If you're a fan of Reddit and use an iPhone, chances are, you've come across Apollo in passing or are currently an active user, as it is one of the best apps for browsing Reddit. Sadly, the beloved app's time is coming to a close, with the announcement that the app will be shut down at the end of June. Sadly, this choice doesn't come lightly, but certain changes and events over the past few months, along with some alleged strange behavior by Reddit, have forced the developer's hand.

Today, the creator of Apollo, Christian Selig, took to Twitter and Reddit to share that the app would be shut down on June 30. While the message on Twitter was short and sweet, Selig shared a more detailed post on Reddit, which explains the events that led to his decision to pull the plug on the app. The beginning of the end for Apollo started in April when Reddit announced that it would begin charging third parties for access to its API.

At the time, things seemed to be going smoothly, with plenty of communication between Selig and Reddit discussing the future of the platform, Apollo, and much more. Unfortunately, pricing would be released some weeks later, and Selig had to deal with the reality that the cost to access the API might not be a realistic one for Apollo. In the Reddit post, he shares:

The price they gave was $0.24 for 1,000 API calls. I quickly inputted this in my app, and saw that it was not far off Twitter's outstandingly high API prices, at $12,000, and with my current usage would cost almost $2 million dollars per month, or over $20 million per year.

This is where the story takes a strange turn, with communication between the developer and Reddit breaking down, with allegations of blackmail and threats, and also other slanderous behavior. While Selig does have concerns about this behavior, he doesn't seem too worried, as he has publicly stated that he has everything documented and phone conversations recorded legally to back up any statements he has made. The post also explores and explains different options Selig has thought about, like charging users more or selling it off, but ultimately, his decision is to let the app die.

Of course, there's a lot to this story, but in the end, for now, at least, Apollo will stop working on June 30. There's still some time before that happens, and things could always change. But luckily, those that have paid for a subscription will be given options soon and will be able to choose whether they want a pro-rated refund or decline the refund outright and let Selig keep the money in exchange for years of hard work on the app.

While this is a huge farewell to an app loved by so many, this isn't the first time we've seen issues caused by changing APIs. Earlier this year, Twitter effectively banned third-party clients with changes to its developer agreements and also began charging access to its API, causing problems for many developers and services. Although the chapter for Apollo looks like it's closing for good, Selig states that his Apollo spinoff app Pixel Pals is doing well, so if you want to support him in another way, you can always download this cute app from the App Store.