[Android] [2023.24.0] Tried the official Reddit app for the third time; some feedback

With Reddit killing off third-party apps, I figured I would reluctantly download the official app to at least familiarize myself with it. I had last tried it about a year or so ago. I've been using it for a few days now and have some general feedback regarding what is missing compared to other apps.

Lack of customization/theming

  • The included themes with the official app are...lacking to say the least. The two night themes may as well be the same thing and are completely devoid of any color, while the light themes consist of choosing either a blue, green, or pink accent color. That's it -- and none are particularly attractive and offer no customization. A great example of how well theming can be done is the latest Boost update - while other popular apps like Apollo or Sync also do it very well.
  • Very basic customization features are missing. Every time I use the official app I find myself scanning the settings for options that simply don't exist. Thumbnail sizes. Font sizing. Padding. Comment colors. Navigation button options. Sorting options. It feels like a featureless app that is in some sort of beta or early access, despite having been around for years. Where are the configuration settings? Why do you not want your users to have access to very basic customizations or accessibility settings?

Lack of readability

  • The official app has the worst readability of any of the major apps. Take a look at the page feeds and comments of Boost, Sync, Relay, etc. - and then look at the official app. Everything on the official app is basically the same color with little padding/separation to assist with navigation and skimming. Everything sort of runs together. On other apps, it's incredibly easy when skimming to see what posts subreddits are from, where comments lie in the general hierarchy, etc. The official app makes it much harder to do-so. Everything is small and blended together.

Inconsistent interface and functions

  • None of the gestures and navigational features are consistent. Sometimes swiping goes back. Sometimes swiping goes to the next post. There is little consistency and much of it has to be a learned function rather than intuitively fitting Android's predefined settings and expectations.
  • Various features are hidden and not easily accessible. How many of you knew you could drag the "comment jump" button out of the bottom right corner to other locations? There no reason this sort of thing needs to be something the user discovers rather than simply giving it a place in the settings/configuration for the app.
  • Why can I jump down comments, but not back up?
  • I disabled video autoplay, yet videos still autoplay about half of the time or so. Often when I tap the "pause" button it simply expands the video to fullscreen. You can't use any video control videos with the comments are open and have to either swipe it off of the screen or expand the video. If you pause an expanded video and then jump to comments, the video starts playing again. Videos don't respect whether or not you've previously muted them. Why? This is just one example of a feature-set that just doesn't work consistently or in a manner that is sensible.

Ads and annoyances

  • I get it, the app needs ads (or for you to pay to remove ads). However, the implementation is quite poor. Ads look almost exactly like regular posts and are designed to blend in when skimming. This is a horrible implementation and the goal shouldn't be to "trick" users into thinking ads and promoted posts are part of the organic feed. I also understand that you don't want them to stick our like a sore thumb - but there is a middle ground that isn't being met remotely. It should be obvious when something is a paid ad.
  • "Do you want to receive notifications from this subreddit?" No, no I do not. Over the past few days I've clicked "no" on this exact popup on nearly every subreddit I've visited. yet this popup continues to persist, somehow confident that I'll click "yes" if it continues to ask me a dozen more times. Why is this even a thing? Why can't it be turned off? Why is it not in the app settings somewhere? this is just another example of an experience that makes the official app awful to use.