Reddit wants to become TikTok: it will change the way we read forums forever

Reddit has spent years testing the waters with the idea of short video. We saw it test a TikTok-inspired feed at the start of 2023, and now it wants to go a step further and turn text posts into content we can watch or listen to. Now, according to TechCrunch, the company is testing a system that could forever change how we browse its communities.

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From reading Reddit to playing Reddit

When a post is compatible, we’ll be able to choose between reading it or, instead, playing it. Apparently Reddit will offer audio versions and video as well. It’s worth bearing in mind that, while video has a certain degree of interaction, audio very often becomes something we listen to while we do something else.

So this goes far beyond a change of format, since the forum, where we comment, where we vote on content, is starting to become a platform for passive consumption, drawing closer —dangerously, we might add— to TikTok’s For You feed.

On that note, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman explains that this format is already present on TikTok and Reels, where videos narrating the stories posted on the forum abound. Reddit wants to bring to its platform an experience that already works elsewhere, keeping, of course, the text and the comments so we can take part.

A trend much bigger than Reddit

The first tests are happening on posts in English and, although this is still an experiment, it’s clear that it fits into an obvious trend. Spotify already redesigned its app using TikTok’s design language, while Artifact took ideas directly from Reddit to make a kind of hybrid.

Now, with the changes, reading a thread may often turn into listening to or watching a story. A huge change for what has traditionally been a forum.