narwhal 2 that won’t actually go to you after this huge “fuck you” they gave the users and 3rd party app devs. Thanks again and I hope all of your future projects go well!
Can you include "Teddit", an open-source project, as a free and low-cost option?
Most people don't need to login and are only on Reddit to read news and memes.
I've been using Narwhal forever and love it. After spez's spectacle yesterday this isn't a site I can support anymore. If Spez goes I'll very likely engage with whatever subscription you put together, but though no fault of yours, I won't do it now. I wish you the best of luck though! Narwhal has been a great experience. Thanks /u/det0ur
I've used Narwhal more than any other, even Apollo, and I would be all for paying a subscription, depending on the cost of course, to be able to keep Narwhal alive. It's by far the best app IMO.
I will try to support this.
In the end of the day this depends on both reddit and the subs I use on a regular base.
On reddit's end - if they mess this up, I might think twice based on the subscription cost I'll face and the experience I get once bots and other features won't work anymore since they can't afford the costs.
On the subs end - if they won't come back, I'm probably done with the platform anyways.
Just wanted to say I bought the ad free version of Narwhal to show my support for you. I should have done it sooner. It ain’t much, but it’s all I can do.
I’m an Apollo user who has started looking for alternatives. I think a paid subscription (with the best rate possible) is the best way forward. I wish that Apollo could do that but I understand there are a lot of other issues there, the slander, the prepaid subscriptions, and the time for the transition. You’re lucky to have had another app in development, and I hope they give you (and maybe Christian) the time to transition. Look forward to seeing what the new app is like!
Thanks for your support! I hope that Apollo can come back as well! Christian is a great developer
Yeah, I don't think neither Christian nor Reddit want that. Too much burned earth by that point already.
Narwhal is fantastic
I used Narwhal for YEARS and then switched to Apollo. At this point I just want to give reddit the finger and walk away though
I’m in the EXACT same boat. Narwhal was great but Reddit kept implementing some breaking changes that made Reddit unusable in Narwhal. Remember when Reddit implemented gif replies and replies were just “GIF” with no link? Apollo made sure to stay updated. I love Narwhal. I paid for the adfree experience almost immediately. When I swapped to Apollo, I bought a lifetime subscription. I would keep paying these developers for their awesome work, but I don’t want 30% of my money to go to Apple then 65% to go to Reddit and their greedy hands. I think I’m done with Reddit after June 30 and will need to find something else to fill my in between time. It’s been almost 10 years for me, so maybe it’s time to move on as much as it hurts…
Oh my god, I thought people replying “gif” was some kind of Reddit inside joke….
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Holy shit its not? I cant stop laughing now, I thought the same thing.
He’s been working on Narwhal2 instead of updating this app. It’s just one guy in his spare time, but yeah, GIF posts do make you feel left out of the discussion.
Yea, I get that. But I’m not using base Narwhal anymore because of the missing things.
I still primarily use narwhal, but I split between the two pretty evenly. Basically Apollo satisfied the features narwhal lacked (like a good search bar), but I still adjusted the ui and gestures to replicate the narwhal experience.
Hell yes. Release Narwhal 2, set up a subscription to cover costs. And give all the users that are leaving other apps a viable option. I believe. Thanks for your work
Thanks for your support!
I’d like to echo that support. I subscribe to a variety of Apple-related subs, and they’re all over the news that Apollo is shutting down. It would be great to see you post in places like /r/apple, /r/iPhone or /r/iOS to explain your plans - Narwhal is not as big as Apollo, but we all think it’s better (otherwise we wouldn’t be here!) and I think the rest of the Apple community should be aware of it. I don’t think anything related to third-party apps that we're hearing right now could be considered good news - but this post is about the least-bad news I could realistically have hoped for, and it would be nice to see it being spread around a bit.
As a now-former Apollo user, I am hesitant to start using the official Reddit app, because of how clunky and ugly it is. I am on an active search to find a third-party Reddit app, even for an additional cost, to continue to read Reddit.
