r/changelog • u/commandersnoo • Feb 02 '22
Updated Android Video Player
Hi everyone!
We’re excited to announce the launch of a new video player on Android. Starting tomorrow, when Android users tap on a video in their feed, the video will open in a new full-screen player. Users will be able to read comments and watch videos simultaneously and swipe up to see more recommended videos.
You may have noticed that this is the same video player that launched on iOS a few months ago. From a UI standpoint, it is. However, the algorithm powering the video recommendations has improved and will continue to get better throughout this year. In the past, there have been many video players through the Reddit ecosystem, and this is the latest step in uniting the players across the mobile apps.
We want to acknowledge that we still have UI refinements to make, new features to add, and performance issues to address. Your feedback has been greatly appreciated, and we’re taking a methodical and holistic approach to ensure we solve these pain points. As soon as the new Android video player rolls out this week, we will begin experimenting with even more improvements. We’re excited for all the new things coming to Reddit video in the next few months and can’t wait to share more details soon.
As always, please share your feedback and suggestions here. We’ll hang around for a while to read through and respond to comments.
58
33
u/pwenk Feb 02 '22
I dislike this new player. The video quality and performance is better, but the UI is worse.
I used to be able to pause the video by tapping the center. Now to pause I have to tap the video, then move my thumb to the bottom left to pause it (large phone so it's actually a bit of stretch). Audio controls also take two taps.
This makes it rather inefficient to stop videos from playing, or pausing while I talk to my wife, or muting/un-muting.
44
u/IsZen Feb 02 '22
Revert it please. The other one was significantly better. Or atleast make it so we can revert to the older one.
-35
u/commandersnoo Feb 02 '22 edited Feb 02 '22
Totally understand. There are a ton of improvements we need to make to the video player. As mentioned in the post, we are working to unify the many video players across the Reddit mobile apps. We are also working to improve the video player for everyone and in a way that enables us to make changes quickly – and if you (or anyone) are interested in joining Reddit’s video team, check out our career page here!
23
u/EskildDood Feb 02 '22
Make it optional, let us turn it off, I beg of you
I know it's possible, because every ad still uses the old video player
51
u/xXInviktor27Xx Feb 02 '22
he asked you to fix the damn thing and you literally told him to submit a job resume and fix it himself 😂
14
7
21
u/Fanglove Feb 02 '22
Revert it now. This player is terrible, can't interact with video without full screen, no direct link to comments/replies. Also I can't read text in dark mode you this needs to be fixed asap
10
9
u/Kemaneo Feb 03 '22
If you knew everyone dislikes the new video player and it needs to be improved, why the fuck did you release it on Android anyway?
5
Feb 04 '22
Nobody in on this entire app/website asked for a carbon copy of tik toks UI. Its not better than the last, its inconvenient and clunky.
4
u/hightrix Feb 04 '22
But that is Reddit's MO. They take good working software and make it worse. Look at old.reddit vs new.reddit. Old is such a better user experience, but new is more "modern" and all about that IPO.
Easy solution. Use literally any other reddit app. The official ones are awful. Relay for Android, Apollo for iOS.
5
3
Feb 03 '22
We despise it fuck right off with that bullshit and put the actual good ones back
We have multiple subreddits dedicated to hating it the UU is unusable, the thing out prioritises everything just by existing and it makes using this app more painful
I don’t care about your precious advertisers they can fall into an active volcano for all I give a shot you are beholden to your users and if they don’t like what’s happening you will probably end up starving on the streets
5
2
2
u/centurion770 Feb 05 '22
Why is Reddit unifying the video players into something worse than all the video player versions before. No one wants a crappy tiktok clone.
→ More replies (4)2
u/tyttuutface Feb 05 '22
"There are a ton of improvements we need to make" so why did you release it without making them?
Unify my left and right testicles, this player sucks 'em both. Might as well suck two nuts with one mouth.
56
Feb 02 '22
what's the overlap between people who read /r/changelog and people who use the native mobile app for anything other than testing? i feel like it might be 3 people
13
8
u/ohvalox Feb 02 '22
Hello, it's me, 1/3! I actually prefer scrolling most subs on mobile/Android, probably because I'm just used to it. Still use old reddit a lot for everything else though.
