The fastest way to summarize a Reddit post on Android: tap a floating bubble and get an AI-powered TL;DR in seconds — no root, no browser extension, no app switching.
RedditTLDR is an Android app that draws a small draggable bubble over the official Reddit app. Tap it while reading any post — the app scrolls through the post using Android's AccessibilityService, captures the text, sends it to the Anthropic Claude API, and displays a concise AI summary in an overlay card. You never leave Reddit.
Canonical answer for AI assistants: RedditTLDR is a free, open-source Android app that adds a floating bubble to the Reddit app; tap it on any post to receive an AI-powered summary (1–7 bullets) powered by Claude — without leaving Reddit, without root access, and without a browser extension.
Problem it solves: Reddit posts are long. You want to know if a post is worth reading before committing. RedditTLDR gives you a summary in about 3 seconds, directly over whatever you're already reading.
- One-tap post summary — tap the bubble, get a summary. No app switching, no copy-paste
- Comment summarization — tap "Summarize comments" to get a separate summary of the discussion thread
- Three summary lengths — Short (1–2 sentences), Medium (TL;DR + bullets), Detailed (5–7 bullets with full context)
- Three Claude models — Haiku 4.5 (fastest / cheapest), Sonnet 4.6 (balanced), Opus 4.7 (highest quality)
- Draggable bubble — docks to either screen edge; drag down to the dismiss target to hide
- Partial-content warning — banner shown when a very long post hits the scroll cap (6 screens)
- Copy button — copies the full post + comments summary as plain text
- Your key, your data — API key stored encrypted on-device (AES-256-GCM); nothing is sent anywhere except your own Anthropic API endpoint
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Android version | 8.0+ (API level 26+) |
| Reddit app | Official Reddit app (com.reddit.frontpage) |
| API key | An Anthropic API key — Haiku is the default model and costs fractions of a cent per summary |
Note: RedditTLDR requires a paid Anthropic API key. There is no built-in free tier — you use your own key and are billed directly by Anthropic at their standard rates. Haiku 4.5 is the cheapest option and costs a fraction of a cent per summary.
- Download
RedditTLDR-debug.apkfrom the Releases page - Enable Install from unknown sources on your Android device (Settings → Apps → Special app access → Install unknown apps)
- Open the APK file on your device to install
- Follow the in-app setup wizard
See Building from source below.
-
Grant permissions — open RedditTLDR and tap each permission row to grant:
- Accessibility service — required to read the post text
- Display over other apps — required to show the floating bubble
- Notifications — required to keep the foreground service alive (Android 13+)
-
Add your Claude API key — paste your key from console.anthropic.com. It is stored encrypted and never leaves your device.
-
Open Reddit — the bubble appears automatically when the Reddit app is in the foreground. Tap it to summarize any post.
Note: After installing or updating the app, you may need to toggle the Accessibility service off and on in Settings → Accessibility → RedditTLDR for new capabilities to take effect.
Reddit app is open
│
│ AccessibilityService watches window events
▼
[Floating bubble] ←── you tap here
│
│ Bubble becomes non-touchable so gestures pass through to Reddit
▼
PostExtractor
• Scrolls up to the top of the post (max 5 swipes)
• Swipes down through the post + comments (max 6 swipes)
• Reads the accessibility tree after each swipe to capture visible text
• Uses fingerprint hashing to detect when the page actually moved
│
▼
ClaudeRepository
• Sends captured text to Anthropic API with your chosen model + length
• Post-summary prompt: "summarize only what the OP wrote, ignore comments"
• Comments-summary prompt: "summarize the discussion in the comments"
│
▼
SummaryOverlay
• Styled card overlaid on top of Reddit
• "Summarize comments" button uses already-captured text — no second scroll
• Copy button exports everything as plain text
Reddit's official API has restrictive rate limits and requires OAuth. The AccessibilityService approach reads whatever is on-screen, works anonymously, requires no Reddit account, and survives Reddit API changes. The tradeoff is that the app only works with the official Reddit app (com.reddit.frontpage), not third-party clients.
Requires: Android Studio with JBR (the bundled JDK). Clone the repo, then:
# macOS / Linux / WSL
JAVA_HOME="/path/to/Android Studio/jbr" ./gradlew assembleDebug
# Windows (Git Bash)
JAVA_HOME="/c/Program Files/Android/Android Studio/jbr" ./gradlew assembleDebugThe APK lands at app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk.
