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BaconReader for Reddit | Android

 
 

Boasting over a million downloads, 50K daily users, and a hard-to-achieve 4.5 star Play Store rating, this Reddit competitor had no problem keeping pace in 2018.

Looking for a live product? Download the app here.

 
 
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Project

When BaconReader kicked off several years ago, Reddit only had a desktop offering and a mobile site— no native presence. Via Reddit’s APIs, our team created a native reader product for Android and iOS, which offered Reddit’s content in a fresh, feature-rich environment. At the time, Reddit’s primary focus was refining their content algorithms–while a worthy pursuit, the UI quality left much to be desired. Our team isolated Reddit’s current pain points (no native UIs, weak UX design, slow to ship new features, hard-to-locate beta communities)

Problems to Solve:

  • How do we differentiate ourselves from a huge platform with exponentially more resource hours available?

  • How will we stay profitable against a free platform?

  • How will we gain adoption and scale within a already-dedicated user base (Redditors on Reddit)?

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How We Solved for X:

Focused on very rapid feature development, based purely around beta community feedback (333K members means ample feedback) and native analytics results (Google Analytics, etc).

  • Quickly developed beta community and touchpoint persons for user communication/feedback.

  • Three standard UI themes (light, dark, and black modes)

  • Ability to “Gild” content (give award to) in-app, as opposed to leaving native app for mobile Reddit site.

  • Hide NSFW posts by default within settings

  • Serving native ads vs. banners, interstitials, or mid-thread ads.
    (We needed profit; native ads both kept user annoyance down and the conversion rates kicked the pants off the alternatives)

  • Introduced novel discovery feature for new content, namely communities (subreddits) and “trending” posts.