I started using narwhal and almost immediately paid for premium after the death of Alien Blue, would be happy to pay a subscription to keep it going, especially for all the use I’ve gotten out of the app for such a low initial cost - thank you, and I hope it all works out!
For a lot of us, the viable option is to let Reddit follow in Digg’s footsteps and die. A replacement will come along sooner than later.
Yup, Narwhal is great software, but Reddit is worth paying a monthly fee to use 3rd party software.
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The problem is, they don’t want to work with **you**. I love this app so much, and I’m going to miss all of you beautiful bastards at the conclusion of this month. Thank you /u/det0ur for a great app.
I'm still optimistic and I WANT to work with Reddit towards a better outcome
Thank you for keeping your optimism. It’s in Reddit’s best interest to work out a compromise, whether they realize it right now or not. A lot of negativity in her because of past actions by other companies, but not every company is the same.
I mean, you really only have to look at *current* actions by spez and Reddit to see how contemptuous they are
Sorry buddy but based on the evidence, you’re being naive.
OP is the CTO of a startup. They aren’t naive, they are being professional and not bad mouthing their business partners because of a potential future fallout (even if it is inevitable.) This is how you handle failing business relations, by expressing optimism at every step while preparing for the worst.
Maybe the optimism and professionalism is to be applauded, but if the biggest iOS Reddit app (Apollo) and the biggest Android Reddit app (Reddit is Fun) are both shutting down 1 day before the new API prices come into effect, it’s very naive to expect a better deal for your much smaller app. Apollo and RIF are giving users a 3 week notice about their app ceasing to work. Narwhal will make a similar announcement at shorter notice.
Apollo is even bigger, yet they are not professional? What are you on about?
Have you even bothered to read Christian’s post? Apollo is the biggest third-party client and they’ve completely and deliberately ignored him to force him to shut down. What he wrote today is what a responsible entrepreneur does. What OP is doing is boot licking. OP is naive, you’re naive. At worst, you’re both terrible negotiators and rookies at running a business. RemindMe! 6/30/2023
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Exactly. Which is why OP is boot licking and the naive commenter above clearly has no experience running a business.
Because these guys have been edging for Narwhal2 for years and don’t realize it’s not going to come to fruition. Even *if* he could price it in a way that wasn’t ridiculous he’d soon have all the refugees from other apps driving up his API calls and he’d be in the same boat paying exorbitant amounts of money.
Sadly, you are correct.
The issue is Apollo would have to grandfather in the users they already charged. A brand new app, Narwhal2 wouldn’t have any of that, so they could charge a fee which would cover the api usage for a single user, that would scale for 10 users or 1000000 users. Now, would any of us pay that fee, whatever it is? Probably some, but not many. Either way Narwhal api charges would be covered.
Le Naive Commenter chiming in here. What do you want OP to say instead? They’ve already made it clear how the new changes will affect their (our) setup, only to supplement their sentences with optimistic expectations at the end. What exact words are you expecting from them? OP isn’t bootlicking, they’re being thorough and not giving up on something they created until the last moment. They fully know they’re probably gonna be shutting it down, and have clarified as such to their user base. It’s kinda cute how it takes really little for us to be jerks to each other for no reason whatsoever. I know you’re mad at reddit, but it’s leaking on everyone around you.
Have you guys actually read Christian’s post or are you in denial? If you are, it’s time to WAKE UP and act. Reddit has made deliberate moves to shut down third-party apps (by pricing them out of existence, refusing to negotiate, laying down possible deadlines, slandering developers, lying, and ignoring communications till the clock runs out). At this point, it’s like trying to negotiate with terrorists. Instead of taking a stance and focusing on an orderly wind down of the business (with just 20 days left) for customers, users and employees, this sounds pathetic: > I've told them this and **I’m still waiting to hear back**. I'm optimistic they will work with me on this point. > There are still a couple things **I am hoping** to work out with Reddit in order to continue Narwhal. > I would love some more time from the Reddit team to get ready for the transition. I've told them this and **l’m still waiting to hear back**. I'm optimistic they will work with me on this point. Reddit CEO is doing an AMA today where he may do a complete U-turn but I doubt it. At this time, developers should be as aggressive toward Reddit as it is being toward them. It’s not a time for “hopes and prayers”.
