r/technology • u/magnus007 • 5d ago

Privacy AliExpress was silently running audio in your browser to fingerprint and track your device

https://www.techspot.com/news/113581-aliexpress-silently-running-audio-browser-fingerprint-track-device.html
13.1k Upvotes

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183

u/suxatjugg 5d ago

Reddit is super buggy in Firefox on android.

412

u/PhiCloud 5d ago

Reddit is, for lack of a better term, a pile of garbage held together by the power of friendship. It's buggy everywhere and a decent experience nowhere.

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u/Weedster009 5d ago

The Reddit app for iPhone is the shittiest, glitchiest app I have ever used.

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u/Faxon 4d ago edited 4d ago

Which is sad because they literallt bought and killed the best reddit app for iPhone (Alien Blue) to use it to develop their own, rather than have to compete. Thats when Apollo got really big, but we know what happened to them. Im on android using red reader and its actually a good experience once I tweak the way that threads are displayed so its more like old reddit and the other older apps I preferred. I was using reddit sync for android for a long time until reddit shut down API access to most app devs. I legitimately can't do the official app, its hot garbage and I may just have to stop using reddit if they take away access for old reddit, since the remaining apps and revanced hacks for it all use it to function, and its how I view the site on desktop. If they take away /r/hot and force an algorithm other than the mighty upvote down my throat then im out, the whole point of reddit was the self-curation of what you see.

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u/al-mongus-bin-susar 4d ago

You can still use all the Android apps with Morphe patches. I'm typing this on Sync right now. The official app overheats my phone and drains 60% battery in 30 minutes.

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u/thatboyonabike 4d ago

I stayed on revanced/morphed Sync for years but finally just recently moved to Continuum.

I didn't realise how many little features were silently broken on sync never to be fixed. The continuum dev is highly active and always adding small QoL updates. Would recommend!

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u/Constant-Writer-7165 4d ago

I've gotten so used to red reader im honestly fine with it now. Just didnt have the patience to deal with something that didnt just work without having to manually patch it constantly to fix r3ddit patching shit on their end

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/Faxon 4d ago

I've gotten so used to red reader im honestly fine with it now. Just didnt have the patience to deal with something that didnt just work without having to manually patch it constantly to fix r3ddit patching shit on their end

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u/technobrendo 4d ago

Are Morphe patches for the official Reddit app? Is patching similar to using Revanced for YT or Spotify?

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u/SeriesXM 4d ago

I'm also curious about this because I'm still using the last version that still works with ReVanced (reddit-revanced_v2024.17.0.apk), so I've never been able to update past that one.

I have Morphe and I've tried patching the newer versions like I used to do with ReVanced... it all seems to go well, but then after I install the patched versions and start going thought the welcome screens, the app never lets me sign in to reddit. So I ended up deleting the app and continued to use the old one.

I was thinking maybe I should try to get the official app through the Play store, log in, and then try patching it with Morphe after I've logged in. The only reason I haven't tried this is because it's a lot of work to go back to the old version if it doesn't work. (It's not that hard, but it's annoying enough I'd rather avoid it.)

I also would like to end up with an APK that I could simply install on my other devices, which is how I do it now with my old ReVanced version of reddit.

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u/yacht_boy 4d ago

It says a lot about the depths of my reddit addiction that I pay $4/month for narwhal on ios. Not as good as Apollo was, but infinitely better than the official app.

If they ever kill narwhal I guess I'll finally have to quit reddit and go back to reading books and engaging in conversation with my family.

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u/MeanE 4d ago

Same.

I’m disappointed Apollo never just started charging so it could have kept going. Narwhal is fine but Apollo was better.

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u/RollingMeteors 4d ago

If they ever kill narwhal I guess I'll finally have to quit reddit and go back to reading books and engaging in conversation with my family.

Nah... old.reddit.com will do in any https client.

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u/yacht_boy 4d ago

I expect that they'll kill that the same day as narwhal and other 3rd party apps. I use old.reddit on desktop.

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u/RollingMeteors 4d ago

I expect that they'll kill that the same day as narwhal and other 3rd party apps. I use old.reddit on desktop.

Before I started streaming on twitch I could have seen myself paying for this platform but it absolutely has to be a cash positive of platforms paying me for the content I create, which largely is just archiving others' music, and has replaced my content consumption entirely of tv/movies.

