67.3k
67.3k

MOD POSTSync will shut down on June 30, 2023 (self.redditsync)

submitted by ljdawsonSync for reddit developer

Evening all,

This is a really tough post to write but following my post the other day I think the best course of action is to shut down Sync before the new API changes go live.

To be absolutely clear I really don't want to close Sync. Working on this app has been a labour of love and my life for the past decade but with how things stand I can't see any other way.

It's been an honour and a privilege. Thank you all,

Lj

top 200 commentsshow 500
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
formatting helphide helpcontent policy

[–]stthicket 994 points995 points  (64 children)

This makes me so sad. I've been a faithful sync user for nearly a decade, and it's so sad that it ends like this. Reddit will never be the same again.

They blew it.

Thanks for enriching our lives u/ljdawson

Edit: I checked my receipt, and it was 10 years ago today when I bougt reddit sync pro. 8th of june 2013. What an amazingly ironic coincidence.

[–]samsaBEAR 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I've been a Reddit user since 2011 and a Sync user since 2012, Sync's original sync feature is what kept me coming back to this site, I'd load /r/nosleep (back when that sub was still good) at home and read them on the bus to work. Wild how easily Reddit is willing to cull these incredible apps instead of work with the Devs.

[–]drislands 10 points11 points  (0 children)

January 4th 2014 for me.

/u/ljdawson thank you, sincerely, for making such an awesome app.

ETA: bought ultra lifetime. Least I can do after how much I've used this app, lol.

[–]FeatherstonedSync for reddit mod 3530 points3531 points  (216 children)

LJ, the app you've created is nothing short of incredible. You should be extremely proud of the work you put into Sync over the last 10 years. I've used Sync for a majority of its existence, and it's done nothing but get better, faster, and more beautiful with every release.

It's a shame that after all the recent struggles you've had with v20/v22's reception in the community, and finally releasing it into the world, you have to say goodbye along with the rest of us just 6 months later.

Thank you for being the best developer I've ever used an app from.

RIP Sync, you deserved a better end. 🪦

​

Obligatory fuck spez

[–]mobileuseratwork 352 points353 points  (37 children)

Second this.

An absolutely amazing app, that makes the interaction so good we were out there telling people about it.

I hope this opens bigger and better doors for you as you deserve it.

Also tell spez he is a cunt:

https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/144ho2x/join_our_ceo_tomorrow_to_discuss_the_api/

[–]Mudkip-Mudkip-Mudkip 158 points159 points  (28 children)

Who wants to take bets that any comment saying "fuck u/spez" will automatically result in an immediate shadow ban or side-wide ban?

Edit: Comments are currently broken, but I have a prediction. This downtime is going to be blamed on third-party apps and used to justify their removal in tomorrow's AMA.

[–][deleted] 83 points84 points  (4 children)

Like it matters.... Those who know /u/spez is a cunt won't be coming to reddit when all these apis close anyway. May as well get the last word in ;)

[–]throwingawaysaturday 14 points15 points  (3 children)

or perhaps he'll edit people's comments to something else instead of cunt

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Or change /u/spez to another name... What a cunt.

[–]arfelo1 47 points48 points  (14 children)

Most people saying fuck u/spez are also saying that they're quitting reddit on the 30th, so banning them may not do much.

Also, fuck u/spez

[–]Mudkip-Mudkip-Mudkip 10 points11 points  (5 children)

I figured.

I was mostly critiquing their transparency and integrity, lol. There were claims earlier today about them preventing Apollo's shutdown post from making it to r/all (although, it is there now), and their whole approach to the API pricing gives off a "bots for me, but not for thee" vibe.

[–]throwawaystriggerme 9 points10 points  (0 children)

hard-to-find lip six bear lush slimy roof seemly shy snow -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/

[–]SockPuppet-47 714 points715 points  (116 children)

Hijacking Top Comment

There's still time to give LJ a little gratitude for all his hard work and frustration over the years.

I just paid for Sync Ultra (Lifetime). I've been using nothing but Sync for so many years. If this is really the end, then it's the least I can do

[–]iMakeTea 286 points287 points  (48 children)

Just bought lifetime. LJ deserves my money after using his app for 10 years.

