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Reddit launches official iOS and Android apps with free Reddit Gold

Alien Blue is no more, replaced by a new Reddit client built from the ground up.

Sarah Mitroff Managing Editor
Sarah Mitroff is a Managing Editor for CNET, overseeing our health, fitness and wellness section. Throughout her career, she's written about mobile tech, consumer tech, business and startups for Wired, MacWorld, PCWorld, and VentureBeat.
Expertise Tech, Health, Lifestyle
Sarah Mitroff
2 min read
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Reddit's new Android and iOS apps.

Reddit

Reddit, the social forum for topics that range from adorable pets to niche hobbies (like collecting cast iron), released official apps for iOS and Android today.

Fans of the service, including myself, have long relied on Alien Blue, a solid Reddit app built by a fan of the site for browsing the site on our iPhones and iPads. But then last fall Reddit bought Alien Blue and in February pulled it from the App Store.

Today, it's replacing Alien Blue with brand-new, official Reddit apps that are especially colorful and simple. The company said it initially planned to overhaul Alien Blue, but found that the project was too big of an undertaking and decided to start from scratch.

The new apps are cleaner and more modern-looking than Reddit's website and Alien Blue, with clear menus that show your subreddit subscriptions and account settings. Fans of Alien Blue's dark theme won't be disappointed -- it's available here, too.

There's another good reason to use the new apps: You get three free months of Reddit Gold when you download them this week and log in to your account. Reddit Gold is a paid add-on that gets rid of ads in the apps and on Reddit's site, lets you build a custom avatar and many other features.

If you're still mourning the loss of Alien Blue, the good news is that, for now, Reddit won't force you to stop using it. But if you don't already have it, you'll have to look elsewhere for an alternative to these official apps.

Editors' note: This story was originally published at 6am, April 7, 2016 and was updated to include additional details.