For some of us, besides our Twitter timelines, Reddit gives us a front-row seat to happenings around the world as they, well, happen. Almost in real-time.
Until recently when Reddit moved from promoting a bunch of wrappers and released a full-fledged mobile app, most of us had already become hooked to the several third-party Reddit apps out there – oh, and there’s no shortage of them.
One of those has been Reddit Offline. The app, as its name indicates, lets one download their feeds so that they can continue accessing them even when they are not online. This is especially handy when one is travelling or is in an area with poor network connectivity or they just want to save on their valuable data bundles.
For now, though, that may be impossible for those that don’t already have Reddit Offline installed on their mobile devices.
This is because Google has since taken the application offline and it is no longer accessible through the Play Store.
According to the developer, the reason given for this action is that “it’s too similar to the official Reddit app”.
This is not the first time we are hearing of such a fate befalling a third-party Reddit app. Following a change in Reddit’s policy in order for third-party apps to access its interface, in 2015, several Reddit apps were forced to change their names from Reddit xxxx to xxxx for Reddit. The policy change forbade developers from using the word Reddit in their app names without adding “for” before it.
Google Play policies on impersonation and intellectual property are also very explicit on not allowing app names that are similar to others.
The developer is appealing the decision to takedown Reddit Offline from the Play Store and at the moment, there is no timeline as to when we’ll be seeing the app back on the store. In the event that doesn’t happen, Reddit Offline will be sure to resurface as a different application.
“If it cannot be restored, I will change its name and icon, and publish it as a different app,” the developer added.