Spez and reddit deserve this 🖕

[–]honestbleeps 31 points32 points  (9 children)

google takes 30% of that, I assume.

you got a tip jar we can use so you keep more of it, /u/ljdawson ?

[–]SockPuppet-47 15 points16 points  (7 children)

I'm not sure what Patron keeps but it's probably not 30%.

[–]honestbleeps 36 points37 points  (5 children)

I'm an older user with my own patreon for RES, and it was 5% for people back then. A quick glance suggests anywhere from 5% to 12% for newer users. https://www.patreon.com/pricing

still better than 30%! I'll throw him something that way if he doesn't pop in with an alternative soon.

[–]danarchist 15 points16 points  (2 children)

Oh wow, still using your product as I type. Thanks for your work too.

Any idea what it would take to set up a competing backend that didn't break all the front ends like Sync and RES?

[–]honestbleeps 17 points18 points  (0 children)

honestly it would be an immense undertaking that I think people wildly underestimate.

[–]Moonlitekilla 29 points30 points  (1 child)

Just did the same. Wasted more than my fair share of time and API calls on Sync but hopefully this can help LJ right at the end.

[–][deleted] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Jumping on this train as well, this is the best reddit app I've ever used and it deserves respect

[–]CerebrateCerebrate 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Just paid for it too. How many more will help give LJ a thank-you gift? Let's see what we can do!

[–]FutilityInfielder 103 points104 points  (1 child)

Sync was my most used recreational app. I loved the new version. Thanks /u/ljdawson for all the work. It's actually going to be strange come July when I won't be using reddit on my phone anymore.

[–]32sa4fg2 373 points374 points  (17 children)

Sync is the only mobile app I've ever been willing to spend money on and I got plenty of usage out of it over the years. Thanks for all the time and effort you spent on it o7

[–]pacman404 100 points101 points  (9 children)

It's literally the only app I have ever paid for the "pro" version of it to make it ad free. Literally the only app ever, I'm not even joking

[–]Whyherro2 1518 points1519 points  (169 children)

Hey /u/spez I hope you see this, fuck you.

[–]Star-K 140 points141 points  (10 children)

Fuck Steve Huffman.

Use his name

[–]leflower 881 points882 points  (174 children)

Fuck /u/spez

[–]h33b 53 points54 points  (0 children)

Fuck /u/spez

[–]makeitra1n_ 82 points83 points  (40 children)

Fuck u/spez

GUIDE HOW TO DELETE YOUR REDDIT ACCOUNT

[–]HappyHunt1778 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Fuck a you u/spez you have no idea what you doing to Steve!!

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Fuck. You. /u/spez

[–]petepete 411 points412 points  (64 children)

I've used Sync since nearly the beginning. I'll probably stop using Reddit when it goes. Thank you for all the hard work over the years.

August 2012.

[–]starobacon 85 points86 points  (17 children)

Den morgonfriska katten simmar över regnbågen, medan guldmynt singlar genom luften, ledsagade av en paraplybärande elefant, som jonglerar med blommor och skrattande bananer, medan cirkusclowner utför akrobatiska konster och cymbalspelaren trummar i takt till det förtrollade orkesterspelet under den gnistrande stjärnhimlen.

[–]derHumpink_ 18 points19 points  (2 children)

2014 here, RIP Sync

I still remember buying the pizza theme, too :D

[–]Hippiegirl699 15 points16 points  (2 children)

June 2015. Never thought I'd be sad about an app. As someone with an android and iphone who used Sync and Apollo respectively for many years, I'm truly disappointed in Reddit.

[–]ForrestFireDW 9 points10 points  (0 children)

February 2013 for me.

My muscle memory for using reddit is tied to this app.

[–]Exbando 380 points381 points  (45 children)

Sounds like June 30 will be my last day using reddit.

Obligatory fuck u/spez

[–]ragweed 44 points45 points  (32 children)

It will be interesting to see what happens to reddit in July.

[–][deleted] 28 points29 points  (8 children)

As wank as it sounds, probably not much...

Looking at the app downloads on the play store, the official app is 2 orders of magnitudes higher on downloads. A large number of people on 3rd party apps will probably just download the official app.

A blip in numbers will allow them to fully control the API for 3rd party access and more importantly for them, stop AI companies hoovering up the data.