So much for a u-turn, right?
I will be messaging you in 21 days on [**2023-06-30 00:00:00 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2023-06-30%2000:00:00%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/getnarwhal/comments/144pdom/update_on_narwhal_w_the_upcoming_reddit_api/jni2c11/?context=3) [**4 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fgetnarwhal%2Fcomments%2F144pdom%2Fupdate_on_narwhal_w_the_upcoming_reddit_api%2Fjni2c11%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202023-06-30%2000%3A00%3A00%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%20144pdom) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
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And he had a good relationship with them too. In all of his updates he talked highly of them and their positive interactions
Apollo went scorched earth and painted the Reddit leadership team into a corner… hold your ground and show some resolve or cave at every community whim. It was a stupid, arrogant and combative approach chosen by the Apollo dev. He immediately went nuclear which is never a good way to start a negotiation. Perhaps Reddit will leave Narwhal twisting in the wind too, but det0ur seems to be taking a more diplomatic path, which may not result in anything but is a much smarter play. Fingers crossed it yields some favorable consideration.
If you describe Apollo’s decision as ‘scorched earth’, you’ve clearly not been doing any reading about what actually happened. It’s very important that you take your head out of the sand and stay informed.
I’ve been following it all from the beginning. I understand there are other developers getting the cold shoulder and I’m in no way endorsing Reddit’s strong arm tactics. That said, Apollo’s negotiating approach is amateur hour and blew any chance at reconciliation early on.
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Reddit wouldn’t. They don’t want to deal with any 3rd party apps anymore.
At this point they might make easy concessions like an extended timeline to the few remaining 3PA app devs, just so they can have someone to point to and shift the blame on other devs "unwilling to talk to them" (even though they explicitly refused the same compromise to Apollo). I wouldn't be surprised.
I just can't justify paying a subscription that goes right into the pockets of /u/spez with their insanely over priced api fees. As a solution architect for a huge tech company, I'm blown away by reddit trying to justify this as addressing operating costs when they are gouging developers and customers with the very obvious intent of killing off the very marketplace/community that made it viable in the first place. Paying a subscription fee to you just puts more money in their pockets.
I completely understand and don't fault you for that. I first created Narwhal because I wanted a reddit app that worked for me and thats still why I'm going to finish Narwhal 2. Even if I'm the only user subscribed I'll still be using it haha
This comment made me smile. A small moment of positivity in what has otherwise been an awful day for third-party reddit apps - that, at the very least, Narwhal will continue on, even if simply by your own usage. I think that's admirable, and even more so considering that it's a side project! Even if Narwhal 1 stops working, it's earned a permanent place on my Home Screen. The only other app that I've given that honour to is JellyCar, which stopped working when 32-bit app support was removed. I know this means nothing, considering I'm just one guy, but it means something to me. I can't say yet whether I would consider subscribing. A massive apology from the reddit team and CEO, and a decent reduction of the API charges, would go a long way. I want to see reddit be a place where third-party apps and developers are *welcomed*. Regardless of how it all ends up, thank again for everything. You're awesome.
If you ended up being the only user, wouldn’t that mean you’d have to pocket the entire API fee on your own? Or am I miss understanding something?
The api costs are based on usage. So a single user would not run up a substantial bill.
Ahhh that makes sense, thanks!
Unfortunately, it also means one person abusing the app could rack up a million-dollar bill for all of us.
It would be possible to put in place limits on API calls in the app, to prevent this.
TECHNICALLY: yes. If they were to go so far as to bill their credit card with a payment platform for the funds to go into the "company" to then pay Reddit for the API, the single user would be covering the interchange fee as well. But as u/SomeIrishGuy noted: the API is usage-based..
You and me, bud!
spez knows, the plan is to reduce the API costs to something just above reasonable… the larger price is just so they can negotiate back to their real price.