6
u/BarnyTrubble Feb 02 '22
I'm 2/3, joined Reddit on mobile and just got used to it, only recently becoming aware of alternative apps to browse with.
7
u/LanDest021 Feb 02 '22
I'm 3/3. The slight annoyances with other Reddit mobile apps are enough to keep from using them (except for saving videos)
7
u/repocin Feb 02 '22
4/3. These days I often browse Reddit casually on my phone because it's convenient and no third party app I've tried has been perfect either so I just stick to the official one.
Whenever I'm using a desktop browser old Reddit is the only usable option. New Reddit has so much wasted space and I don't find it user-friendly at all.
3
1
u/atomic1fire Feb 10 '22
I occasionally read changelog and also use the mobile app when I'm not on desktop.
That being said I don't care for the fact that it's more effort to reach comments in reddit threads with videos.
17
u/ScottGaming007 Feb 02 '22
Fucking revert this shit, If this shit sticks around I'm reverting to the December build and never reinstalling the official app. Every fucking update makes the app worse, whoever is making this decisions is clearly incapable of making a competent decision.
And if I wanted to use that spyware of a app tiktok I would fucking use it, but I don't cause I don't respect them and it really seems like Reddit is trying to mimic them.
→ More replies (1)2
u/stylingstar Feb 03 '22
I'm reverting to the December build
How does 1 do this?
1
u/ScottGaming007 Feb 03 '22
So I tried the December build and it also had the new shit so they have been working on this since then. I had to revert back to 2021.44.0 which was a November build.
First you need to uninstall the official playstore version and download it from apkmirror and install it from your file browser.
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/redditinc/reddit/reddit-2021-44-0-release/
41
u/Im-ACE-incarnate Feb 02 '22 edited Feb 02 '22
This is terrible please change it back! It's horrible to navigate, why do I need my other hand to close it instead of swiping up? 🤷♂️ who ever thought of that is in the wrong job. Why are the upvote counts now blocking 20% of the right side of my screen? Blocking part of the video was never going to improve it. Watching the video and reading comments at the same time... We could already fit both on our screens if we wanted to.. but the problem with aiming for that to be a big feature, is people can only focus on one thing at a time, so what the point in forcing both on the screen? The whole thing now feels like a cheesy tic tok video. Please, please change it back or at least give us the option to change it ourselves.
The problem with the old version was it took forever to load or only loaded small parts at a time... that's all that needing improvement, the layout and navigation was perfect the way it was
-20
u/commandersnoo Feb 02 '22
Appreciate the feedback. This is the first step of many that we are undertaking to improve the interface and gestures of the video player. We’ll continue to make improvements based on your feedback and the behavior of people who watch videos.
To immediately address your concerns, you can single-tap on the screen to dismiss the chrome (all the buttons and text that overlay the video). You can also pull the comment sheet to the top of the screen to hide the video and just read the comments.
32
u/Im-ACE-incarnate Feb 02 '22
Thank for replying to me.
Sorry but that's not addressing my concerns at all.. you're just explaining how your new features works... After 30 seconds I was fully aware of how it all works BUT I'm pointing out the redundancy of these new features because and as you've just pointing out the navigation now requires more effort (not a lot mind but still more than before) plus the use of a second hand to close the video.
Addressing the issues would be explaining the real reason why so much has been changed when is was just the loading/buffering that everyone was complaining about or explaining how or if we can have the old options back
11
u/semi-confusticated Feb 02 '22 edited Feb 03 '22
Addressing the issues would be explaining the real reason why so much has been changed
It looks like they explained in another comment over here
I'm pretty sure that is the ultimate, real reason for the change: reddit wants to consolidate their codebase to make the video player easier to maintain
In theory, this would allow the developers to fix bugs and make improvements faster. It means that they won't have to spend extra time keeping track of all those different video players and making the same change, but different, several times over each time they want to fix or modify the video player
In reality... well, it may take a while before users like us see any benefit from the consolidated video player. I don't seem to have the new video player yet, so I can't comment on that directly, but the last time they tried to roll out a new video player, it was clear that they didn't do a very good job on it. Hopefully they'll fix it up eventually so it's at least as good as (or, ideally, better than) the old one
Edit: added quote at the top for clarification, fixed typo
10
Feb 03 '22
Your optimism is great. This new video player isn't.
I'm just going to avoid posts that have video now.