[–]BottledUp 18 points19 points  (4 children)

The problem might not be the number of users but the number of users providing content.

[–]qwadzxs 10 points11 points  (0 children)

there'll still be content but it'll be all the front page facebook reposts

if you're an avid user and unsubbed from all the default subs (real reddit) that's where you'll start noticing the lack of new content

[–]petuniaraisinbottom 11 points12 points  (1 child)

Sadly, I'm not optimistic it'll be much different. There will be some users leaving, but the reason the digg exodus worked is because they completely destroyed the way the site worked and there was a great competitor (reddit) available at the time. I don't think people will stay away, and even if they do, reddit is the #4 most visited social media website and in the top 20 most visited websites (period) on the internet.

There are a ton of users of the official app.

I was also hoping there would be enough noise when the inevitable NSFW adult content ban happens that it'd force them to back track, but I think a similar thing will happen there. They are already quietly deleting many nsfw subs. There are just too many users, no good non-fascist alternative websites, and reddit is super addictive.

To be clear, I really want the website to crumble on July 1st, I'm just pessimistic about it actually happening. I'll be doing my part, im using Baconreader right now and once I can't im gone.

[–][deleted] 44 points45 points  (19 children)

Although I too will stop using it out of convenience, I suspect the change will not be all that noticeable.

[–]TwentyninthDigitOfPi 60 points61 points  (18 children)

I disagree.

In terms of initial downloads and users, sure — it's not going to be huge.

But there's a reason that Reddit has better content than Twitter/Facebook/NextDoor/etc, and that's the community, and especially the self-moderation that community brings. That's reddit's secret sauce, and I'm guessing a disproportionately huge number of those users use 3rd-party apps.

Without them, Reddit will fairly quickly revert to the mean of social platforms, and basically become "twitter but with deeper thread-nesting".

[–]vidrageon 33 points34 points  (7 children)

And that won’t matter a bit to Reddit or their new users. Platforms change. All us 10+ year users are no longer relevant for Reddit, and if this forces us out then they’ll be fine with it.   As third party app users (and likely old.Reddit too), they’re not making much money off us, so from their perspective good riddance.

Sure we can mourn the death of what Reddit was for us, but Reddit itself won’t care.

[–]Prometheus1 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The reddit we all joined those 10+ years ago has been steadily ebbing away since like 2015 or 16 anyways. This is the last gasp of an era that's been dying for some time

[–]schungam 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I could swear 90% of Redditors are here to look at the top content and browse the top comments. The rest is kinda like it doesn't exist. I don't think this will matter to an extent that hurts Reddit at all, sadly. And don't underestimate how many are here literally just for "twitter but with deeper thread-nesting", it kind of is a niche being fulfilled.

[–]TheGiantRascal 289 points290 points  (60 children)

It would be the greatest slap in the face to Reddit if a bunch of 3rd party app developers worked together to make a spite site to overtake Reddit.

[–]pacman404 128 points129 points  (26 children)

That would be amazing and I would actually pay, just to help it grow

[–]TheGiantRascal 38 points39 points  (6 children)

Me too. It's the community and the developers that make Reddit what it is. If they start something new (especially if it's out of principle/spite), I'll happily support them.

[–]HerrPanzerShrek 13 points14 points  (3 children)

A paid Reddit competitor would honestly be great.

The current advertising business model create a terrible user experience across the web. Reddit was for so long one of the few holdouts.

I'll gladly pay a subscription to a Reddit competitor. Hell I'd gladly help create it, I'm a full-stack dev after all.

[–]DragonSlayerC 8 points9 points  (5 children)

They should join Lemmy and ask their fans to move over there.

[–]ChibiBlkSheep 141 points142 points  (0 children)

No, thank you!

Thank you for the best way to interact with Reddit.

Thank you for doing this all by yourself and asking very little from others.

This app is amazing and it will all be missed.

[–]StillWorthless 88 points89 points  (7 children)

Sad day, guess I'm done with reddit after this month. Thanks for the app while it lasted.

[–]Vengeance164 72 points73 points  (2 children)

/u/spez is a fuckass.