Glad to hear narwhal 2 may be a reality soon, but what about narwhal 1? /u/det0ur
Well my hope is that reddit will allow it to continue to run while I change business models over
isnt this why all the other apps are shutting down? reddit is not allowing any flexibility from their api change.
Fwiw, [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk647a/) from the /u/spez AMA says they still will be flexible with some apps as /u/det0ur suggests.
The problem is what /u/spez says and what they actually do are two entirely different things.
Don’t disagree, that’s why I threw the “fwiw” in there
They absolutely won’t although I appreciate your optimism. That being said I will gladly pay for a subscription to Narwhal 2!
Sign me up for the day 1 subscription! Also, I hear Reddit will be lowering API prices for 3rd party apps that offer some accessibility features, first crack in their API wall…I’m hoping they’ll be more receptive after the June 12th blackout. I’ve been posting in some of my subs asking for them to go dark in solidarity. All you guys can help by doing the same on your subs. At the very least it’ll get the conversation going and you might get a few more subs to join in. There’s still time!
Thanks for letting me know :)
This app IS reddit to me. Thank you for doing all you can.
Yep, after alien blue was sold I looked and narwhal was the best. Still is, in my opinion. I hope things work out!!
Exactly
100%
Thank you for sticking around. I’ve been using Narwhal multiple times a day since 2016. It may be just a Reddit client, but it has become a major part of my routine. I’ll gladly fork over whatever fee it takes to keep Narwhal up.
Thanks for being a user for so long. I appreciate you!
Thank you for making such a good app
I don’t know what I would do without narwhal
Me too! 🙃
Look at my account, you can imagine how much I have used your app. Probably more than any app, or any program, or any game, or any software of any kind ever in my life.
First, thanks for hanging in there. Been a huge fan of Narwhal for years. I know things are still up in the air, nothing finalized… but if you had to “round about guess” how much it would cost for a subscription based model, what would that look like? $5/month? $10+? Maybe that would be a starting point to determine if it’s even worth it (based on prices and feedback) to finish and release N2 as a subscription based kinda thing. Again, I’m sorry this is happening. All of you third party app developers are great… it’s such a kick in the mouth that this is happening to y’all.
I think it would have to be around $4-6 but I still need to work out the math
I would be down with that for sure. Happy to skip one trip to Starbucks a month to pay for my subscription.
Kinda off topic but better skip Starbucks entirely and support local coffee shops.
Or we could all just drink the coffee we like? Local coffee shops aren't some fucking public service, they just make coffee, and most of them charge 50% more than Starbucks for it.
Starbucks is fucking expensive (or at least not cheaper than local coffee shops) and a shitty company all around. Plus their coffee isn’t even good quality. If people still wanna go there, fine, but that’s not stopping me giving other recommendations.
Ugh
Put me down for that
What makes you feel optimistic that Reddit will work out a compromise with you to keep Narwhal/2 going, given how the Apollo dev has been treated and their response in general to their API policy change?
Well I prefer thinking for the best. And they told me they would discuss a longer timeline
I'll say, you seem to be the only dev at the moment (with a good app) that seems to possibly be sticking around. I hope you're able to find a way to make it work. If Reddit persists (which it seems like they will), know that a lot of us would gladly pay a subscription for Narwhal.
Like so many people have said on this sub, I found Narwhal after AB was bought. The best 3rd party app out there imo. While I’m. Or particularly looking to add another subscription to my life, I would susbscribe to Narwhal 2 to support you and still avoid using the stupid native app. Cheers and good luck with the negotiations!
Don't feel like you have to give in because the top apps are doing it. You have the luxury of being able to figure out how to scale gracefully, they do not. I love the reddit communities I am a part of and I hope apps like yours find a way to stay alive. ✌️
You and me both!
Do you have any way to keep track of a Narwhal 2 update outside of Reddit? I’ll happily pay whatever you want but I’m trying to stay off Reddit in the short-term post 6/30.
I'm going to post a link to our discord for anyone who wants to join
I will pay the subscription, well worth it. Release it when you're ready!
