RedditToGo Offers An Intuitive Reddit Experience For Windows 8

Browse Reddit intuitively, with columns. Reddit To Go is a Windows 8 app that opens every link you click in a column, allowing you to quickly browse from one story to the next. You can even see an open link right next to Reddit’s comments about it.

One of the most common criticisms of Reddit is that it’s confusing. Go to the site and you see a list of links; click those links and you’re taken away from Reddit. If you want to join the conversation around a link, you need to find the “Comments” button below the link. It’s simple enough for those who’ve been using the middle mouse button to open new links in a background tab since 2004, but for everyone else it’s understandably confusing.

Other apps try to help. Reditr, for Mac, Linux and Windows, embeds content for quick browsing. RedditToGo attempts to be a little more straight forward than that (spectacular) advanced tool, and I think it does a good job of making Reddit simpler.

Columns Make Reddit Better

Start up RedditToGo and you’ll be asked to sign in. Do so and you’ll be presented with your subreddits:

Tap any of these to start browsing, or click the “Front Page” button to see the best of the subreddits you’ve collected. You can up- and down-vote articles, as usual. Whatever you’ll do, you’ll be presented with the usual collection of links. Tap one and you’ll be taken to the page, with the collection of links on the left:

You can quickly jump from one article to another, because the list of articles are on the right. Embedded support for a service like Readability would be nice, but isn’t offered – perhaps in a future update.

Tap the word “comments” while an article is open and you’ll see the comments to the right of the article – so you can see the story and check out what the hivemind has to say about it.

Of course, “self” posts on Reddit don’t have an article: they’re mostly just to start a conversation. Tap one of these posts and you’ll be take directly to the comments:

You can up- and down-vote comments, as usual, by hitting the arrows. You can leave your own comments as well, which will be up- and down-voted depending on whether or not you’re cool.

Configuration Options

There are a few notable settings here. The NSFW filter can block questionable material (ie, nudity) so set that according to your tastes. You can also set the number of comments/articles that are loaded when you first tap a subreddit or link:

If you’re using a Windows RT/8 tablet, congratulations: there aren’t many people with your bravery/curiosity/tolerance for wasted storage space. You’ll be happy to know that this app supports gestures:

I haven’t tested them myself, because I lack the aforementioned bravery/curiosity/tolerance for wasted space.

Finally, if you’re the sort of person who values the ability to slightly change the color scheme of the apps you’re using, you’re in luck – RedditToGo allows you to do just that.

Other Reddit Clients

Like the idea, but don’t have access to Windows 8? There are Reddit clients for most platforms out there. Be sure to check out the previously mentioned Reditr, which works on all versions of Windows as well as OS X and Linux.

If you love your portable Apple device, check out Alien Blue, which James Bruce calls the best Reddit app for iOS. Android uses also have options, including the specatular Reddit Is Fun.

None of these are exactly like RedditToGo, but they’re all great in their own way. Check them out.

Conclusion

Is this app the prettiest one out there for Windows? Not really. It is, however, highly functional: after using it for a couple of days I have to say that my time-wasting has become much more efficient. That’s probably dangerous in and of itself, but whatever.

I really enjoy seeing the article list, articles and comments all from within one interface. There are other Reddit apps in the Windows 8 Store, but this one is the highest rated and (in my opinion) the most functional. Disagree? Make your recommendations in the comments below.

Of course, no app alone is going to make Reddit simple to use: you need to read the rules on every subreddit and lurk long enough to learn the culture. Our own Dave, a long-time Redditor, wrote Best of the Web, Delivered: The Reddit Manual to help guide anyone through the process of learning to use Reddit. Check it out if you’re confused by the entire premise of Reddit.

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