Explain Like I'm Five

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Why are big platforms shutting down third-party Apps? Should an average user be worried? (lemmy.one)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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With the recent Reddit stuff and YouTube stuff, I realized I've been using numerous third party apps or services. The question I have is why the decision and how such decisions would really benefit the company. As an random user, should I be worried about it or even go back to the official Apps just in case the third-party apps would be shut down in the future?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Essentially it boils down to - ways in which they can turn users into money.

Control the content you see - Especially ads which provide income. Also injecting posts into your stream regardless of preferences to direct views towards sponsors preferences or to try to extend engagement.
More visibility over user activity - It gives them better tools to manipulate users habits (that pesky engagement), and better (for them), user telemetry can be sold (people who like X like Y is useful knowledge but it can go far deeper than this).
They want to discourage content that discourages advertisers - mostly this is NSFW content (since the advertisers don't want their ads showing beside NSFW content) but I expect it'll begin to span more than that over time.

With the elimination of third party apps, you can bet that 'old Reddit' is on the chopping-block soon too (mostly to boost ad views)