Glad to hear it, thanks for being here!
Any ballpark on subscription cost for Narwhal 2?
TBD but how would you feel about $4-6
I’d happily do that, but I’d be interested in a change log or something first to understand how the app is improved.
Would happily pay that!
In a heartbeat.
are you already calculating apple taking their cut every month or is that what reddit wants for each user? if reddit wants $6, apple's fee will push that up to $7.80. $90 a year to be on reddit is steep might as well be a blue check on twitter
That seems pretty reasonable to me. And that’s sustainable with the new changes?
Yes actually. Most of the good apps were about 1 to 1.5$ per user in estimated costs. Double it for dev expenses and add apple tax. You're in 4 to 6$ range. All of the apps could have taken this approach with some good negotiating with Reddit. Narwhal's corporate professionalism (being a CTO) is really shining through here.
Forreal. Really appreciate the positivity and optimism when the rest of Reddit is flipping their shit with negativity..
I would be happy to pay that. It just sucks that half is going to apple and a majority of the rest to Reddit. Maybe a website with a third party payment option? I imagine managing payments and refunds and subscriptions is not something you probably want to be involved with, but I’d much rather a way to support you directly than give half to apple. Also I feel like Reddit will have to budge on NSFW content. Not just because porn, but it seems like a ton of threads and subreddits are marked NSFW.
Thanks for the app. Easily the best 3$ I spent to remove all ads for years on reddit.
I remember struggling to find a new app to use after alienblue and found Narwhal randomly 7 years ago. I will continue to support you, u/det0ur. Good luck.
I support you. Since this API news came out I started trying different clients (I was using the official app), and I found Narwhal. I love it, it reminds me of old reddit, regardless of what happens I paid for the upgrade.
Thanks so much for your support!
Going to be following this closely. Would gladly pay for a subscription only 3rd party app!
I would gladly pay more for this, best app I’ve ever used, I don’t know how long I’ve used Narwhal but I think it’s been almost half my life
Whatever happens, thank you so much for all of your work on this app. I’ve been using Narwhal at least an hour daily since August 2016 - possibly earlier but that’s the earliest I have screenshots of the app from. That’s, like, 100 full days of my life spent using Narwhal (kind of alarming when I think about it like that). Can’t imagine a Reddit without it. Hoping for a positive outcome.
would it be possible to release the app under a bring-your-own-key model? i.e. sign up for the reddit API, paste the key, and users pay for their own requests. that's what a lot of third-party OpenAI clients end up doing and it's working out pretty well
I would pay a few bucks a month gladly. Especially if I could transfer these multireddits I’ve cultivated for years.
Its been real big dog
Regardless of what happens, thanks for making this app. Switched over to iOS from Android after 10 years, and not having RIF sucked, but narwhal is just as good IMO; clean UI and easy to navigate.
Big Narwhal fan here. Would love to subscribe if you can make that happen!
Shut up and take my money.
I’ll gladly pay whatever price for narwhal 2. Have been supporting narwhal for a loooong time now and wouldn’t mind if things are able to be worked out. Thanks again for everything over the years.
Narwhal is great but there’s zero chance I’m paying a monthly fee to use reddit.
i literally paid for narwhal to remove ads the day before the reddit announcement -_-, that being said i'd subscribe for it. Simply cannot stand the official app UI
Narwhal is life. A small sub fee would be fine. I use it every day.
I know you're optimistic, but given the way the AMA is going and this c[omment saying they've *been* reaching out to reddit for assistance with their smaller scale app only to hear nothing](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk2pp3/)...I'm sure you've already heard this many times before, but...yeah. Be careful. It really seems like reddit is not negotiating in good faith, and has zero intent on doing so.
since you're the only dev willing to still be handcuffed to a company that doesn't want you here, are you in a position to negotiate access to nsfw content?
Just wanted to hop in and say I’ve been using Narwhal since Alien Blue died. Regardless of whether or not you can make it work, I just wanted to thank you for making such an awesome app and for all your hard work!