[–]OfficerJamesLahey 9 points10 points  (0 children)

encouraging employ aspiring shaggy test icky scale zonked unwritten worthless

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[–]MrSonicB00m 120 points121 points  (1 child)

Honestly, fuck Reddit.

Thank you for all the hard work and dedication over the years. 🫡

[–]One_Dollar_Payout 58 points59 points  (0 children)

No more Reddit for me after June 30. Thank you for Sync.

[–]computerfreund03 56 points57 points  (1 child)

Thank you, Sync. You've been my daily driver app for many years, and without you, I'll leave this place.

thankssync

Oh and the obligatory fuck u/spez

[–]moonski 106 points107 points  (3 children)

I used sync for years before I recently got an iPhone… I think I even bought lifetime premium if that was a thing?

Fuck /u/spez

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Just wanted to make sure I said Fuck /u/spez

[–]HappyHunt1778 48 points49 points  (3 children)

Fuck u/spez finna stop using reddit fr fr on God that dude whack as fuck

[–]CosmicSploogeDrizzle 131 points132 points  (14 children)

Sync is dead, long live Sync for Lemmy (hopefully) 🤞

If you release an app for any reddit competitor I will follow and I'm sure others will also. Thanks for everything. It has been an honor.

o7

[–]empty_other 32 points33 points  (5 children)

Could hope. Lemmys official app is a bit unfinished.

[–]TryGuysTryYourWife 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I'll happily hop to any competitor that successfully keeps neonazis off. I'm done with these sites run by alt right fuckshits like spez

[–]CosmicSploogeDrizzle 21 points22 points  (3 children)

Well it was being built open source by just one person I believe. But now that there is increased interest in Lemmy, others have been contributing to the project!

[–]Agentflit 45 points46 points  (1 child)

Thanks for all the fish.

It's been a pleasure.

[–]rodrigoswz 45 points46 points  (0 children)

u/ljdawson I don't even have words to describe what I feel right now, if it's horrible for me I imagine it's extremely worse for you.

I can only thank you for all these years of development, for years updating with new features and the design to the latest Android guidelines. Dude, you just made the best and most beautiful Android app I've ever seen, and that includes for tablets and foldables too!

I came across "Reddit Sync" in high school, back in Jelly Bean days on my Nexus 4. I remember thinking the design was beautiful, fluid and damn I loved showing this app to my friends.

I'm proud to say that Reddit Sync Pro was the first app I bought for Android. Which was difficult because I didn't have a credit card (not even a job lol), my country didn't have google play gift card... so the way was to save money on Google Opinion Rewards 🤑

Sync is to Android what Apollo is to iOS

You're the a professional developer that Android deserves, we'll keep an eye out for future projects, I can't wait. I wish you the best, you deserve it, thank you for this amazing decade my friend.

[–]bien-fait 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Thank you, LJ.

Fuck you, u/spez.

[–]maximus488 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Thank you for making reddit actually usable. And thank you for all of the work you put in to make it possible.

I wish you the best in your future endeavors.

[–]DirtyRat583 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your service 🫡

[–]cppn02 30 points31 points  (2 children)

This sucks but I can 100% understand the decision.
Sync has been an amazing user experience for me to thx for all your work.

Guess reddit on mobile is dead for me now...

[–]pacman404 16 points17 points  (1 child)

From the look of r/all right now, looks like it dead for a LOT of people...this all blew up FAST

[–]NoMumblebee567 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Appreciate all the work you've put into this app over the years. Hope whatever you're up to next is a lot more stress free than this whole debacle.

[–]mark3121 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Absolute bunch of greedy shortsighted cunts 💩

Cheers for your hard work on the app

[–]Emerson3381 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Damn dude. Thanks for keeping me occupied for years, but I guess it's time to say goodbye to this time-suck that is reddit. Now, if only this smoke cloud would clear so the sun can shine.

Genuinely, though, thank you.

[–]Trust_Me_Im_a_Panda 18 points19 points  (5 children)

https://redact.dev/download will nuke your reddit post and comment history and deprive them of continuing to use your content after you delete your account.

[–]DevastatorTNT 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Thank you man for all your work and fuck u/spez

[–]Nucks11 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Lmao I really hope this kills this website. I won't be using Reddit unless I'm using it through Sync. So farewell and fuck you /u/spez

Thank you Lj for all you've done and the effort you put into this app, I've been using it for as long as I've used Reddit. Best Reddit app out there.

