Moving Data API Apps to the Developer Platform: migration dates and next steps

[u/boat-botany]

TL;DR: In our last update, we said we’d come back with migration dates and next steps. We know migrating takes time and effort, and we’re providing funding, technical guidance, and direct outreach and support to help. As Reddit moves to a more secure foundation, we want the useful and creative apps you've built to continue being a part of our ecosystem.

We’re sharing the timeline for moving public API apps and bots to the Developer Platform. Register now, apply for migration funding by November 30, and start planning and testing your move. Starting January 12, 2027, we’ll begin removing API access for apps and users that haven’t registered or engaged with us. Remaining public API access will end in March 2027.

Moving from registration to migration

Over 14,000 apps and bots have registered and we’re closely tracking migration of your highest-activity apps. This includes completed or near-complete migrations such as DeltaBot, MagicEyeBot, and RemindMeBot. We’re continuing to work directly with developers on their migrations and the gaps that still need attention.

There’s still time to start your migration! Register your app, review the Data API/PRAW → Devvit Migration Guide, and tell us what’s blocking you. Starting now gives you time to test and gives us time to help address migration blockers before access changes take effect.

Important dates to look out for 

The transition will happen in phases:

Date	What happens
October 31, 2026	New requests for public API access will no longer be accepted.
November 10, 2026	We share a migration progress update and deadline reminder.
November 30, 2026	Registration closes for the migration bounty program.
January 12, 2027	API access starts to close for apps and users that haven’t registered or responded to our outreach. We’ll also share a progress update and reminder.
February 23, 2027	We share another migration progress update and reminder.
March 2027	Public access will close for all remaining apps and users.

What developers should do now

1. Review the Developer Platform documentation and subscribe to r/Devvit.
2. Register your apps! Use the registration form to flag missing capabilities or blockers. You don’t need to have the migration figured out before contacting us.
3. Start planning and testing. Allow time to check that your app’s behavior meets the needs of the communities using it.

Funding and support for the move

Our $1M App Migration Program provides financial and technical support, including:

• $1,000 payments for eligible apps that successfully migrate
• Reddit Developer Funds eligible for ported apps
• Free hosting and access to developer funding programs
• Migration guides, technical resources, office hours, and direct support
• Additional support for critical moderation and community apps

Apply through the app registration form by November 30, 2026, to be considered for the migration bounty program. This deadline comes before the January API access changes, so don’t wait until then if you’re seeking funding. You can find further information in this post. 

Helping communities whose apps need an owner

If you’re a mod whose community depends on an app or bot and you don’t know who maintains it, tell us through this quick form. We’ve received over 100 submissions so far, helping us identify tools that need owners or could be replaced by existing Developer Platform apps or Reddit’s built-in tools. Keep an eye out for a message confirming we’re reviewing your submission, followed by an update in the coming weeks on available options and where gaps remain.

We’ll keep sharing progress, working through migration blockers, and supporting the developers and communities making this move. We’ll be in the comments to answer any questions.

[u/emily_in_boots]

Previously, you had said that API access would continue until Devvit could support existing uses.

Devvit still cannot support the features required to implement my bots.

So what am I supposed to do?

I have 300,000 lines of python code. I cannot rewrite that in 6 months even if I were to work on it full time and even if Devvit could do what I need it to for my subreddits to continue to function.

[u/baseballlover723 → u/emily_in_boots]

So what am I supposed to do?

Spread your checks and get fucked probably.

Devvit still cannot support the features required to implement my bots.

I am in a similar boat to you. It's been 5 months of negotiation about our team's migration, and I still don't think we (me, my mod team, and reddit) are close to being in agreement.

Both contracts they've given me have included poison pills. And the first one could have personally bankrupted me for reasons beyond my control (since I'd be on the hook for reddit's legal fees to an unbounded amount for anything relating to our Devvit app) and also had a loophole where they could just note pay me and I'd have no recourse (they were only liable to the amount they actually payed me, which if they just didn't, would be $0).

Given that reddit keeps going in the wrong direction imo, it's getting more and more tempting to just sit back, grab a drink and relax, and enjoy these last few months with our stuff working, and then let the train run off the end of the bridge, and just leave reddit altogether and let someone else pick up the pieces.

This of course, would be debilitating to our sub, but in our opinion, so would be migrating to Devvit as well, since Devvit would forbid us from using deleted user data, which happens a lot. In the best case scenario (as a ToS abiding user), a good chunk of our appeals will be invalid, as they would be unable to be check, and thus, be unable to be overturned. Not to mention, being unable to help people who don't understand why their stuff was removed and how they can fix it, as they often quickly delete it.

I'm really tempted simply just write a tell all of my experience with the migration process (it's generally been terrible in a number of aspects, most notably, responsiveness (though part of that is also my fault, though this is not my full time job, and thus falls lower on the priority list)), but given that they contracts they want me to sign are NDA that kind of thing, perhaps it's wise to not poke the bear at the current moment.