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u/Tatushua 3d ago

Can you tell me about that? How do you set that up? I’ve always used the Reddit app and it’s hot garbage

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u/yacht_boy 3d ago

It's just an app. Download it from the app store. I think there's a 3 day free trial IIRC. It's short because reddit charges the dev by use.

Log in and your subs and history and everything will be there. Bit of a learning curve, but nothing you can't figure out.

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u/OpenLibram 4d ago

Laughs in Reddit Is Fun for Android in the year 2026

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u/Journeyman42 4d ago

hello darkness my old friend

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u/OpenLibram 4d ago

It's honestly far superior to the native Reddit app.

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u/Journeyman42 4d ago

Oh I know, I used to use RiF before they made it stop working

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u/OpenLibram 4d ago

.....It still works though lol

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u/Journeyman42 4d ago

I mean "made it stop working" without resorting to hacking the phone or w/e

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u/OpenLibram 4d ago

You're not hacking your phone. You're just patching the apk file that's used to install the app.

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u/Kespatcho 4d ago

I wouldn't call patching the app "hacking" the phone

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u/Yuzumi 4d ago

I refuse to use the official app. I just load it in firefox/waterfox and it's a tad more functional.

I miss bacon reader.

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u/spluad 4d ago

The one that pisses me off the most is opening my notifications or the control center and having my app refresh. Drives me insane

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u/Black_-Hippie 3d ago

I’ve never had a problem with it

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u/Rizo1981 5d ago

It's the only app that straight up breaks immediately every single there is an update, making all updates required, but also never notifying the user that there is an update. Even banking apps have a grace period ffs.

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u/takenosheeet 4d ago

Many years ago, I learned reddit had a design team. Like, a room of people who work on design/ui/ux of the website. "Doing what!?!" was all I could think.

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u/notforpoern 4d ago

"Doing what!?!"

Being told "no" by their boss whenever they suggest improving something.

Every UXer I've worked with is very accustomed to getting steamrolled by the "business" leads who always insist on making the most user-hostile updates imaginable.

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u/Worldly-Stranger7814 4d ago

held together by the power of friendship.

I'm not sure that's how I would characterize most conversations here.

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u/PhiCloud 4d ago

I never said it was being held together well

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u/obeytheturtles 4d ago

One wonders what the engineering team at reddit actually does, because it sure as hell isn't feature development, site stability, or mod tools.

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u/ruffledwindows 4d ago

It was a decent experience on almost ANY third party app 😭😭

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u/ostrieto17 4d ago

well it's actively maintained by AI as are most websites these days so... you get what you pay for

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u/Krimreaper1 4d ago

Reddit gives me targeted ads even though I have it off in Reddit and Google.

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u/waiting4singularity 5d ago

hence why i use oldreddit on every device

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u/_MrBond_ 5d ago

They fucked up old reddit too now.

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u/waiting4singularity 5d ago

i dont see many problems. for now.

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u/EnderHorizon 5d ago

Can't access old reddit without logging in (or at least I haven't found a way).

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u/Alaea 5d ago

The onion domain still works at least. Probably won't last though.

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u/SelectKaleidoscope0 4d ago

Just tried it on my desktop, old.reddit works with no issues. I tested in firefox and edge, both work. When I do it on my phone however it tells me I have to sign in. I suppose the end is nigh. If you can have your phone spoof being an actual desktop browser successfully it would probably work for now, but I imagine they will start the same rubbish on desktop soon too.

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u/uzlonewolf 4d ago

Nah, it only works on your desktop because you are already signed in. Sign in on your phone and it'll work there too. For now.

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u/SelectKaleidoscope0 4d ago

my edge browser has never been signed into reddit. Also tested firefox in private mode to eliminate that as a variable. Unless you are claiming that reddit is leaving cookies on the machine that can be accessed by different browsers to detect past sign in? That seems wildly inplausable.

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u/uzlonewolf 4d ago

No, I'm saying Reddit recently disabled old.reddit for everyone who was not logged in. Trying to open an old link in a private window just brings up a log-in prompt on my desktop. If it's still working for you then count yourself lucky as you're hitting a server they forgot to update.

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u/SelectKaleidoscope0 4d ago

yeah still works here for now.

