Social news sharing site Reddit has acquired Alien Blue, which is highly used third-party app for iPhones and iPads to browse Reddit.
With the latest acquisition, Reddit could debut its first official mobile app, as it never had its own app for browsing the site, with users needed to select from several unofficial third-party developers to do so.
Reddit said in a statement: "We are pleased to announce that the most popular iOS client for Reddit, Alien Blue, is now an official Reddit app.
As part of the deal, Alien Blue’s sole developer, Jase Morrissey, will also work for Reddit.
Reddit partnerships and strategic development head Ellen Pao said: "We want to be able to have new features from Reddit.com show up on mobile faster and better.
"With Alien Blue and Jase, it was getting to a point where it was too much work for one person.
"He was helping us, we were helping him and the fit was really strong."
Users will now be able to download the new Alien Blue app for free, while they need to pay to upgrade features.
Jase said in a statement: I’m the developer of Alien Blue and have been working closely with reddit for many years now.
"Now that I’m an official member of the team, I’m hoping to spend even more time doing what I love – building fun and powerful software for all of you."
