sigh, it's hopeless, it will not happen. Reddit is now looking to fill a "Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Targeting" position (https://boards.greenhouse.io/reddit/jobs/5009252). Which means that it wants people to use its app so that it's machine learning algorithm can target ads to users and make money for its future investors.
We're talking about a capitalist platform. Reddit's whole purpose right now is to go public (IPO). Lemmy/Kbin are the only free platforms.
They have hundreds of mobile developers and can't make a decent app or features anyone wants -- I'm going to guess that whatever executive pet project that one is won't ever see any reasonable output either.
Yeah, it is kind of shocking to think the company has been around for 18 years, and their app is still so bad people will pay for third party apps instead.
Reddit would've been better off buying out the most profitable/popular third party app, making minor housekeeping changes (app name, app logo, etc) and moving on. Instead they show themselves in the foot a little.
I agree, assuming their goal was to have an app that appeals to users. Possibly the one they have appeals to advertisers, although even advertisers probably prefer an app people use willingly.
There is no use for having a good first party app when you can just kill all competition. Reddit does not need to care anything other than making money through their apps.