Enshittification is an unavoidable fact of life. Once great apps and services fail in the constant need to maximize shareholder profits, which comes at the cost of user experience. Very few apps escape the march of enshittification, but there are some that have gotten significantly worse this year.
reddit
Reddit has had a lot of hate this year on *checks notes* Reddit. Most of that hate has not been unjustified. The app is now riddled with ads, and Reddit now includes ads in the comments section that are easy to mistake for genuine comments if you leave out the little “promoted” tag below the username.
Users have also complained that subreddits are automatically translated by AI without any prompts or warnings. This has caused users to comment on posts in their own language, without knowing that the rest of the comments are in a completely different language.
Reddit recently began rolling out a beta feature that removes the ability to sort comments for any user who is not logged into an account. Removing vital features is always a good way to keep users interested, right?
I fixed the Reddit feed with this little script
Sometimes the best just isn’t enough.
Amazon
Amazon could be the model of enshittification. What started as a simple way to buy books online has turned into a monster. The constant imperative to maximize profits has turned Amazon into a company that sells almost everything, but the user experience has never been worse.
Trying to find the product you really want to buy is now a big challenge. Even if you type the name of a specific product, the first results will be sponsored products, meaning the product you want will be further down the page, often completely off the screen. Instead of returning the product you want as the top result, Amazon returns the result that will make the most money for the company, making it very clear where customers fall on Amazon’s priority list.
The other products on Amazon are no better. Echo Show smart displays have shown an increase in the number of ads displayed on the home screen, much to the chagrin of Echo Show users. Prime Video isn’t immune either, as ads are now a reality for standard Prime subscribers, and the number of ads has increased significantly this year. If you’re tired of Amazon, there are plenty of independent retailers who would love your business.
Duolingo
This one really bothers me. I’ve been on Duolingo for almost five years and have been using the free, ad-supported version of the app for that entire time. Until this year, the ads were annoying, but it seemed like a fair trade-off to be able to use the app for free.
That all changed this year when Duolingo replaced the traditional heart system with a new energy-based system. With the original system, as long as you didn’t make more than five mistakes and lose all your hearts, you could continue doing as many lessons as you wanted. With the new energy system, energy is depleted with every question you answer, even if you do it right. You can burn out after just three lessons, even if you don’t get anything bad, preventing you from completing more lessons without seeing ads, using gems, or giving up and signing up for a subscription.
The change has made the app significantly worse. I have resorted to skipping questions that require speaking or listening, which reduces the number of questions per lesson and uses a little more energy, but this is not a good way to learn. There are many alternative language learning apps that you may want to use.
netflix
Netflix used to be so good; It had a large catalog of television shows and movies licensed from major studios. Unfortunately, studios caught on to the idea and created their own streaming services, causing users to have to pay for multiple subscriptions if they wanted to watch all the big shows and movies.
As Netflix’s user numbers began to plateau, it had to find other ways to continue growing, which inevitably led to enshitification. In 2023, Netflix began cracking down on password sharing and the situation has been getting worse since then.
The final nail in the coffin is that Netflix has removed casting from its mobile apps for all but a small handful of supported devices. Previously, you could stream a show or movie on your phone and cast the show to your TV to watch it on a larger screen. It’s now only possible on Chromecast devices and older TVs that support Google Cast, and often only if you have an ad-free plan.
The best part is Netflix’s advice: “Use the remote control that comes with your device to navigate and watch.” In other words, you are forced to use the smart TV app whether you like it or not. It’s gotten to the point where many of us are deciding if Netflix is worth keeping.
Spotify
Spotify added audiobooks in 2023. If you’re a paying subscriber, you’ll get 15 hours of audiobook listening every month. If you want more listening time, you will have to pay an additional add-on. Adding something extra at no additional cost doesn’t seem silly.
However, there is a dark side. By adding audiobooks to your music streaming subscription, Spotify was able to reclassify your Premium subscription as a “bundle.” The benefit for Spotify is that, thanks to a 2022 legal agreement, packaged services can pay a lower mechanical royalty to publishers and songwriters in the United States. Spotify successfully fought a lawsuit challenging this in January 2025, meaning that by adding audiobooks, Spotify can now pay publishers and musicians even less than what they already paid.
The app itself is also getting worse. AI music is everywhere, and AI songs now reach the top of many Spotify charts, making it almost impossible to escape this fall. While Spotify tries to remove spam tracks, the app is still inundated with them. There are plenty of alternative music streaming services you can try if your Spotify experience is too terrible to bear, or you can even create your own.
Spotify’s latest update copies YouTube Music
Music videos are being released to more regions.
Enshittification is a sad fact of life. If an app or service is good, it will most likely get worse in the long term. The best course of action is to vote with your feet and simply stop using apps when they become too horrible.
#apps #complained