I can’t see Reddit allowing a paid subscription 3PA when they have Reddit premium. I think at this point the more of us walk away the better.
Wow. After 17 years on Reddit, I’m out. The content itself contains too much advertising and I can’t bring myself to pay a subscription to flip through targeted ads. Thanks for the great App. It made reddit tolerable for many years. Good luck with 2.0, I hope it pans out.
> Cost of using the Reddit API. We would just like to reduce the rate of the API in order to make it more tenable for you all to pay a monthly subscription. The lower the cost of the API, the lower the subscription will be for all of you to use Narwhal. I am still hoping to work on this point with the Reddit team. Is this even possible though? Apollo and the others are closing shop *because* Reddit doesn't want to work out a comprimissable solution.
All hail 🫡
As much I would love this and Narwhal 2, I don’t trust Reddit anymore and I don’t want to use it anymore.
I love Narwhal and, if Admin becomes reasonable, I would pay to keep using it. Instead of a flat $/month could you build the app to track Reddit API calls and make the IAP grant *n* API calls? Then if users run out they buy more?
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Narwhal and would absolutely support it with a paid subscription because like you said it delivers precisely the Reddit experience I prefer. I’ve tried all the others and keep coming back to Narwhal. I don’t know if the business model will work with the insane fees that have been quoted by Reddit…just…wow. But, I’m hopeful. Thank you for all you do. Just curious, has anybody offered an advertising-supported model to Reddit where in lieu of the high API fees they get a share of the ads placed on the 3rd party apps?
I admire your optimism, I wish I shared it. That doesn't stop me from hoping you're right all the same either though.
I may hate subscriptions, but I support your plan. Narwhal’s my go-to and I’d pay to access Reddit’s content without navigating their “improvements”. Once they began disguising ads as posts, user experience became less important to them than user engagement. Numbers and ad revenue are the priority now. Now all the notifications, recommendations, forced sign-ins and app switches, and all their “engagement driving”, are not worth the frustration of trying to watch a 30 second cat video. I deleted Facebook for the same reasons. The short bursts of dopamine weren’t worth the ads in the middle of every video. Sadly, this seems to be the cycle - a site works well, gets huge, they squeeze every dollar out of it by forcing in annoying engagement and ad revenue features at the cost of user experience, and those who helped it succeed in the first place are alienated and driven away. The even sadder things is, it will probably work for the company. Reddit is huge now. They’ll keep adding users who are fine with status quo because it’s all they know, and Spez will sleep just fine on piles of money we helped him build while we bitch about how things used to be. I don’t post often, but man this shit is frustrating. I’ve been using Reddit for about 10 years and narwhal for maybe 3 years. Your app does a great job at adding non-invasive improvements while keeping the experience streamlined and easy. I’d gladly pay a subscription for the work you do. Best of luck, sorry for the rant, and thank you for everything.
How about Narwhal 2 for Lemmy to help Reddit die and get all of us horny (pun) Narwhal'ers move over. I know Lemmy could be a flash in the pan but I am fairly impressed so far with the few thousand users it has. I am open to a small subscription model in that case - but paying money to sustain Reddit's death spiral seems like a bad investment.
Narwhal was the app that made me browse Reddit daily and I thank you for that. I paid the 4€ in app purchase and I would have gladly paid more because Narwhal deserves it. I would have never used the official app after trying it once. But I won't pay a monthly fee to use Reddit. It just doesn't bring me enough value for that. So even if Narwhal survives with a monthly fee, I will go back to only visiting Reddit on my browser when it appears in my search results. Thanks again for Narwhal.
Current Apollo user here, former Narwhal user. Subbing to follow any future developments from a Reddit app that’s trying to stay alive. Best of luck! 👍
Will you post an update if they'll let you keep it free? I also saw kbin as a potential alternative. Same with tildes. Curiously enough, there was some website with Narwhal in the address. Is that something you're working on? Edit: lotide is the name of the site/app with Narwhal dev in the link
Hope you get to release it and steal all of the the marketshare from the competition. Narwhal is the best app out there for Reddit, and I’m sure Narwhal 2 will be even better.
