Dunno if it is true. BUT IF IT IS, might wanna start archiving at the speed of light guys I’ll try to do my part
Reblogging this again to add some stuff
I did find both post from this screenshot made by Team (aka DeviantArt's staff account)
"Switch from the native mobile app to the web app" from 8th of August 2024
"Weekly Download Safeguards" from 9th of March 2026
And to clarify the first one:
"A Web Application (Web App) is a software program that runs on a remote server and is accessed through a web browser over the internet. Unlike traditional apps that require installation on your device, web apps work directly from your browser whether it's Chrome, Safari, or Firefox." - www.geeksforgeeks.org
"A native mobile app is an app built to run directly on a device’s operating system (Android or iOS), providing the smoothest performance, best user experience, and full access to hardware features like the camera, GPS, and notifications." - www.andromo.com
tl;dr: a native mobile app is the one that you need to install from e.g. playstore and a web app runs through a web browser
sooooo
no more mobile app for deviantart, you can only use the browser version
you can download something from deviantart only 10 times per week UNLESS you give them your money (just don't atp) and with Core+ or higher, the limit is raised to 150 downloads per week
from what i understand, the download limit affects only FREE downloads; the premium downloads and subsriptions are unaffected and don't count into the weekly limit
all that is to make you pay for better experience. basically "free experience is shitty so why not give us your money, we can make it better :) no no don't look at the fact that the current paid experience once used to be the usual free experience and we've been gradually stripping it away from you"
i can speak only on the behalf of mmd community as this is the one that i've been a part of for the last decade:
free assets are what let this community grow and create their own art within mmd and so much of it is still hosted on deviantart. limiting the downloads limits people's creativity.
you want to check out if this asset would go nicely with your project? sure, download it. oh what's that? after trying it out, it turned out you want something else? yeah okay, now you have one less chance to download something else. and then it repeats and repeats and very quickly you can hit that 10 weekly downloads limit. too fucking bad, wait for a week then i guess
ALSO also, they claim that "approximately 95% of DeviantArt users never reach the monthly limit of 40 free downloads". okay, sure man.
in our beloved year 2026, there are around 110 000 000 registered users (source). 5 percent of those ~110 MILLION people are fucked (give or take that some of it can be just bots)
110 000 00 x 0.05 = 5 500 000
about 5,5 MILLION people can apparently suck it up with their creativity and whatnot
so yknow, fuck dA with all my love for art
hope you choke on that ai dick too