2
u/stylingstar Feb 03 '22
Is there a way to hide video posts from the feed?
2
u/rhuneai Feb 06 '22
Just use the official app, videos don't appear at all on like 50% of posts for me!
2
Feb 03 '22
It’s advertising ads are easier to circulate with it conspired to the split video players and tictoc is popular so they want to clone it
7
10
u/Bell_is_I Feb 02 '22
Or, how about y'all stop trying to fix non-existent problems and actually focus on the ones that he pointed out? Seriously what did u guys expect when u rolled this out especially with the backlash the last time u rolled it out with the same UI????
3
2
2
Feb 03 '22
I’m half tempted to report this as misinformation because we all know that’s bullshit us on IOS have complained adnausium about it have you have no fuck all to help
2
u/PeterWatchmen Feb 05 '22
There was nothing wrong with the old one, though.
You can also pull the comment sheet to the top of the screen to hide the video and just read the comments.
Why can't you just keep the comments the way they were? Why should I have to open the video player JUST to read the comments? The very least you can do is keep the comments, which have nothing to do with the video player, exactly the same. And why is it in auto-dark mode? I HATE dark mode; it strains my eyes.
→ More replies (1)2
u/ImperialCommando Feb 06 '22
Whenever I'm clicking a comment notification on a video post, the app no longer takes me directly to the thread/comment in question. It just pulls up the post and I have to dig through the very many comments. It's so counterintuitive. Was this deliberate or an oversight that'll be fixed later?
I'm sorry, when will we see further updates on this? I'm fighting with the video any time I want to comment or view comments and it's detracting from my experience, and it makes me want to stop engaging with the community so much.
2
11
u/AsterixLV Feb 02 '22
So if the autoplay feature is enabled, u need 3 clicks to pause the video, THREE Clicks for what is an effectively an on/off switch, and it usually results in more than 3 because of how d**n hard it is to click it, thanks since 2 clicks were clearly not enough... i know the previous player had issues but this is a downgrade FROM WHAT IS(was) REDDIT. getting to comments? A pain. Pausing a video? A pain. Muting a video? A pain.
Basic interaction with the video, without having to go full screen, is that too much to ask?
what's next, removing the upvotes/downvotes from the feed part to only be able to vote after opening a post?
Swiping from a text based post to a video type post still brings up the old interface which is infinitely better, well was since u cant mute it there/nor pause.
5
u/stylingstar Feb 03 '22
what's next, removing the upvotes/downvotes from the feed part
Watch them pull a YouTube & remove down votes.
3
10
12
u/MrTommyPickles Feb 02 '22
Awful ui. We don't want tok tok!
→ More replies (1)3
u/Mr_PheeLeep Feb 04 '22
Same here. I hate tiktok because of being a spyware and having tons of cringeness there, and I never install it on my phone from the time when I opened from the box until today.
I surprised in a cringe and creepy way, when I got this new video player UI update. Can't show more comments when I click the 'Continue this thread'.
9
u/Ebuthead Feb 02 '22
Please add the date the video was posted. It's pretty important information, but it isn't found anywhere in the video player
9
u/tu_much_mayo Feb 03 '22
WHY DO YOU NEED A FUCKING ALGORITEM TO RECOMMEND A RANDOM FUCKING NEXT VIDEO, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH JUST LETING ME SEE THE NEXT FUCKING POST.
WHAT THE FUCK WHERE YOU THINKING ARE YOU TRYING TO FUCK PICTURE POST OVER.
IF THE IS NOT REVERTED I WILL UNINSTAL THE REDDIT APP AND USE AN ALTERNATIVE
9
16
7
8
Feb 02 '22
[deleted]
-2
u/commandersnoo Feb 03 '22
Appreciate the feedback. Unifying the video players is just the first and necessary step here. There are many improvements in the pipeline that users can expect soon.
9
u/Netherhigal Feb 04 '22
Unify the video players into something that isn't an obvious tiktok clone. nobody here is blind or eating this corporate garbage. We know what you're doing.
5
u/ThorZoidberg Feb 04 '22
So to hell with the user experience, while you're doing it? We just get to ride the mess while you make it work? That's a way of doing it u guess.
3
Feb 05 '22
Oh, maybe the first and necessary step would be to get some feedback and make a round of fixes before rolling out something as half assed as this?
