Well, the server backend was recently opened:
> The push notification server does 8640 calls/user/day (one call every 10 seconds).
I've seen you parroting this around in every thread, and don't understand why.
First of all, none of the math checks out with your theory. But I'll break down why. Here[0] he says Apollo has over 100k DAUs (I noticed you've also stopped using that link...). He also says
> At 100,000+ users, that's in the realm of 60 million requests per hour that my server would have to handle, not to mention parsing the results, coordinating tokens, etc. I really can't do that for nothing, so the plan was to offer push notifications with a small fee associated to cover these ongoing server costs.
> I also offer a completely free system that does not use a server so those who don't want to have to pay can have their device function as the server and use local notifications (which are slightly delayed as it uses Background Fetch and using the device uses more battery), but remote notifications necessitate a server.
> If there's nothing that can be done, Apollo won't be able to offer push notifications unfortunately.
He has stated here[1] that API pricing would cost him "almost $2m per month."
So let's check the math.
345 + 8640 API calls / user / day = 8985 / user / day
8,985 API calls x 100,000 users = 898,500,000 / day
Using the absolute average month of 30.4375 days:
30.4375 x 898,500,000 = 27,348,093,750 req / month (@ 100k users)
Or in API pricing $6,563,542.50 / month, which is almost 3x as much as he said it would cost.
> Note that it does a request every 10 seconds for each user. At the API rate that would be about $0.25 every 3 hours (for each user) to support it.
They only do that for each user, that has paid for and has an active Apollo Ultra ($5/mo) subscription. That's going to remove a significant chunk of users.
If you want to verify any of this for yourself, the backend code is also now fully readable[2]. But it looks like from their backend code, they do a maximum of 100 users[3] every 5 seconds[4].
Additionally, that's Reddit just being stupid not them. Reddit offers no alternative way to get real-time notifications from their API, and with the paid API won't as well.
[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/9l3ema/apollo_13...
[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_w...
[2]: https://github.com/christianselig/apollo-backend
[3]: https://github.com/christianselig/apollo-backend/blob/b992d2...
[4]: https://github.com/christianselig/apollo-backend/blob/b992d2...
Please cite one example of an “inefficiency problem” that Apollo could fix to put it on the path toward not “pay[ing] a penny.”
Interestingly, this seems to just be a proof of concept, and the repo is archived. While the developer of the Apollo front end is getting screwed in this whole debacle, this seems to me like an opportunity. He could literally build an alternate Reddit back end (ok, pay someone to do it, if he doesn't want to do it himself), switch Apollo to use that API instead, and get an instant network of hundreds of thousands of Apollo users. A mass migration from Reddit to a new Apollo back end seems like an amazing way to start a new social news website.