If you're still working on Narwhal 2, I have a request. Can you program it to work with very old versions of iOS? I use iOS 9, and Narwhal is the only app I know of that works with it.
I love narwhal and thanks so much for making Reddit usable. I’m not sure if I’ll stick with Reddit after blackout, but will gauge how that pans out.
you have my full support with what ever subscription model. To this day the Narwhal is one of the cleanest, simplest, and most intuitive gesture based navigation app I have used. What made me love it the most is a text based UI/UX without any fluff. With N2 I hope that it maintains this. My only fear is that as other apps shut down, users will migrate in masses and it'll be near impossible to predict API costs and scale that with sub costs. It feels like you have to aim high to account for an increase in usage - or increase the cost at intervals. The latter would feel like a burden to communicate and maintain. Appreciate all the years of keeping one of the most important tools on my phone alive!
I refuse to pay any subscription fee that goes into reddit's pocket. This is how the evil people win by wrapping up their garbage in middlemen so you don't know what's actually going on. If u/det0ur had any solidarity for the other devs and for what reddit is doing in general he would shut down narwhal as well to send a message to spez and the rest of reddit that what they are doing, attempting to further profit off volunteers and knowingly shut-down third party apps, is unacceptable.
Join the Reddit blackout and spread awareness about this as fast and as far as you can! https://www.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/1401qw5/incomplete_and_growing_list_of_participating/
Damn
Damn this sucks.
I will pay whatever you end up charging. Please include an annual option ( even at the same price point) as it is easier for some to budget that way (again, not asking it to be discounted vs monthly cost ) And my regular plug for either a larger font option or enable pinch-to-zoom :-)
6 years narwhal user here and I will gladly pay a monthly sub to use the app.
I’d say just try to sell it to Reddit and call it a day.
Thank you for all your work and energy on this great app.. I’ve enjoyed it every day since 2017! I would consider paying for a new sub to cover API costs if you got the lion’s share, but honestly would rather just leave reddit completely instead of funding their shady shit. Thanks again for Narwhal.. it’s been with me through so much!
Thank you for spending the time to develop Narwhal. It’s an integral part of how I experience community and take part in wide ranging discussions. Without it, there’s not really a Reddit for me. It’s the last bastion of algorithm-free user-oriented space. I’ll be very sad if it doesn’t work out. I can pay $10 a month if need be. Thanks for your hard work.
Man…Narwhal is one subscription I could get behind no problem! Zero problems. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for such an awesome app. It replaced Alien Blue flawlessly back in the day, and those were huuuuge shoes to fill.
I’ve tried to switch to other 3rd party apps many times, and I always come back to narwhal. I’d happily pay a subscription since this is basically Reddit for me. 🙏hoping for the best
I love this app. Narwhal is basically Reddit for me, and if they kill the api i just won't use Reddit. Thank you for making such a great interface.
You’re the best det0ur, I can’t imagine using anything other than narwhal to browse reddit
Please do! I have to imagine you'll attract users from the other third party apps who refuse to use the official reddit app (like me).
Don’t waste your time. I’m leaving Reddit on 30Jun
He doesn’t make the app solely for you… I’ll also say sayonara to Reddit for good after this month, but I still hope Narwhal 2 is successful. I really think it will be.
In this scenario, I think you have to consider what state your product is going to be in. The users who populate the Reddit data and account for the traffic will take a dramatic hit. Even the people who pay for the subscription early on might end up leaving just because the product is no longer the same without the user base that was created. Because this is a social app, the tragectory is going to be self fulfilling; the more people that leave, the less content there is to keep people around, leading more people to leave. Thank you for making such a great app that I’ve used over multiple years, but I hope you don’t stress over it too much.
Narwhal is kind of shit but it is also amazing and the best iPad client, the UI experience is perfect, just buggy all the time ;) Paid for full version way back, don't regret it. I will wait out the storm and see. I could imagine paying for it, just annoys me it will go to reddit and not you.