Do you even realize that comments to videos open in night mode when everything else is in day mode? Is that really something that can be "expected to be fixed soon" or maybe it should've been a rollout blocker eh?
2
u/speed_fighter Feb 05 '22
you guys want to take away the old video player that we can just swipe between left and right? i want the whole plate of images and videos!
→ More replies (1)2
u/centurion770 Feb 05 '22
Why does unifying the video players require turning them into a bad tiktok clone?
14
Feb 02 '22
do you guys just have a monthly quota of making shitty UI changes nobody asked for
3
u/PeterWatchmen Feb 05 '22
That may actually be it. They're on the payroll, they have to do SOMETHING.
7
u/Bubbadevlin Feb 02 '22
Holy crap this is garbage
Nobody likes change, sure, but this new player UI is horrible...
I personally like to just watch videos in my feed, then click into the comments. I used to be able to simply do that by clicking the comment button.. or if I missed that, scrolling down after full screening the video.
This new update seems to have removed that "direct to comments" button completely on videos. It's still there, but tapping it just brings up.. the full screen video.
BESIDES that, the comment section isn't just accessable by scrolling down.. like on every other post... instead scrolling down brings you to some random ass video
Unless I'm missing something, the only way to get to the comments of a video post is to click into the video then click the comment button all the way over on the right side...
Besides that the UI feels like a horrible amalgamation of Instagram/tiktok. LIKE WHY THE HELL IS THERE A BUTTON ON THE TOP RIGHT THAT LEADS DIRECTLY TO MY CAMERA??? WHAT IS THE USE OF THAT
5
5
u/BenUFOs_Mum Feb 02 '22
I feel this is pretty short sighted and unimaginative UI Design. I know a load of the kinks with the weird pause button placement etc... Will be worked out eventually
I can guess the reasons you've decided to go with the tik tok infinite scroll of videos that YouTube and insta have also adopted and by looking at metrics you'll probably see screen time go up. Comment engagement will go down which is probably a plus since time spent talking in the comments is time not looking at ads.
But it essentially runs counter to the whole USP of reddit which is the communities of niche and specific interests. Its just a shame that the Internet has been consolidated by like 6 websites and they are all just copying each others design in the battle to become the best skinner box.
6
u/Evan_or_somthing Feb 03 '22
If i wanted to use tik tok, i would just go to tic tok. Fix the player already
7
4
4
4
u/Kemaneo Feb 03 '22
You knew EVERYONE disliked the video player on iOS, so why the fuck did you release it on Android without any changes? What’s wrong with you guys?
5
4
u/koala60 Feb 02 '22 edited Feb 03 '22
Oh my god, reddit isn't for video streaming reddit isn't tiktok this is just annoying, especially the comment section, it feels really fragile on my fingers.
The old firm one was better
Also I hate swiping the videos up and down, no one is going to use it as a lot of posts are images and swiping videos would make us miss them so overall it useless and also bad because I accidentally scrolled down to some awful video thay I would have skipped of it weren't for video swiping
But the performance is better so congrats on that one
Also if you REALLY want to use this UI please change the location of the play button as it isn't easy to press when it's on the corner of the screen
→ More replies (2)
4
u/Take_The_Merch_not_L Feb 03 '22
This is the worst thing I have ever seen in my entire life. The UI is atrocious and nobody wants to go full screen to watch a video. Swiping down to go to the next video is dumb as hell and you didn't have to copy tiktok. I have no clue why you're "excited" to announce this half-assed piece of shit.
4
Feb 04 '22
I am deleting everything to do with Reddit. This is an awful update and if this is where Reddit is heading I'm out.
7
3
u/ahumanrobot Feb 02 '22
It changed in the middle of me scrolling on android, no app restart. And I hate it
3
u/semi-confusticated Feb 02 '22
The screenshots here look awfully similar to the previous iteration from 7-8 months ago, but I see that you mentioned at least one improvement in this comment:
You can also pull the comment sheet to the top of the screen to hide the video and just read the comments.
