Continue to use your favorite third-party app for Reddit after July 1st with ReVanced!
Hey Reddit enthusiasts! Revanced has recently extended its support to some of the most popular Reddit apps out there. The list of supported apps now includes Boost, Infinity, rif is fun, Relay, and Sync.
For those who are new to Revanced, this means you can patch these existing apps with your own oauth-client-id, allowing you to continue enjoying them seamlessly.
Why does this work?
- Reddit is now charging for certain API usage, causing many third-party clients to either shut down or start charging.
- If you don't exceed 100 API calls per minute, API use remains free (to the best of my knowledge). However, this doesn't help third-party clients because they use a single client ID for all users, resulting in millions of requests per minute.
- The solution is to obtain a private client ID from Reddit, which allows for free API use.
- The client ID patch enables you to replace the default client ID used by apps like Sync, Boost, and Infinity with your own private client ID from Reddit.
Quick tutorial:
- Go to https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps in your web browser.
- Create a new app by giving it a name of your choice.
- Tick the "Installed App" option and fill in the redirect URI field. The specific URI depends on the app you're using. For example, for rif, the URI would be redditisfun://auth. You can find the required redirect URI in the app's corresponding section on GitHub.
- Copy the client ID string that appears for the app you just created.
- Create a text document named "reddit_client_id_revanced.txt" and place it in the root directory of your phone's storage (e.g., /storage/emulated/0/<file here>). Paste the client ID into this document.
- Install the latest version of ReVanced Manager on your device.
- Open the Patcher tab in ReVanced Manager and select your app.
- In the Patches section, enable the "Change OAuth Client ID" patch.
- Apply the patch and install the modified app (Note: If you already have the app installed, you may need to delete it first and then click Install once ReVanced finishes creating the new APK.)
Following these steps will help you navigate through the process of obtaining a private client ID and applying the necessary patches to enjoy Reddit using ReVanced.
Guides with screenshots:
-
https://gist.github.com/decipher3114/4423a2671dc3ce4401025b737d5c89f4
-
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1wHvqQwCYdJrQg4BKlGIVDLksPN0KpOnJWniT6PbZSrI (Thanks to @kobew50 on Discord)
If you encounter any difficulties during the process,head over to ReVanced Discord server to seek assistance.
Reddit applications that have available patches or modified versions.
➡️ Platform: Android 🤖
| Application | Patch status | Note |
|---|---|---|
| BaconReader | Available ✅ | ReVanced |
| Boost | Available ✅ | ReVanced |
| Infinity | Available ✅ | ReVanced, Fork by KhoalaS (works without patching), Fork by KhoalaS (need to be patched) |
| Joey | Not available ❌ | - |
| Nara | Not available ❌ | Exempt from the new API changes (will introduce a paid tier eventually) |
| Now | Not available ❌ | Exempt from the new API changes (will introduce a paid tier eventually) |
| Reddit (official app) | Available ✅ | ReVanced, Redited |
| RedReader | Not available ❌ | Exempt from the new API changes |
| Relay | Available ✅ | Exempt from the new API changes (will introduce a paid tier eventually), ReVanced |
| rif | Available ✅ | ReVanced |
| Sync | Available ✅ | ReVanced |
➡️ Platform: iOS 🍎
| Application | Patch status | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Apollo* | Available ✅ | Tweak by EthanArbuckle |
| Dystopia | Not available ❌ | Exempt from the new API changes |
| narhwal | Not available ❌ | Exempt from the new API changes (will introduce a paid tier eventually) |
*Shout-out to WefWef - a Lemmy client not only inspired by Apollo, but which is aiming for feature parity. (GitHub)
Shouldn't you at this point take a step back and wonder why you want to keep using reddit as a platform? Everyone needs to decide this for themselves. But consider this for a moment. You prefer to use the platform through a third party application. These will now be broken unless you patch them through this. It also means that eventually down the line things will break as there will be no new app version be made for bug and security fixes.
Unless you are really holding out for the promised improvements from reddit on their native app. Is this really a platform you still want to use?
This is my thoughts. As much as I want to patch RIF to keep working, I'm avoiding reddit on principle at this point. The closest I'll come to visiting the website is teddit, if the wayback machine doesn't have an archive of the page I want to see, and I really want to see the page
Also, I don’t want Reddit to have the impression I’m okay with them now.
