Reddit is one of the most important websites in the entire world. It’s an immense community where all sorts of people can share links, photos, and videos, and then discuss and debate about all this content. Its structure using subreddits has led to the creation of specific communities based around any imaginable topic. Anything. Its a monumentally important service and that’s why we’ve put together a list of the best Reddit clients that exist on Android.
What is Reddit?
Started in June 2005, Reddit appeared as sort of another version of Digg, which was the website of the moment back then: a news aggregator where the users are the content creators. Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian created this website from their dorm room at the University of Virginia and it wasn’t long before they started reaping the benefits: in 2006, it was sold to Condé Nast when the co-founders were only 22 years old.
Reddit works a lot like other forums: the users, called redditors, can post whatever content they want (links, text, images, videos, etc.) to a specific subreddit. That said, these types of posts are normally related to the community’s topic. That’s why each post can be voted on by its users to keep the most popular content relevant: each Reddit member can give any post a positive or negative vote. This voting system is also used in the comments of each one of the threads and works exactly the same way.
While you can browse anonymously, it’s extremely easy to sign up for a Reddit profile which will let you participate actively: whether its voting on content or generating your own. What’s more, the same users can create new communities in the form of subreddits. A fact that’s led to the existence of infinite topics available to access on Reddit. This enormous variety is probably what’s led to Reddit’s success considering you’ll find a little bit of everything: subreddits about Android, in-depth conversations about cinema, and of course, cat GIFs. Anything goes — as long as it follows Reddit’s rules, that is.
Although Reddit is an international website, most of the users come from the USA. The average Reddit users are white single American men between 18 and 25 years old. However this demographic data is slowly changing thanks to the site’s popularity and the shutdown of communities that many considered toxic.
But this website isn’t only famous for everything mentioned above, which is a lot; it’s also known for its AMAs (Ask Me Anything), a sort of interactive interviews where Reddit users get a chance to ask other people whatever they want. The popularity of this format comes from the fact that many famous public figures have joined in on the fun, like Bill Gates, Barack Obama and Snoop Dogg, just to name a few. These types of threads started back in 2009 and without a doubt have become one of the most important lures of using Reddit.
Reddit Controversies
The tremendous popularity of Reddit has placed it among the most visited websites in the world. But with this fame has also come various controversies that have tarnished its name.
For example, there’s the famous “war” that Reddit has had with two of the most important communities in the last few years: 4chan and Tublr. The DDoS attacks on these sites on the part of the rival users have been increasing as the years go on. 4chan is an image forum where anonymity and chaos are its reason for existing, while in Reddit the content is conserved and the users have to log in to use the website. This identity difference means that much of the content originating on 4chan is posted on Reddit as if it were original content, causing a rift between the different communities.
Something similar happened with Tumblr, since this website also works as a content aggregator. The difference is that each user has to post on their own page or personal forum. These little wars between sites has resulted in one winner: Reddit has managed to stay afloat while Tumblr has lost popularity as time has gone on. And 4chan… is still 4chan. Its users have become more extreme as time has gone on and it’s become one of the powerhouses of the alt-right. But this last characteristic isn’t only limited to the controversial image forum. /r/The_Donald has become one of the most controversial communities on Reddit. Especially when it survived the massive banning of subreddits that the website suffered in 2017.
We can’t forget to mention one of the most memorable episodes either: the Boston marathon bombings in 2013. Many Reddit users started to investigate and point out suspects before the police took action. Unfortunately, this didn’t help the situation at all, and actually turned it into a witch hunt that had absolutely no foundation.
To this, we could add a ton of other polemic cases, as we can see on its Wikipedia page, but we can’t spend all day talking about each and every one. That said, it’s worth mentioning the many Reddit moderators as described in the excellent investigation by Engadget and Point. It’s not easy keeping a giant like Reddit afloat.
The best Reddit apps for Android
Now, while the official Reddit client is great, it’s never a bad idea to try out existing alternatives. Especially when these apps are as well made as the one’s we list below. Not only are they constantly updated, but many of them offer features that you won’t find in the official Reddit app. And yes, most of them have their own subreddit so you don’t miss a single one of their new features.
There are plenty of different Reddit clients, but we’ve chosen six that we think have enough qualities to be worth mentioning. The selection of the screenshots are no coincidence either; you’ll find one showing how the Reddit homepage looks and one of its content. This way, you can better appreciate how each one of these apps works. So without further ado, we give you the best Reddit clients available for Android.
Joey for Reddit
Anyone who loves customization more than anything has to give Joey a try. We’re talking about the most diverse Reddit client in terms of possibilities. You can play around with the colors of the toolbar, title, comments, etc. Basically, the entire UI. And not only that, Joey for Reddit is a completely free client that even has an interface exclusively for AMAs. [Download]
reddit is fun
The client known as RIF provides you with a fluid and speedy experience, all thanks to the simplicity of its interface. reddit is fun bases everything on its functionality and that’s why it’s not flashy at all. It’s hard to find a better option for anyone who doesn’t care too much about using the audiovisual content in the app. [Download]
Boost for Reddit
Whenever you find a list of the best Reddit clients, you’re almost guaranteed to find Boost on every single list. This reputation is more than deserved thanks to how smooth the app is. Its interface is also very customizable and is also one of the most attractive. Don’t forget to check out this subreddit dedicated to its themes to give it the unique look you want. [Download]
RedReader
This free and open source client stands out for being the most lightweight of them all: it’s less than 5MB. This is noted in its interface, where more weight is given to the written content than the images. This makes it perfect for anyone who doesn’t want complications and wants to browse through Reddit without using too much of data. The simple look doesn’t mean it undervalues other aspects. It lets you have various Reddit accounts and supports Imgur and gifv files. [Download]
Sync for reddit
We’re talking about another one of the sacred cows of Reddit clients. Sync has been growing in popularity since its release back in 2012 and today it continues staying true to its principles: an elegant and functional interface, user friendliness, and faster content loading. One interesting little tidbit is that it’s especially optimized for one of the most popular subreddits: /r/soccer. [Download]
Slide for Reddit
This ad-free and open source client lets you enjoy Reddit content whether you have an internet connection or not: it has an ideal offline synchronization for those moments when you can’t get online. Plus, Slide is one of the most attractive Reddit apps that exists thanks to its colorful and completely customizable interface. Being able to differentiate between each subreddit with different colors is great for making the user experience that much more convenient. [Download]