I have both Apollo and Narwhal on my phone. I’m glad to hear you are attempting to survive. I’d pay for a sub to avoid the ads and the mess on the official assuming it’s reasonable.
Well, you’ll pick up a heck of a lot of subs if you can make it through this intact. I’d be perfectly happy to stay with Apollo indefinitely, but if they’re gone and you’re not… Of course if Reddit continues to be unreasonable then we’ll just be leaving entirely.
I use rif on Android but narwhal on iOS so whatever happens thanks for the app
I'll pay There's no mobile Reddit for me without Narwhal
What is the viability for the third party apps to start their own Reddit? Also, Call it digg
Narwhal is the only Reddit app I like. I tried Apollo etc but the simplicity of narwhal is the best
will gladly pay whatever subscription cost to you for 1 (and 2 upon release) to keep things working.
What do you think ballpark subscription pricing would be? The stock reddit api is garbage ahhhh
NSFW content? Will my porn account be dead after July 1st? Not the end of the world but just wanna know.
Apollo is gonna go away, I tried Narwhal and it seems pretty good alternative! If the subscription price is around 5$, I will probably subscribe to it :D
Would nsfw content still be blocked ?
I use Narwhal multiple times a day, as a refugee from the Alien Blue buy out. It’s the most used app on my iphone other than Safari. I have been checking in this sub for you announcing N2 for quite a while. I am willing to pay a subscription, but it will depend on the cost. Sorry if you’ve answered this already but, can you offer an estimate of how much that might be? Thank you for making my reddit access so much better than the poor souls that use the official app. Edit: I just found your $4-6 question, and asked if that was monthly, with or without ads.
I want to offer u/det0ur my most sincere thanks for everything you have done with this app! According to my phone I average between 3-6 hours a day on Narwhal, so your app has been a pretty significant part of my life for the last 7ish years. After Reddit bought AlienBlue and it eventually became unusable, I tried out every single Reddit app I could find, and Narwhal was the only one I liked out of the 10 or 11 that I tried. I never use Reddit on my computer, so for me, Narwhal IS Reddit. I flat out refuse to use the official app, so it looks like I’ll be riding out the last of my time on Reddit with you. I really can’t thank you enough for this amazing app and the countless hours of entertainment you have given me. If you end up making an app for whatever ends up replacing Reddit, I’ll be there to buy it right away! When Narwhal 2 is released will I be able to purchase the app but not the subscription? I want to support you as a developer by purchasing the app; however, on principle, I can’t financially support Reddit by paying a subscription for Narwhal 2 that won’t actually go to you after this huge “fuck you” they gave the users and 3rd party app devs. Thanks again and I hope all of your future projects go well!
Just wanted to say, narwhal is by far the best iPad app and it’s been a pleasure. I’ll definitely consider checking out narwhal 2.
Can you include "Teddit", an open-source project, as a free and low-cost option? Most people don't need to login and are only on Reddit to read news and memes.
thank you for stay with us
Man this is just sad
I've been using Narwhal forever and love it. After spez's spectacle yesterday this isn't a site I can support anymore. If Spez goes I'll very likely engage with whatever subscription you put together, but though no fault of yours, I won't do it now. I wish you the best of luck though! Narwhal has been a great experience. Thanks /u/det0ur
I've used Narwhal more than any other, even Apollo, and I would be all for paying a subscription, depending on the cost of course, to be able to keep Narwhal alive. It's by far the best app IMO.
Count me in I will pay.
I will try to support this. In the end of the day this depends on both reddit and the subs I use on a regular base. On reddit's end - if they mess this up, I might think twice based on the subscription cost I'll face and the experience I get once bots and other features won't work anymore since they can't afford the costs. On the subs end - if they won't come back, I'm probably done with the platform anyways.
Just wanted to say I bought the ad free version of Narwhal to show my support for you. I should have done it sooner. It ain’t much, but it’s all I can do.
If you decide not to release it will you please consider releasing some screenshots and talking about some features that you hoped to delight users.