They changed the rules, and I slowed down quite a bit. And then while I was browsing and Apollo shut down on the 30th, I want it to be clear to Reddit that was the end of me using their service.
Because you can't conflate Reddit the company with reddit the website. Reddit the company is absolute shit no question about it. Reddit the site is not (at least not completely). Sure large chunks of default subs may be cancer at this point, there are still PLENTY of smaller niche communities that are worth visiting and in many ways carry unique resources.
In the short term, Reddit has the people and the apps are familiar. I deleted my account 3 years ago but others will likely have those pains until they move on, if ever. Even then there are a few niche communities that I lurk into for quick news updates.
I 200% support migrating to a service that at least pretends to respect the user. But it's leading a horse to water for many. They don't really care and will workaround until the friction becomes too much. So I'm not surprised others will passionately try to reduce friction in the meantime
I do not approve of the greedy little piggies making a mess, and I do not like the direction of the platform.
But there are still some small important communities. r/dementia is the most important for me. It's a valuable resource and support group for many people. So for now, I'll be using Reddit, but much less often than before the API stupidity.
I agree thatReddit has madebad decisionsdecisions I didnt like. But until now I didn't felt any of them (besides the mods protests). If I can still use reddit the way I used to I will still use it. I use it a lot on my pc too on old reddit. I keep visiting reddit, tildes, lemmy and squabbles. For me the more the merrier. If someday I can't use old reddit and can't get used to the new reddit, maybe I will stop using it.Yep. Reddit doesn't deserve to profit off my content, so I'm not gonna jump through fucking hoops to give them traffic.
What I dislike about this method is that there's no support from the developers anyways.
Imgur's API is still going to break on a regular basis, YouTube's player library is going to need updates, etc.
You might be able to use the apps for a little while longer. But they'll slowly stop working.
My last couple weeks of Sync haven't been as polished as usual, in my experience.
Not sure about other apps, but with RIF at least you should be able bypass any issues like that if they come up by setting it to open all content in an external browser. Far from a perfect solution but might allow you to continue on even when there's no support anymore
well, the dev behind boost is making boost for lemmy, which will be properly supported
This method proves the app developers had a choice though and that new app development has some space. Sure there is a limitation on use because of the api calls - but this just says someone can make a new Apollo that’s either free or you pay for additional API calls.
They didn't had a choice, if they allowed users to switch client ID to bypass limits they likely would get sued for breaking the TOS.
As name implies that's the client ID not user ID, you supposed to use that ID with your app when developing one.
Depending how annoying spez finds it, he can easily disable those IDs and make it hard obtaining a new ones.
Edit: maybe it is a fluke, or maybe they are already blocking it: https://tildes.net/~tech/17be/continue_to_use_your_favorite_third_party_app_for_reddit_after_july_1st_with_revanced#comment-93n7
I'm not sure if they can publicly announce that. Probably an easy way to get banned, or worse.
Solutions are good and all but, why not let the platform die? This workaround is only temporary and will cause frustrations. Reddit made their bed, let them lay in it. There's no harm in exploring other ways to find the content you're looking for but assisting in keeping abandoned apps on life support doesn't seem like the way.
On the one hand, I really appreciate that something like this is possible, because it sounds really useful to people like me, who would never use the official reddit app and/or new reddit.
On the other hand, after all that happened during the last ~30 days, I have such a huge disdain towards reddit and its employees that I deleted my account and all my content (with shreddit) and I do not intend to use that website ever again out of spite.
That being said, I wonder how long it'll take them to disable this method of using third-party apps as well.
I imagine Reddit will eventually nuke this but this'll be nice, gives me the opportunity to keep in touch with my tiny little communities for the niche news and stuff and come here for more general, long-form discussion and news.
You are probably right but not a lot of people will be able to do this process and therefore, it might go unnoticed for a while.
Awesome!! Thank you for this post, I was a big fan of Vanced and wasn't aware somehow of the ReVanced project - I still run old YTV and YTMV in my phone because YouTube's ads are completely out of control.
Allowing users to provide their own client ID and be directly responsible for overages would have been a great solution. I would have paid a monthly fee to access the API via third party apps, but Spez is a child who refuses to budge on anything, even if it would be good for business.
I've come to prefer Newpipe as my ad free YouTube experience. Overall the main YouTube client looks a bit prettier but Newpipe has much more functionality in my opinion.
Ha, I removed rif and now this option comes along.
Guess what is no longer in the play store!?
