--- title: "How to Get Rid of Reddit’s Giant App-Shilling Popup That Breaks Its Entire Mobile Site" description: "Reddit has deployed an irritating popup message that breaks its own mobile site. Here's how to get rid of it." date: "2026-04-30" modified: "2026-04-30" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/how-to-get-rid-of-reddit-app-popup" categories: - "Brain" - "Computing" - "Cybersecurity" - "Data Privacy" - "Devices" - "Future Society" - "Health & Medicine" - "Mental Health" - "Robots and Machines" --- # How to Get Rid of Reddit’s Giant App-Shilling Popup That Breaks Its Entire Mobile Site ![The image shows a blurred and double-exposed view of the Reddit app icon, which features a white smiling alien face with an antenna on a red background.]() *Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images* Earlier today, we reported on an incredibly irritating move by the social giant Reddit. Though the company has a perfectly functional mobile website that lets you browse its communities and discussions on your phone's browser, it's now [intentionally sabotaging it]() — by displaying a giant popup that prevents any use of the site while imploring visitors to download its app instead. Don't believe us? Just look at this monstrosity, which prevents you from scrolling or clicking anything: ![Reddit's mobile home page, showing a post from r/politics titled "An hour after SCOTUS guts Voting Rights Act, Florida House passes GOP gerrymander" with 3.7K upvotes and 378 comments. Below is a popup telling users to get the Reddit app, keeping the user from clicking any links or doing anything else on the site.]() Anyone who doesn't use the app obviously has their reasons. Maybe they don't want to be tracked further than necessary or install yet another pointless app, or object to the company's [dealmaking with the AI industry](), or they just want a general overview of what the average user is seeing instead of a personalized feed. Maybe they just object to the entire idea of an app that does nothing except recreate the functionality of an existing website. For all those reasons and more, Reddit users are furious with the change, [griping]() [about]() [the]() [move]() [in]() [a]() [barrage]() [of]() [angry]() [posts](). In response, a Reddit spokesperson told us something interesting: that the company is specifically pushing the site-breaking popup to its most active mobile users. "We’re testing this with a small subset of frequent mobile web users because they’re already familiar with Reddit and we’ve seen that the experience is much better for them in the app," the company said in a statement. Beyond the unbelievably annoying attitude of "we are going to bully our most loyal users into doing something they are intentionally choosing not to do by debilitating the experience of their product," the explanation also provides an important clue. Specifically, this isn't affecting all users — just ones who visit the site frequently. In other words, Reddit is tracking its users and only punishing only the most engaged ones. As [redditors quickly discovered](), that means clearing your browser's cache and cookies makes you look like a fresh visitor once again, beating back the pesky popup and making the site usable again. We tested the technique on a mobile browser, and it indeed gave us back a functional reddit.com. Of course, that doesn't mean the company — which is [currently under intense financial pressure](), probably explaining the whole exasperating situation in the first place — won't just institute an even more aggravating popup that breaks the site for all users. But for now, it's a fix. *Do you have any more info about how to avoid this popup, or insight into the discussion around it inside Reddit? We'd love to hear from you: [tips@futurism.com](). We can keep you anonymous.* **More on reddit:** *[Users Furious as Reddit Intentionally Breaks Its Mobile Website, Demanding Users Download Its App Instead]()* ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()