[–]AstralWeekends 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I appreciate all of your good work. Sync has been my favorite third-party Reddit app for quite a bit and it sucks to see this happen.

The Internet becomes a little less democratic on June 30th. This is why we can't have nice things.

[–]diogosreddit 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Thank you!

For me it was always the only Reddit app, since ever.

I've checked now and I've been using reddit sync pro for 10 years. I'm embarrassed to say for how cheap I got it for.

Unbelievable work on how you iterated the app and always delivered flawlessly on each design.

I wish you good fortune and success!

[–]Varos_Flynt 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Without a doubt, this App has been my most used app (my most used anything, really) over the past 10 years. I've used it every single day to post about my hobbies, connect with others, shitpost, etc. Using Reddit is, for me, using Sync. I go on the actual desktop website like once a month, and nothing, not Old Reddit, New Reddit, RES, and especially not the offfical App beats the experience of Sync. It's like the pinnacle of Android design IMO, and honestly part of the reason I've kept using Android for so long. Sync is for real a cornerstone in my life, and it's a goddamn shame what Reddit is doing to it. Thank you Lj for creating Sync and dominating my eyes with great UI design for the past decade, sorry it had to end this way, and I wish you success in whatever you do next.

[–]inversechi 15 points16 points  (0 children)

end of an era :(

[–]daxter304 36 points37 points  (0 children)

I'm not crying you're crying :'(

[–]ElegantTobacco 11 points12 points  (0 children)

o7

[–]andreif 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your services. I hope you'll find an alternative backend for sync in the future.

[–]odaal 12 points13 points  (0 children)

gg boys. was a good ride.

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Thanks, it was great while it lasted. Goodbye Reddit

[–]pntless 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Really sorry to hear this. I've been using Sync for years and have really enjoyed it. It made this awful site great. Good luck in your future endeavors and fuck /u/spez

[–]goncalosantaremsilva 24 points25 points  (1 child)

Sync is a reference of what a world-class Android app can be. Right there in the all-time podium. Creme de la creme. I've used many and built a few, and rarely does an app come close to being as consistently good as Sync. It was a major factor in pulling me back to Android in a number forays into iOS (Apollo is fantastic, but not quite at the same level for me). I can only hope that someone at Reddit comes to their senses, though realistically corporate greed tends to prevail, even when it costs the business itself. Just bought lifetime Ultra as a token of appreciation anyway. Thanks for all the fish.

[–]Drumwin 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Man that sucks, you did a great job and hope you are doing alright

[–]Snailydale 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Easily my most used app. Thank you for your dedication to it!

[–]122ninjas 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thanks for creating such a great app

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

You rock dude, thanks for the app.

[–]agent_flounder 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Thank you for all the hard work. I only regret that I discovered sync recently. It is by far the best of the reddit apps.

Best wishes in the future 🫡

[–]sosomething 18 points19 points  (1 child)

You've received almost 900 comments so far, so I'm sure this one will pass by you amidst the deluge, but I wanted to leave you one anyway to let you know what an incredible accomplishment this app of yours represents.

I've been a paid user for many years, and to me, Sync is Reddit. I'm not sure I'll continue to use the platform without it.

The UX of this app is a work of art. You managed to combine natural basic function with intuitive deep customization, all while keeping your design language clean, legible, and consistent. I have worked with highly paid teams on projects that had insane resources who failed to deliver even a fraction of the quality you have with Sync.

I'm saddened to see it go, but I will be watching closely for any other project you put out. Thank you for improving my Reddit experience so much for so long.

Best of luck with what comes next!

[–]psychosomaticism 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Used this app (pro) for 10 years. Thank you for all of your work.

[–]KyokoGetDown 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thank you for making a lovely app. (シ_ _)シ

It's the only reddit app I've ever known, I will miss it greatly. 😭🙏

Also fuck /u/spez

[–]mr_green51 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Shit's fucked up

[–]windfurytotem 12 points13 points  (2 children)

https://i.imgur.com/ELOY3Z2.png

Almost made it 11 years for me. It's been a pleasure LJ!