Reddit, meet Roku: An Austin, Tx.-based Reddit user has launched a Roku app to access the site’s posts on a TV.
The unofficial Reddit Roku app, which is available for $ 5 in the Roku channel store, works best to consume photo-heavy subreddits, and comes preloaded with access to subreddits like Aww (be prepared for a cute overload) or Funny (which is, of course, very subjective).
Users can also log into their own Reddit accounts to upvote and downvote posts and access their subreddit subscriptions. Access to saved posts is planned for the near future.
The app also offers access to the text and comments of a post, but the interface is very bare-bones, and reading that much text isn’t a great experience on the TV anyway. Still, a bit more polish would go a long way for the app, which currently feels a bit experimental.
Unfortunately, completely missing is access to videos posted on Reddit. That’s because of the long and murky relationship between Roku and YouTube, which has not only prevented Roku from launching its own YouTube app but also resulted in the take-down of a number of apps that have offered access to YouTube videos. The developer of the Reddit app told me in an email that he simply didn’t want to take that risk.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
- Connected consumer third-quarter 2012
- Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room
- What the shift to the cloud means for the future EPG