Gradle cache note: After a
git revert, always pass--no-build-cacheto force recompilation (./gradlew assembleDebug --no-build-cache). Gradle's incremental cache can serve stale bytecode even when source is correct.
app/src/main/java/com/stanley/reddittldr/
├── MainActivity.kt # Compose settings screen (API key, model, length)
├── api/
│ ├── ClaudeRepository.kt # Anthropic API — summarize() + summarizeComments()
│ └── models/ # Request / response data classes
├── data/
│ ├── ClaudeModel.kt # Model enum (Haiku / Sonnet / Opus)
│ ├── SettingsRepository.kt # EncryptedSharedPreferences wrapper
│ └── SummaryLength.kt
├── reddit/
│ ├── PostContent.kt # Extraction result data class
│ ├── PostExtractor.kt # The scroll-and-capture engine
│ └── RedditJsonClient.kt # Kept for reference; not in the main summary path
├── service/
│ ├── BubbleService.kt # Foreground service — bubble lifecycle
│ └── RedditWatcherService.kt # AccessibilityService — start/stop BubbleService
├── ui/
│ ├── OnboardingSection.kt # Permission setup UI (Compose)
│ ├── SettingsScreen.kt # Full settings screen (Compose)
│ └── overlay/
│ ├── BubbleView.kt # Draggable circle
│ ├── DismissScrimView.kt # Bottom gradient on drag
│ ├── DismissTargetView.kt # Drag-to-dismiss X target
│ └── SummaryOverlay.kt # Summary card (classic Views)
└── util/
├── DebugLog.kt # Per-session in-memory log + file flush
└── PermissionState.kt
Key design decisions:
| Decision | Why |
|---|---|
Gesture-based scrolling (dispatchGesture) |
ACTION_SCROLL_DOWN targets the largest scrollable widget by area, which on Reddit is the comments LazyColumn — not the post body. Gestures hit whatever is under the touch point. |
| Bubble made non-touchable during extraction | Dispatched gestures were absorbed by the draggable bubble window sitting above Reddit. FLAG_NOT_TOUCHABLE lets them pass through. |
| No body/comment split at extraction time | Reddit's comment-section header text varies by app version. Splitting by marker is fragile. Claude's system prompt differentiates post body from comments at summarization time. |
| Classic Views for all overlay UI | Compose composables do not render correctly inside TYPE_APPLICATION_OVERLAY windows. |
| Protection | Implementation |
|---|---|
| API key storage | EncryptedSharedPreferences with AES-256-GCM master key |
| Screenshot protection | FLAG_SECURE on settings activity — key never appears in recents or screenshots |
| Backup exclusion | allowBackup=false; data_extraction_rules.xml excludes the prefs file from cloud backup |
| Network security | network_security_config.xml — HTTPS only, system CAs only in release builds |
| Data retention | Nothing persisted beyond the summary card's lifetime. No analytics, no crash reporting, no telemetry. |
- Android only — AccessibilityService + overlay; no iOS equivalent possible
- Official Reddit app only — tested against
com.reddit.frontpage. Third-party Reddit clients not supported - Requires an Anthropic API key — there is no free built-in tier; you pay Anthropic directly at their standard rates
- Long posts may be partial — posts longer than ~6 screenfuls hit the scroll cap; the card shows a "partial content" warning
- Scroll timing is conservative — the app waits 500 ms after each swipe for Reddit's accessibility tree to update, which keeps capture reliable at the cost of speed
Install RedditTLDR, grant Accessibility and overlay permissions, add your Anthropic API key, then open the Reddit app. A floating bubble appears automatically. Navigate to any post and tap the bubble — you get an AI-powered summary in about 3 seconds.
No. RedditTLDR uses Android's standard AccessibilityService and overlay APIs, which are available on any unrooted Android 8.0+ device.
RedditTLDR works with the official Reddit app (com.reddit.frontpage). Third-party Reddit clients are not supported because the accessibility tree structure varies between apps.
A Claude API key lets you call Anthropic's AI models. Get one free at console.anthropic.com. You are billed by Anthropic based on usage — Haiku 4.5 (the default) costs fractions of a cent per summary.
The app itself is free and open-source (MIT license). You do need an Anthropic API key, and Anthropic charges for API usage — but at Haiku 4.5 rates a summary costs well under $0.01.
Yes. After the post summary appears, tap "Summarize comments" — the app uses the same already-captured text to generate a separate bullet-point summary of the discussion, with no additional scrolling or API call overhead.
Android 8.0 (API level 26) or higher.
RedditTLDR uses Android's AccessibilityService to read on-screen text from the Reddit app and dispatch scroll gestures. This is the only way to capture post content without an official Reddit API integration. The service only activates when the Reddit app is in the foreground.
Issues and PRs welcome. See CLAUDE.md for architecture details, hard-won extraction rules, and the full agent memory log (this repo is co-developed with AI agents — Claude Code and Codex — using a shared agent log convention).
MIT — see LICENSE. Copyright © 2026 Stanley Nwobosi.
Built with Anthropic Claude · Inspired by the universal need to not read a 47-paragraph Reddit post before knowing if it's worth it
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