Reddit has said it will acquire Alien Blue, the most popular unofficial third-party iOS mobile app used to browse the site.

The community news sharing site will offer Alien Blue for download to iOS users as the official Reddit app in Apple's App Store.

Along with the purchase of Alien Blue, Reddit, which already has 174 million active monthly users, has also hired Jase Morrissey, the app's creator.

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Reddit will keep the "Alien Blue" name under the Reddit umbrella, said Reddit's head of Strategic Partnerships Ellen Pao. But the app will appear as an independent download.

"Our whole philosophy has been to give our users choice. The team got the reddit 'Ask Me Anything' app, and Alien Blue coming out ... but we really want users to use whatever they want." Pao said.

"We think Alien Blue is great, and it's the most popular Reddit app on Apple devices. We wanted to be able to offer it as a Reddit app, and to help Jase, the developer, with additional resources to do everything he wanted to do with it," Paon added.

While the Reddit team is working into a single universal app with Alien Blue's iPhone and iPad versions, the company is offering the app's "Pro" upgrade for free next week.

The iPad app, which previously cost US$4, is now free.

Reddit, however, declined to disclose the terms of the deal.

TagsReddit, Alien Blue, mobile app