I was thinking similar things, but frankly this will only work for short amount of time. The author gave up on it and won't update it anymore so eventually it will break. People holding up with this to reddit, won't migrate to alternatives, so it will still benefit reddit.
https://m.apkpure.com/rif-is-fun-for-reddit/com.andrewshu.android.reddit
You might be able to find the page if you paid for Golden Platinum. Go to the play store, click your profile icon in the top right, click payments and subscriptions, budget & history, and scroll down to when you bought Golden Platinum. I can't confirm that this works for reinstalling after you've uninstalled, but I can at least open the Google play store page for it. I'm not gonna uninstall it to find out, though
You don't need the app installed, its included in the revanced patcher
Will this work if your phone isn't rooted?
Yes it will, you don't need root to patch an APK
I got RIF working again following these steps. However, I can't login. I enter my cred and get this message from old.reddit.com:
you sent an invalid request
— invalid client id.
Any tips?
Maybe reddit changed the login API? I can still use RiF to read posts but got ?automagically logged out yesterday (i.e. without doing a logout myself) and attempts to login from RiF fail despite post viewing working as normal.
Of course, the downside to viewing reddit without being logged in is that I get the default front page with all its crap, instead of my chosen little corner.
Did patching work successfully? Make sure the manager is updated.
Follow-up for any future reference. I did get RIF working using my reddit account. I had to change three things about my approach.
This link from above was most useful for me:
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1wHvqQwCYdJrQg4BKlGIVDLksPN0KpOnJWniT6PbZSrI
Thanks so much to the ReVanced team!!
Yep. Browsing reddit with my patched RIF returns current posts. Trying to login always results in the invalid request message. I even turned off MFA in case that was interfering. RaVanced seems up-to-date as of 7/1/2023.
Thank you so much for this, I've been waiting for something like this.
I'm currently set up with RedReader - which is still better than the official app - and while I'm enjoying being less incentivized to use reddit, I love the idea of sticking it to them and using my preferred app anyway. Also, my brain is a rif addict, so there is that...
I already move on from Reddit for various reasons, using old.reddit for some niche communities and using alternatives. To me lurking less the toxicity of Reddit has been the best choice I have made.
I agree with this sentiment. I still have RiF installed, but signed out of my account weeks back and haven't been using it at all. Lately it's been nice not being on Reddit, and I don't think I'll go back to using it in any regular way. I'm sure there will be times when I want to find specific info or advice a d end up on a reddit page reading comments or something, but I don't want to be a part of their community anymore if they don't want people like me there.
I'm half-tempted to try this, but I struggle with the idea of jumping through hoops to participate in a platform that's so openly dismissive of the community and volunteers that provide its actual value.
Especially since I suspect it'll be the usual cat and mouse nonsense as they devote increasing amounts of engineering resources to shutting down unauthorized 3PA instead of like, fixing their garbage baby app.
Will this get nuked? I wouldn't wanna do all this just to have my access revoked.
To be honest it shouldn't be, it's fair game but seeing all BS that Reddit has pulled last month I'm not sure anymore. If you have valuable data on your account, I recommend using an alt account to use this method on.
I saw it mentioned somewhere in the vast amounts of discussion on reddit that using your personal API access in place of 3p app's access is not allowed per reddit admins. I fully expect stuff like this to get axed in time.
I'm trying to figure out where to even start with implementing the Fork for Infinity since my phone is too old to allow the ReVanced patch method to work. I have no clue what I'm looking at when I go to that GitHub page :/
Steps to follow to build Infinity for Reddit Fork
(Credits: u/PlsNoPornSubreddit on Reddit)
Obligatory: Don't trust any random script or APK on the Internet. Verify the source before installation to avoid the risk of malware.
Thanks for getting back to me. It seems to be working so far, fingers crossed it keeps up.
Is there an open source iOS client that we can do this with? I don't feel comfortable using Apollo in this manner.
One of the numerous iOS apps I have installed was open source- slide for iOS - https://github.com/Haptic-Apps/Slide-iOS - it worked as of like 3 days ago. It worked pretty well, but Apollo was better. I think the API key was disabled.
Yessssss. You are my new favorite person. Thank you for this!
This seems incredibly desperate to me. Just move on.
ReVanced is just a patcher. The patching is done on client's end so your credentials never leave your device.
Revanced still has to touch the creds for the API to pass it to the app.
Is password resets part of the scope of the API permissions?
Ah, well that helps ease the worry.