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Why I Rebuilt a Dead Reddit App in 2026

Broken circuit boards dissolving into a clean dark UI with a glowing phoenix rising above

In 2023, Reddit raised their API prices and killed a generation of third-party apps overnight. Apollo. RIF. Sync. All gone. My little Reddit scroller — Redinfinite — went with them.

I didn’t fight it. Didn’t write a teardown post. I just shut it down and moved on.

Then last year I started missing it.

What I actually missed

Not the app specifically. I missed having a Reddit experience that didn’t feel like a chore. The official Reddit app has gotten better, but it’s still fighting itself — recommendations I don’t want, UI patterns designed to maximize engagement rather than let me just scroll. Every time I opened it I felt like I was being managed.

Redinfinite was dumb in the best way. It did one thing: showed you posts. Swipe, next. No sidebar. No suggested communities. No “join this subreddit” prompts every 30 seconds.

I wanted that back.

What changed technically

The original version used Reddit’s old API without authentication — free, fast, no key required. That’s what died. The new API requires an OAuth app registration and respects rate limits.

In practice this means: v2 uses the public read-only API tier with an app client ID. No user login required. Rate limits are generous for a PWA that’s fetching posts for one person at a time. The rebuild took less than a week — most of it scaffolding a clean SvelteKit 2 project from scratch rather than resurrecting the old codebase, which wasn’t worth saving.

What’s different in v2

The swipe mechanic is tighter. The original had some jank on fast swipes; v2 uses a proper pointer event model that feels snappy on mobile.

Image and gallery posts actually work now. The old version would just show a link for anything that wasn’t a simple image URL. v2 handles galleries, hosted video, and most embeds.

I also added an optional subreddit list — a simple local-storage list of subs you want to rotate through. Nothing fancy. No account, no sync. Just a list of names saved in your browser.

Why it’s free

Because it’s a small project I use myself, and I’d rather it exist than try to monetize it. There’s a single ad slot that shows up occasionally. If you use it and want to support it, there’s a buy me a coffee link. That’s the whole business model.

What’s next

A few things on the backlog:

  • Sort options (Hot / New / Top) per subreddit
  • Saved posts that actually sync (probably via a tiny serverless API, nothing heavy)
  • Better offline support

I work on it when I have time. There’s no roadmap, no launch date. It gets better when I’m frustrated with something and fix it.

If you run into something broken, open an issue or reach out. I actually look at these.

Thanks for scrolling. ∞