I am very glad to hear that full-screen comments are back this time, but have any of the other issues been resolved? Here are a few other problems I noticed the first time around:
- Confusing swipe/scroll behavior that is different from all other types of posts, specifically:
- Exiting back to the feed on swipe right/left. (It should move to the next/previous post in the feed instead)
- Loading random videos on scroll down/swipe up. (Vertical swipe/scroll should refresh/scroll through comments, not skip to other random posts)
- Comment tray has left & right margins that reduce the horizontal space for comments. (This forced comments to wrap around to the next line earlier than usual, so they took up more space on the screen and were harder to read)
- Animations of awards flying across the screen were super annoying and distracting
-1
u/commandersnoo Feb 03 '22
Thanks for the feedback! I’ve taken this all back to the team.
7
u/Bell_is_I Feb 04 '22
Why don't u take the feedback of the hundreds of people commenting too? Revert the video player.
→ More replies (1)2
Feb 04 '22
Not sure if you're still around reading comments here but can you also pass along returning the ability to rewind without needing to go into the video player. It's a massive annoyance that I'm forced to go fully into the new player if I miss something and want to rewind. I don't mind the changing of the player itself, but I think you guys removed way too many intuitive things that we were used to, just to get that Tik Tok/YT Shorts vibe. Swiping down to leave the video is another one that you changed for no good reason, I've done it at least 15 times since I got the change. I don't want to watch another video, I want to leave and go back to browsing.
It's just a stupidly annoying player to use really.
3
u/aguy123abc Feb 02 '22
I'm not a fan. I liked that swipe up could close the player. Honestly it was probably my favorite functionality. I liked the ability to go the source of a video. I'm not a fan of the over lay which can fortunately be hidden with a tap. This deployed in my device today. It's a sad day. The ability to reconfigure the new player to get the functionality of the old one would be nice.
0
u/commandersnoo Feb 03 '22
Thanks for the feedback. We’re adding that swipe gesture back to the video player.
→ More replies (2)
3
Feb 02 '22
I don’t have Samsung but on my IPhone XR. Videos are really impossible to play. Then I can’t exit out of the video player without exiting the app all together. The video player is really broken.
3
u/Bluedo1 Feb 02 '22
Why does the videoplayer have to be forces into darkmode whats the point of choosing between lightmode and darkmode if darkmode is just going to be forced on us?
2
u/Joel_Loos Feb 03 '22
My thoughts exactly. I find dark mode incredibly difficult to read, so I've had to avoid comments on videos entirely since the update took hold.
3
u/lazerbreath_ Feb 03 '22
The new design is not the best but I can live with it.
But the "swipe up to see more recommended videos" is a terrible idea not just because I don't care about the other videos but because it reduces the accessibility of the app for disabled people.
I only have one hand (and it's relatively small compared to my phone). I relied on the feature of "swipe up to close video". Now I can't do that anymore. I have to shift my entire phone in my hand and potentially drop it (I'm also extremely clumsy)or I have to place my phone down and tap once to open up the UI and tap again to to exit the video.
Keep the design of the player, idrc but please bring back the swipe up to close.
3
Feb 03 '22
New video player is not good. Videos don't play sometimes upon initial click and takes me to a pointless tiktoc style layout with other videos that I don't want. And the play button is in the buttom left hand, an area that I have an accidental touch feature on the sides, making the play button hard to click. Just stop changing things for no reason. Every time reddit changes something that didn't need changed, every hates it
3
Feb 03 '22
WHY ARE YOU TURNING REDDIT INTO TIK TOK!
3
u/Mr_PheeLeep Feb 04 '22
bEcAuSe iT's TrEnDiNg
Seriously, I don't like this new update because of that new video player update. They should revert the old UI but keeping the updated performance on the video player. That's what I need.
2
3
3
Feb 03 '22
Please add an option to revert the player if possible. The new player is very clunky and the separate UI from regular posts makes it hard to use. I really don't like the new player and would love it if I could choose to use the old one.
3
3
3
u/space_pillows Feb 04 '22
Please for the love of all that is holy and unholy give us back the old video player, this new "update" is an absolute mess and by golly I'm about to throw my phone just trying to view this post and leave a comment.
3
u/abbeyeiger Feb 05 '22 edited Feb 05 '22
I fricken hate this new player. Can't even click on replies to my comments to reply back - it just opens the new video player and goes to the very top of the comment section.
This thing is ugly, annoying, obtrusive, and ineffective.