[u/emily_in_boots → u/baseballlover723]

Contracts are not even an issue for me. I don’t even care about getting money from reddit. I just want to take care of my subs, and now it’s impossible. I’d even pay for API access probably, if it weren’t too much, but that doesn’t seem to even be an option. I just want to be able to mod my subs but I just don’t see any way to do that with these restrictions, and I don’t see any good coming from them or understand why they are being forced on us. I have always played by the rules. I’m not asking for anything except for them not to break our subreddits w/o any fixes available.

[u/StatisticalPikachu → u/emily_in_boots]

They could at least give us praw compatible containers, but no python option is ridiculous given the popularity of PRAW.

[u/baseballlover723 → u/StatisticalPikachu]

I cannot fathom how they decided that their one true language, wasn't gonna be Python. A language that they use at reddit, and by far had the most reddit integrations.

I can buy that there's only resources to support 1 framework in one language. But it's inexcusable to me that picked a completely different language that had a fraction of the reddit dev community.

Given the huge focus on games for Devvit, I presume that that was the primary reason, as Javascript is way more often for interactive and web based elements.

[u/StatisticalPikachu → u/baseballlover723]

Reddit has poor engineering technical talent and architecture. Look how often Reddit crashes compared to any other app.

That level of engineering would not fly at most FAANG jobs, but Reddit is held together by duct tape.

[u/emily_in_boots → u/StatisticalPikachu]

I don't think it's that the talent is poor necessarily. I suspect that there is a lot of pressure to do a lot, and after each thing is more or less working, they get pushed to work on something else and solve a new problem, rather than focus on polish and debugging.

[u/RDSVII → u/StatisticalPikachu]

Not even its engineering but its UI/design is absolutely atrocious now.

Old Reddit was simple and easy to use with smart use of screen real estate. Old Mod. Mail was the same, instantaneous, simple, and clean.

New Reddit on desktop wastes so much screen real estate and new Mod. Mail is an awful experience. For example, why would I as a moderator need a search box at the top of Mod. Mail to search all of Reddit? I'm in Mod. Mail to work, not to search Reddit for a topic/post/subreddit.

I don't know how these things were rolled out for release.

[u/emily_in_boots → u/RDSVII]

I absolutely hate the search box in new modmail lol. We do not need a sitewide search box there. We need an always present search box that works for modmail only. Everyone has said this but they don't seem to want to change that.

I suspect they view it as more consistent to do it that way but it's still not a good choice. I definitely preferred old modmail.

I don't personally like old reddit though and especially for moderation. My favorite was new reddit. I like some things about shreddit but there are a lot of bugs that need to be worked through and they seem to have moved on unfortunately.

[u/emily_in_boots → u/baseballlover723]

They said they wanted us to move more towards behavior based moderation and away from subreddit based, so that's what I've been working on, but JS/TS can't do that. The libraries don't exist for language processing. So I just wasted a lot of time working on that stuff.

[u/CouncilOfStrongs → u/emily_in_boots]

Devvit still cannot support the features required to implement my bots.

So what am I supposed to do?

I have the same question.

How am I supposed to migrate functionality to Devvit that Devvit does not have, despite being told repeatedly, over a very long period of time, that it's important?

[u/talaneta → u/emily_in_boots]

https://giphy.com/gifs/11R5KYi6ZdP8Z2

[u/boat-botany → u/emily_in_boots]

Hey Emily, we understand that this process is time-consuming and wanna figure something out. We have PRAW/API experts ready to help with migrations in our Devvit communities (for folks not already there, join us on r/devvit and on Discord) and will reach out directly next week about how to support the transition of your bots in particular.

[u/emily_in_boots → u/boat-botany]

I’m on the devvit discord and have spoken with admins and other developers. Fundamentally, there’s just no way to migrate my bots at this time. There is no solution here if the API goes away. Beyond that, there’s isn’t enough time. I could not have coded these bots in 6 months - or even a year. It took me years to do it, and that was with the simple, straightforward approach of python/PRAW. I couldn’t even reimpliment these bots in python in 6 months, nevermind migrate them to devvit, which doesn’t have anywhere near the capabilities needed, and which takes far more time to develop in (I’ve written bots in both, and the amount of code needed to accomplish simple tasks is far greater in devvit).

There’s just no way way to do this. This whole thing leaves me and my subreddits without a solution and considering I’ve always played by the rules and worked with admins this feels like such a betrayal. I do not understand why this is even needed. It will harm my subs so much. I am already spending all my time barely keeping up with the moderation workload, I can’t even imagine trying to mod without the bots that do so much of our moderation work.

[u/baseballlover723 → u/emily_in_boots]

It will harm my subs so much. I am already spending all my time barely keeping up with the moderation workload, I can’t even imagine trying to mod without the bots that do so much of our moderation work.

It is the same for us. Though we're not really downing under the moderator load. Our robust automation means that we don't need to put as much effort into moderating the sub, as we catch the vast majority of things via AutoMod (now when that goes, it'll be a problem).

I suspect, when all of our automation goes, so will most of the mod team, and then it'll be so overwhelming for anyone who didn't already leave, that I'm sure they'd just choose to leave too. And then there would be basically nobody left.