How to use Reddit after APIcalypse?
Last week turned out to be very deplorable for users of the social network with a red alien on the logo. Protests regarding the introduction of new rates for using the API on Reddit did not lead to the expected results, and almost all popular clients (Sync, Infinity, Apollo, RiF, Boost and others) stopped working on July 1, 2023. What if you want to continue using reddit, but the official client does not suit you?
I didn’t intend to stop using Reddit at all, because I use it not only for entertainment, but also for work (for example, list of “time bombs” from Microsoft or monitoring 0-day vulnerabilities on the same r/sysadmin), so I tried to use the official application.
What caught my eye after a couple of years of experience with Boost:
The overall speed of work. Subjectively, the feed and posts in Boost opened much faster
The video player in the official app is stable a little more often than never
Recommended posts can come across almost every two or three posts (in Boost I used the paid version without ads in principle)
Fewer sorting methods (e.g. Boost has a “Controversial” sort that allows you to display posts/comments with a lot of both upvotes and downvotes)
General appearance (which is customizable in Boost, unlike the official application)
I began to think about what can be done in such a situation. It turned out that Reddit kept the Free tier for the API with adequate limits (up to 100 requests per minute), which is more than enough for my own use.
I wondered if someone had the idea to rebuild the application with its own API key? And, fortunately, I was not the first person to come up with this idea. Developers ReVanced made patches for popular clients!
How to patch a client with your own key?
Let’s go to API key management page on Reddit.
Create a new application using the “Create Application” button
You can specify anything as the name of the application, but it is better not to use the names of blocked applications. For example, I did Fuckspez for Reddit. (u/spez is the CEO of Reddit, supposedly responsible for API changes)
Select Application Type “Installed application”
For the application URI, you need to set a value depending on the application that you are going to patch. (The table below lists values for popular clients, but it is possible that there are patches for other clients as well)
Application | URI |
boost | http://rubenmayayo.com |
Sync | http://redditsync/auth |
RiF | redditfun://auth |
Relay | dbrady://relay |
BaconReader | http://baconreader.com/auth |
Infinity | infinity://localhost |
We poke “create an application” and get our own key.
Having the key in hand will need Revanced manager and the APK file of the application that we are going to patch. I used apps.evozi.com
We take our favorite explorer on Android (I like .FX File Explorer), open the storage root (Main Storage, /sdcard/ or something else depending on the device used) and create a file there reddit_client_id_revanced.txt with content in the form of your API key. If everything is done correctly, then the file will weigh exactly 22 bytes.
We open Revanced managertab Patcherpoke Select an application and click on the button in the lower left cornerStorage“. From there we select the APK of our application (in my case com.rubenmayayo.reddit_149.apk)make sure that ReVanced correctly identified your application and in the list of patches select Change Oauth Client Id (can be something else to taste).
poke Patchwait for the end of patching and the inscription “Finished”, click on the kebab menu (three dots in the upper right corner), export the .apk to a convenient place.
It is possible to remove an existing application (if installed) and install an APK with a patch.
???
You are awesome!
After these simple steps, you will again be able to use alternative clients, but with your own API key. It is unlikely that they will ever be updated, but this is still a better option than the official client.
NSFW
Replacing the API key will still prevent you from viewing NSFW subreddits and you will be greeted with a message like this (screen not mine)
However, there is a solution for this problem too!
In order for Reddit to start serving NSFW content via the API, we need to explain to the site that we have a moral right to do so. Who might legally need to view NSFW? Moderators.Create your own subreddit, become its moderator and your patched client will start opening NSFW subreddits again.
And given the fact that many subreddits as a continuation of the protest mark their communities as unacceptable (which also makes it impossible to advertise on the subreddit), the advice will be especially relevant for a client with a patch.