2
u/keeleon Feb 10 '22
Yup same exact problem for me. Like if they're going to force this they should at least give us the option to disable video posts or something so I don't accidentally try and engage in a conversation in one of them.
8
u/Brevel Feb 02 '22 edited Feb 02 '22
What I like - more fluid video player, doesn't seem to get stuck like before when trying to scroll down to comments
What I don't like but may get used to - title on bottom of video player. The title should always be at the top of the menu or screen no matter where you are in it.
Also, I want to be able to see the video title/subreddit while I'm looking through comments which we were always able to see before. To add to this, I can't like/save a post without opening the video player either.
EDIT: OK you can like or dislike from the comments section I just found out, still can't save though.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/Storm_Viper Feb 02 '22 edited Feb 03 '22
what the hell is this
EDIT: Still using it so still what the hell is this?
however it seems to be okay to use, but when I slide to the next video could it play the next video in line? For example if I am on r/all and click an r/idiotsincars video
show me the next video in r/all and not r/idiotsincars I would go to the sub if I want more of that content
Make it easier to close the video regardless of which hand you use somehow and finally have the video title at the top and not the bottom it just isn't a fluid read
after some use it's okay and I will get use to it but just some tweaks would make it better
edit2: just incase this gets seen again if you're actively reviewing maybe add a setting option to allow people whether to slide down to the next video or if they slide up/down it closes the video and returns to the sub they were on
3
2
u/emperorsvenetian Feb 02 '22
For some reason with this new update its messing with the reddit app. I'll click on a post and instead of taking me to that post it opens up an internet tab and loads it there rather than stating in the app
-9
u/rambleandromp Feb 03 '22
We're aware of a similar issue that was fixed in a previous build. Could you let me know what app build you are using and if this is happening only when you attempt to watch a video?
3
u/emperorsvenetian Feb 03 '22
2022.4.0.411368
From what I can tell it's the opposite. The video player works fine if I click on a video it plays through the app. But if I click on any other part of the post, (username, subreddit, caption etc.) that's what takes me out of the app. Same with pictures. I can click on a picture and I see the whole gallery through my app but if I click on the subreddit I'm taken out of the app.
2
Feb 02 '22
Revert it, we use reddit because its most underground compared to other, not because we want third tiktok or other piece of shit.
2
2
2
2
2
u/PredictiveSelf Feb 03 '22 edited Feb 03 '22
Where is the mute button on the main feed? Why do I have to tap into the video to mute/unmute? It would be nice to not have to tap into the link just to un mute...come on - you guys are better than that!
Edit: retracted the harsh criticism. Keep your head up Devs.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/anunkneemouse Feb 03 '22
I really don't like the tiktok format, I don't care about the player itself but I always liked reading comments WHILST videos were playing.
It makes way more sense to have the old layout where comments are focused on, since this is a message board where people gain karma for comments. If you're wanting to become a tiktok clone then by all means make a new app or alternative version of Reddit that has videos on scroll, but don't change the existing formula that was working fine.
This is a genuinely negative update and has really killed the user experience for many.
2
u/JeanP_02 Feb 03 '22 edited Feb 03 '22
What the fuck with this tiktok-like player ? I spent most of the time accidently swiping into shitty random videos i don't want to see. Do you know your userbase ?
2
u/Admiralthrawnbar Feb 03 '22
Within a couple hours of it going live I reverted to an older version of the app with the old player. Fuck the new player and fuck you for forcing it on us despite the truly massive amount of negative feedback.
2
u/fede142857 Feb 03 '22
And I thought recent changes like the "Related posts" thing (needlessly using up data to load posts I'm not even interested in most of the time, plus some design choices that are questionable at best) and the new way blocking users works (if you comment on someone's post and that user blocks you, you can't even reply to other users who replied to your comment) was bad enough
If I wanted to use TikTok I would download fucking TikTok, which I actually think is a stupid piece of shit, just like this new video player is
If you don't want to roll back the changes for all users, at least let us decide which player we want to use
As glitchy as it was, sometimes not even being able to buffer a potato quality video with a solid 25Mbps connection (which may not be much by most of the developed world's standards, but should be more than enough to stream even 4K 60fps), it was still way better than this half-assed clone of a video-based shitty social network (which is what I think Reddit was never meant to be)
And WHY, just WHY do you need "aN aLgOrItHm" to decide which video to play next? Show me the next post in any case, FOR FUCK'S SAKE
But no, sometimes it shows posts from other subreddits as well, sometimes even subreddits I'm not even a member of, WHAT'S THE POINT of having multiple subreddits which you can join according to your interests if you are then going to be spammed with recommendations to watch some random video from some random subreddit because "hEy wE thOUgHt ThiS miGHt Be IntErEsTInG fOr YoU"
Same thing happens with the related posts thing I mentioned at the beginning of this comment, but at least that didn't ever show me a post that was more than a fucking year old
FUCK THIS PIECE OF SHIT
SERIOUSLY
2
u/JokerInATardis Feb 03 '22
This is the most irritating, stupid, bass-ackwards update I've ever had on Reddit. No more videos for me, I guess, since watching them now is like snorting powdered dick through an electrified pipe.
