this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
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Explain Like I'm Five

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Why are big platforms shutting down third-party Apps? Should an average user be worried? (lemmy.one)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/explainlikeimfive
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With the recent Reddit stuff and YouTube stuff, I realized I've been using numerous third party apps or services. The question I have is why the decision and how such decisions would really benefit the company. As an random user, should I be worried about it or even go back to the official Apps just in case the third-party apps would be shut down in the future?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Essentially it boils down to - ways in which they can turn users into money.

  • Control the content you see - Especially ads which provide income. Also injecting posts into your stream regardless of preferences to direct views towards sponsors preferences or to try to extend engagement.
  • More visibility over user activity - It gives them better tools to manipulate users habits (that pesky engagement), and better (for them), user telemetry can be sold (people who like X like Y is useful knowledge but it can go far deeper than this).
  • They want to discourage content that discourages advertisers - mostly this is NSFW content (since the advertisers don't want their ads showing beside NSFW content) but I expect it'll begin to span more than that over time.

With the elimination of third party apps, you can bet that 'old Reddit' is on the chopping-block soon too (mostly to boost ad views)

[โ€“] IonAddis 1 points 2 years ago

The nigh-certainty of "old reddit" being on the chopping block pushed me here. There's no way they won't axe it.