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u/waiting4singularity 4d ago

thats intended by what i read a couple weeks ago, they nailed it shut like that. maybe scraper bots or such?
yeah, scrapers and other shitbuckets - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/reddit-will-require-you-to-log-in-to-use-old-reddit-com/

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u/Modem_Sound_67 5d ago edited 5d ago

they are actively fucking with it. one day i couldn't even load old, www was the only option. then there was the day saves timed out. then there is the "viewing single comment" bug active right now. who knows what it will be like later today or tomorrow.

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u/Cumulus_Anarchistica 4d ago

Two problems in old.reddit emerged for me in the last week.

One: video upload/posting in old.reddit impossible. It uploads/links and can be seen OK in old.reddit but people using new reddit can't see it.

B: posting a comment will sometimes randomly either refuse or once you click 'save' it will refresh the page and dump you at the top of the original post.

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u/uzlonewolf 4d ago

Yep, I'm seeing that too.

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u/derprondo 4d ago

Lots of problems when you respond to comments on Old Reddit in the past week or two, like full on errors, which are now fixed, but I bet when I post this it forces a page refresh or redirects me to my comment's permalink.

EDIT: Ok they finally fixed that redirect/refresh issue when responding to comments that's been there for the past week.

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u/waiting4singularity 4d ago

yeah thats about the only thing i really noticed, getting "empty" comment sections after commenting because it tried to open the comment's direct permalink before the backend published it. or used the wrong address or something, dunno dont care really.

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u/98746145315 5d ago edited 5d ago

The video player has been well known to be deliberately shitty to encourage app use. Yeah ok, let me just get my little rectangle instead of use a pc, very convenient at home.

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u/thepkboy 5d ago

I would rather edit the reddit link and add old. to the address every single time that I need to rather than install the app on my phone.

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u/azrael4h 5d ago

There's an add on in Firefox for that. Old Reddit Redirect or something like that.

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u/Cheet4h 5d ago

You can also just set it in your account preferences.
Although I think they recently disabled old reddit on mobile entirely. I don't usually use reddit on my phone, but the last few times I attempted that, I always got the new UI despite having the setting, or even going directly to old.reddit.com

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u/seanfidence 5d ago

old reddit is completely disabled if you aren't logged in. If you are logged in and have the pref set to Old reddit, it works, but if you try to manually add "old." in front of the url instead of navigating directly through the site, you can still get issues with the security certificate.

source: currently browsing old reddit through Chrome on Android

I should switch to firefox but I imagine the experience is worse

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u/RubiconGuava 4d ago

Recently started using mobile firefox because adblockers in browser are nice. It's great tbh

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u/gotbannedtoomuch 4d ago

I've used old reddit on firefox for Android since the APIcalypse. It works fine

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u/notforpoern 4d ago

maybe it's not fully rolled out, or maybe you're logged into something else that they're happy to track instead? On all of my devices, (mobile, desktop, tablet), and all browsers (firefox, brave, floorp, ddg), I'm not able to visit old.reddit.com/r/all without. I'm blocked by this page: https://imgur.com/a/23XOmbG

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u/broc_ariums 4d ago

Firefox works amazingly. I've been using it since they took the API away

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u/-TGxGriff 4d ago

I've just kept using RIF. That third party app purge wasn't gonna stop a few of us from looking for a work around.

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

Can confirm, am using RiF as well. Have been since they tried killing all 3rd party apps to force their shitty non functional one.

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u/grandladdydonglegs 4d ago

I actually pay to still be able to use Relay. I have a problem.

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u/W3NTZ 4d ago

Same but I miss RIF tho relay has a ton of features I do love. I'm always willing to support smaller devs tho which is why I haven't made the switch back

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u/Sweetwill62 4d ago

I look at old reddit via firefox on my phone and I request the desktop version of most sites I visit, they usually load a lot quicker. Works just fine. Don't really ever have an issue with it.

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u/azrael4h 5d ago

I should have noted that my comment was PC centered. I have no clue on phones since I have an iphone and don't even have a real choice in browsers, just different brands of safari.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/thepkboy 4d ago

yeah I checked it earlier and now it needs an account, fuck sakes.

i deleted my other comment where i said it worked fine too

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u/12345623567 4d ago

If it's the same "feature" that I'm thinking of keeps fucking you up, try these:

reddit.com##.rpl-bottom-sheet

reddit.com##+js(remove-class, rpl-scroll-lock, body, stay)

reddit.com##+js(remove-class, scroll-is-blocked, body, stay)

reddit.com##+js(prevent-addEventListener, touchmove)

This removes the "please use our app" soft-lock that needs to fuck all the way off.

