Alien Blue is now Reddit’s official iOS app

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Screenshots: Alien Blue
Screenshots: Alien Blue

Alien Blue, the most popular third-party Reddit client for iOS, has been acquired by Reddit itself. To celebrate, the ‘Pro’ upgrade in-app purchase is available for free instead of $2. The iPad app is also free to download.

Developer Jason Morrissey has joined Reddit, and he will continue to develop Alien Blue and add new features.

“Our whole philosphy has been to give our users choice. We’ve got the reddit AMA app, and alienblue coming out… but we really want users to use whatever they want.” said Reddit’s head of Strategic Partnerships in a statement to TechCrunch. “We think Alienblue is great, and it’s the most popular reddit app on iOS. We wanted to be able to offer it as a reddit app, and we wanted to help Jase with additional resources to do everything he wanted to do with it.”

Recently updated for iOS 8 and the new iPhone display sizes, Alien Blue now has a new icon and new home in the App Store. That means even existing users will need to download it again on the iPhone and the iPad. It will eventually be sold as a universal download with an in-app purchase, but for the next week Reddit is offering everything for free.

Morrissey has teased a Mac version of Alien Blue occasionally over the past few years, but whether it will eventually see the light of day sill remains unclear.

Alien Blue is Reddit’s second official offering in the App Store. The service launched its Ask Me Anything app last month.

Here is Alien Blue’s feature list:

• Browse all of reddit, including funny pictures, original stories, and news
• View images and video seamlessly with touch-to-preview
• Upvote the best content to help it rise to the top
• Subscribe and participate in subreddit communities centered around your interests
• Submit your own comments, links, and stories for others to view and discuss
• Upload images directly to Imgur when posting or commenting
• Use night mode for easy reading in the dark
• Be notified of new messages from your reddit inbox
• View websites using the integrated “Readability” reader from Arc90

Upgrade to Alien Blue PRO to unlock even more features:
• Switch between multiple reddit accounts easily
• Browse in Gallery mode (formerly Canvas)
• Discover subreddits by topic or interest
• Expand all images in the comments with one tap
• Quote comments in one tap
• Exclude posts based on keywords
• “Hide All / Hide Read” comments with one tap

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