Apollo for Reddit for iOS

Since its launch in 2005, Reddit has slowly grown to become one of the Top 10 most visited sites on the Internet, aggregating news and cat pics from all over the world into a feed that users vote on and comment on 24/7. However, its efforts to create a proper mobile app have been underwhelming, leaving the door open for other developers to come in and create a capable portal for this massively popular site. In recent months, Apollo has emerged as a very popular choice for iPhone and iPad users, so let's put this iOS-exclusive Reddit app under the microscope.

Pros

Well-optimized for iOS: Overall, Apollo does a great job of making iOS-specific abilities useful for Reddit users, by paying close attention to Apple's official user interface guidelines. If your device has Apple's recent "Taptic Engine" tech, you will feel mild clicks when you swipe to upvote or downvote something, and when you tap a slider in the app's settings. It's hard to explain the sensation if you're used to conventional mobile vibration motors, but the "clickier" Taptic Engine feels like an upgrade.

Speaking of touches, you can also use Apple's Touch ID or iOS passcode to protect access to the app, and iPhone X users have the option to lock it down with Face ID as well. These features require paying a few bucks to upgrade to Apollo Pro, which also supports multiple Reddit accounts and app icon customization.

Also, when a link in Apollo sends you to a webpage, the app loads Safari within itself, defaulting to Reader Mode, while retaining buttons that let you share a link or load the page in the full version of Safari. iOS system fonts are also used throughout, increasing the sense of integration.

Well-optimized for mobile devices in general: For Pro users, Apollo also has a customizable gesture system with separate settings for posts (aka the content submitted by users), the comments attached to those posts, and your inbox (aka direct messages). The usual Reddit actions of voting, replying, hiding, or saving can now be triggered with a swipe instead of having to find the right thing to tap on. This can reduce friction for navigation and content consumption.

When comparing the visual presentation on the iPhone SE's 4-inch screen to the 5.5-inch screen of an 8 Plus, we also didn't notice any missing functions or squished elements on the smaller device. Text and thumbnail sizes were identical. Instead, the SE just uses more lines for the title of a post, so you'll have to scroll a little more.

A high-quality optional dark theme: Apollo's dark theme uses a dark gray background instead of a black one, the latter of which isn't as effective at reducing eye strain when Redditing at night. If you disagree, there's an option to enable "Pure Dark Black Mode." And there's a Quick Switch setting that lets you switch between dark and light modes with just a long press at the top of the nav bar. Apollo Pro users can also schedule mode switches, or have them switch automatically based on screen brightness.

Cons

Some default behaviors may be jarring: When you tap on a comment in Reddit, Apollo will hide it by default, which also hides every reply to that comment. Thankfully, you can easily undo this function. Just tap on Settings in the lower right, then General, then the slider next to "Tap to Collapse" to toggle the feature off.

Updates to the app itself may take time: Apollo is largely the product of a single individual (a former Apple employee named Christian Selig), so fixing bugs and adding more features may not happen quickly. He has been preparing a large update for version 1.2, but it currently doesn't have an ETA. That said, Apollo still feels like the complete product of a full-size development team, and it has from the start.

Bottom Line

Apollo's creator demonstrates an advanced understanding of both iOS aesthetics and Reddit's fundamental design choices, making Apollo arguably the best Reddit app for iOS.

• Fixes random symbols showing up in some comments
• Better caching should result in faster loads
• Fixed bugs around GIFs not loading properly
• Added toggle to turn off haptic feedback if you don't like the buzzin
• Fixed some out of line apostrophes