Xbox One Gets a Reddit App: Meet ReddX

Late last night, Major Nelson surprised the Xbox One reddit community by announcing that the system would get a reddit app, of all things. Today, ReddX was made available for download from the Xbox One Store.

For those who are glued to reddit on their laptops, smartphones or tablets in between matches, ReddX and its Snap-ability will definitely offer a more convenient way to browse the site. You can log in with your account and do most things you can on reddit.com and in most reddit apps — view posts, leave comments, vote posts up or down, and more. You can browse the subreddits you’re subscribed to, as well, though you can’t manage them from the Xbox One app.

I spent some time with the app today and, I have to say, I can see myself using it quite a bit during online multiplayer sessions. For a reddit app that you’re going to navigate using a controller, it’s darn good.

Feature wise, though, there are some things missing — messaging, for instance, as well as a way to view r/all. Voice command would be extremely beneficial, too. I’ve found myself clumsily exiting the app a couple of times while backing up with the B button. If I could say something like “subreddit home” to go back to the index of posts in a subreddit, I’d be far more happier with the experience.

Typing with the keyboard isn’t optimal either, though that’s not ReddX’s fault as much as it is Microsoft’s. The company would prefer that you use Smartglass to do the keyboard-intensive stuff, but if you’re going to pick up a smartphone or tablet, why not just browse reddit in its full, app-free glory? I wouldn’t mind seeing some form of the Chatpad come to the Xbox One, though I’m not sure where Microsoft would put it, to be honest.

Though it’s been promoted by the Major pretty significantly, I’m not sure that ReddX is actually a Microsoft project. It’s useful, don’t get me wrong, but it lacks the polish of most of the apps Microsoft has created for the console. It feels more like a project that was pulled together by some fans, and indeed, opening the menu in the app and selecting “About” shows you a list of people who are to thank. Kind of strange that there’s no love from Microsoft in any of its announcements, if that’s the case.

Anyway, don’t let that stop you from downloading ReddX. It’s pretty good right now, and I’m sure it’ll only get better as improvements are made. You can download it in the Xbox One Store as well as through Smartglass for the very, very low cost of free. Get to it.