Reddit’s looking to lean into the broader trend towards video content with the introduction of a new, dedicated ‘Watch’ feed in the app, which will enable users to swipe through a never-ending stream of video posts.
As you can see in these examples, you’ll soon be able to scroll Reddit in either ‘Read’ or ‘Watch’ mode, with the former highlighting text-based posts, and the latter providing a continuous feed of vertical video content.
Which is actually not significantly different to the current Reddit experience – once you watch a video in the app, you can swipe up to keep viewing more video posts. It’s just that now it will be a more explicit user choice, with the capacity to select a TikTok-like feed of just videos in the app, which could help to keep users more engaged, more often.
The update mimics similar video feeds on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and Twitter, though again, the main difference in this case is that it will give users a direct choice to view only video content, as opposed to tapping through on a video, then scrolling to see more.
Which, again, follows TikTok’s lead, and with more and more users spending more time-consuming video content, it makes sense for Reddit to further align its UI with this trend.
Worth noting that Meta now facilitates 140 billion Reels plays across Facebook and Instagram every day, with the format being a key element in Meta boosting user engagement of late.
Maybe, a dedicated video feed will have similar impacts on Reddit – but either way, it’s not a major redesign, and probably worth the experiment.
In addition to this, Reddit’s also working on an updated UI, which will be less cluttered, and more focused on discovery.
Reddit’s also looking to update various other elements:
“Coming soon, we’ll introduce our updated web platform to deliver fast and reliable experiences to everyone globally, new updates to our video player to enable redditors to easily engage in conversations while watching, chat enhancements, new storefront updates and more.”
It’s hard to tell how big those changes will be at this stage, but it is interesting to note Reddit’s key areas of focus, as it looks to optimize the app, and boost engagement.
Reddit, which now serves over 57 million daily users, is still working to maximize its business opportunities, with improved ad offerings and targeting tools. And they could be worth considering – while Reddit’s audience may be smaller than other platforms, Reddit users tend to be highly engaged in their topics of interest, and the capacity to reach users via subreddit could be a great way to connect with the right people with your offers.
At the least, it’s a solid platform for research, and that initial usage may just highlight new opportunities that you weren’t aware of.
