Official Reddit iOS App Arrives with Free Pro Upgrade

If you visit Reddit frequently and are an iOS user, then you most likely have heard of Alien Blue, which is the most popular unofficial Reddit app for iPhone and iPad. However, the app is now under Reddit’s official control, meaning that iOS users now have an official Reddit app to rely on.

The company bought Alien Blue, acquiring the project’s assets and hiring its only developer. However, this doesn’t mean that Reddit is beginning a campaign to kill all third-party Reddit apps. In fact, the website will continue to work with third-party apps in order to make their experience better, by improving their API and OAuth support. There are still a ton of third-party Reddit apps that users can download, and it doesn’t seem like Reddit wants to disrupt that anytime soon.

What Reddit will do, though, is make Alien Blue’s Pro features free for the time being. Previously, you had to pay a couple of dollars to unlock the Pro features of Alien Blue, but to celebrate the buyout, Reddit is making the upgrade free for now.

The app is also getting a rebrand, with the name “Alien Blue” being discontinued and replaced by just “Reddit.” Furthermore, the app icon received a redesign in order to keep it uniform with Reddit’s current Ask Me Anything app that’s been available for about a month so far.

The user interface of the app will stay the same for now, so longtime Alien Blue users shouldn’t fret, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see the app receive a major overhaul at some point in the near future.

Perhaps the best change in the acquisition is that the iPad version of the app has also gone free, whereas in the past it was priced at $3.99.

Frankly, we’re not surprised to see this coming. When Reddit launched its Ask Me Anything app, it was only a matter of time before the website either launched its own official Reddit app or bought out an existing app in order to make it their own, the latter of which seemed like the easier solution.

Reddit’s Ask Me Anything app launched last month as a standalone iOS app that allows users to easily view AMA threads. As Reddit’s first app, it was a bit odd to see something like this release, especially since it only allow users to browse AMA posts and not the entirety of Reddit’s website.

The in-app Pro upgrade will remain free over the next week or so, where Reddit will eventually begin charging a couple of dollars again, but the app itself will remain free to download in the iTunes App Store. Users who already have Alien Blue installed will need to download the new app again, as Reddit has moved the app from the original developer’s account to their own account.

As for an Android version, there’s no word on whether or not Reddit will release one for Google devices, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they were working on an Android app as we speak.