“Narwhal is not going anywhere on July 1st,” Narwhal developer det0ur wrote in a post on the r/getnarwhal subreddit. “It will continue to operate as it has for many years (except it will not have ads anymore).” A lot of popular apps are shutting down because their developers can’t pay the potentially exorbitant API pricing, won’t be allowed to include ads in their apps, and due to the removal of sexually explicit content.
However, Narwhal will be changing a bit down the line. “Over the next few months,” det0ur will add subscriptions as part of “Narwal 2” to cover the new costs for using Reddit’s API. The subscriptions will “likely” cost between $4 to $7 per month.
For fans of Narwhal, the update should come as a relief — especially given that det0ur was not as optimistic about the app’s future at the beginning of this month. I’ve reached out to det0ur over Reddit DM to ask for more details about what changed, but I haven’t heard back yet.
Narwhal isn’t the only app that will hang around. The developer of MultiTab for Reddit said that they are increasing the price of the app’s subscriptions to $2.99 per month or $6.99 per year. A couple weeks ago, the developer of the Android app Infinity for Reddit said they planned to make it a subscription-only app, while the developer of Relay for Reddit said the app may survive but only with a paid subscription. (I’ve also reached out to those developers over Reddit DMs but haven’t heard back.) And RedReader, Dystopia, and Luna will remain available after receiving accessibility exemptions. If I’ve missed any other apps that you’ll still be able to use after June 30th, please email me at jay.peters@theverge.com.
Even though there will be a handful of third-party options, the loss of mainstays like Apollo and RIF will be a blow to longtime users of those apps. Depending on when you read this, however, you may have just a bit more time to be able to use them. Apollo developer Christian Selig tells The Verge he plans to turn things off for the app a few hours before July 1st, and RIF developer Andrew Shu plans to disable the app after 11:59PM PT on June 30th.
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