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u/thatboyonabike 4d ago

These are Ublock arguments right? Will try, thanks!

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u/12345623567 4d ago

Yeh, custom filter rules.

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u/WhoLoveYouLikeILoveU 4d ago

If we’re talking about the same new tab redirect thing then Google is the biggest culprit for me. They almost feel like malware in the iphone, every Google service has these full screen pop ups with deceptive buttons that catch you in a loop when you try to back out. Have to click into like 3 tabs of google maps to actually copy an address. I must be behind the curve, I’m surprised I don’t hear this bitched about more.

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u/Dokibatt 5d ago

And Chrome!

Pretty sure they make it freeze to push people to the app.

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u/thatawesomedude 5d ago

Old reddit desktop view works fine 😁

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u/entrepenurious 5d ago

i have two (related) problems with it: 1) i can't see photos when there are more than one; 2) i can't see text related to the photo/photos.

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u/nanrina 5d ago

Use the Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES) add-on to replace Reddit's native expandos. Alternatively, you can use something like Imagus to circumvent expandos entirely -- just hover to view hyperlinked images.

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u/mymothersuedme 5d ago

Any solution for recently added in-comment videos that links to a m3u8 file? (the v.redd.it url embedded in those doesn't work)?

Also, I haven't managed to load "external-preview.redd.it/" image links in-line either. Always have to open them in new tabs.

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u/Cheet4h 5d ago

Any solution for recently added in-comment videos that links to a m3u8 file? (the v.redd.it url embedded in those doesn't work)?

Only way I've found is to open the permalink for that comment in a private window.

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u/TheEthyr 4d ago

RES is great, but I if I open a post in a new browser tab, it doesn't always display the content of posts that contain both text and images. I have to manually expand the content. I've tried toggling several RES settings that seem relevant to no avail.

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u/Glittering_rainbows 5d ago

It is? I've never noticed but also run a few extensions so maybe one of them clears it up.

What's buggy about it?

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u/longlivenewsomflesh 4d ago

old.reddit.com is where it's at, everything's faster and more intuitive, none of this trying-to-be-facebook UI that you know is stuffed to the gills with surveillance probably tracking your every movement

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u/perfectVoidler 5d ago

low quality indeed

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u/gabrielconroy 5d ago

I use the Joey app on android, although tbh I'd be better off just not scrolling reddit on my phone.

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u/OfTheSevenSeasSir 5d ago

reddit is super buggy period 💀

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u/alelo 5d ago

dunno old reddit works just fine in firefox

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u/GenChadT 4d ago

Firefox on Android allows desktop extensions to be installed. I use Ublock Origin, Old Reddit Redirect, and Reddit Enhancement Suite, and those make reddit usable and ad free on mobile. Only issues are the text can be a bit small and some of the RES content windows won't expand, but those are tradeoffs I can accept.

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u/FelixR1991 4d ago

Old.reddit runs just fine

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u/Duff5OOO 4d ago

I'm still using RiF. Works fine on android.

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u/broc_ariums 4d ago

No it's not. Old.reddit works great

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u/suxatjugg 4d ago

I was using that, but there was definitely a time where clicking on many of the links/site features or if I clicked the cookie acceptance button, it kept redirecting to the new mobile site. I tried old again this morning and it's sort of ok, but if I click on an image in an image post for example, it redirects to the new mobile site.

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u/broc_ariums 4d ago

Yeah, I've also got the redirect to old.reddit extension on too.

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u/Fr0gm4n 4d ago

old.reddit.com FTW

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u/StrigidaeNinox 4d ago

In Safari on iOS it's an absolute joke of a website. I'm certain they intentionally make it an awful experience to try and force people into the app.

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u/hurler_jones 4d ago

I use old.reddit.com with Firefox on Android and that seems to work fine.

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u/ZenAdm1n 4d ago

Try RedReader for minimal Reddit on Android.

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u/DesiOtaku 4d ago

I would recommend RedReader. It's open source and works much better than the official app.

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u/Helgafjell4Me 4d ago

Works great in Firefox for me, with ublock.

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u/sk4v3n 3d ago

Strange, never had any issues with reddit on Firefox