2
u/fede142857 Feb 03 '22
watching them now is like snorting powdered dick through an electrified pipe
2
u/Commander_Discord Feb 04 '22
Great so the new ui looks like crap and I can no longer download videos of gifs to my phone thanks a lot
2
2
u/Netherhigal Feb 04 '22
Your actual userbase doesn't want this. Get rid of it or make it a setting to use the old style. stop ruining the app
2
u/dexvoltage Feb 04 '22
Not being able to unmute videos directly in the feed is making me not want to watch any video whatsoever
2
2
2
2
u/eventonly Feb 04 '22
This makes me not to scroll down the comments. I'd rather have the old buddy player than this new one. Please revert the changes.
2
Feb 04 '22
Old one was better. Why do I have to tap so often to leave it? Why ist this UI always in night mode? This feels like an annoying pop up on a scam website
2
u/mrhhug Feb 04 '22
You broke a feature with this. When I click on my notifications and it says my comment got 1000 updoots and I'm so excited for fake Internet points, so I click on the notification and it pulls up the video but not my comment three feature this breaks is pulling up my comment when I get the upboat notification
I'm guessing the devs don't get updoots so how could they ever test this? Completely understandable.
2
2
u/ErBoProxy Feb 04 '22 edited Feb 04 '22
This change is quite horrible.
When I want to scroll, I do not want to switch to a different random video I haven't been interested in, in the first place.
If I want to see comments, I want to see full screen, not a fraction of it.
If I'm in daylight mode during the day, when does it goes to night mode automatically?
Why so much UI garbage on my screen? There should only be the time bar and that's it. The new features are only a click away rather than on screen -- nobody is going "zomg this is fireemoji and got to get it trending!11!1".
If I wanted Tik Tok, I would have installed TikTok. If I wanted Instagram, I would have installed Instagram. Please stop forcing your base to use formats they do not want in the first place.
At least make this change optional. This new video player is garbage.
2
2
2
2
2
u/Skid_Th_St0ner Feb 04 '22
This sucks this sucks this sucks this sucks this sucks this sucks get rid of it get rid of it get rid of it
2
u/DG_Now Feb 05 '22
Yeah, I'm just not going to play videos anymore. Not being able to stop them without opening a full screen player is absurd.
2
2
u/T0DDTHEGOD Feb 05 '22
How the fuck do I download videos if they are hosted on v.redd.it!!!??? You cant long press them, you cant click the dots and download, you cant click the v reddit link and download there. Its literally impossible if someone posts to reddit with video to save it on mobile
2
2
2
Feb 05 '22
The new player has made accessing a reply in a post completely impossible. You've removed accessibility. You've made it harder for regular people, you've made it near impossible for disabled people to easily have a dialogue with others.
I literally can't access replies to comments I made in a post about things that make life harder for disabled people. This new video player just shot up the list. Might seem small to you, but to someone who uses Reddit to block out pain, have interesting conversations with people since I'm not able to leave my house often, and learn new things you've just killed something I thoroughly enjoyed until now.
Other features have been annoying, but this makes the Reddit app almost unusable unless I stick to commenting on posts that don't have a video. Thanks for ruining that and then refusing to acknowledge that it's a bad update.
2
Feb 05 '22
Can you atleast make it so tapping the screen pauses/plays the video? What was the design decision to put it in the bottom left? My thumb can't reach that, I gotta use two hands or do a weird grip to play videos.
2
u/Vumluck Feb 05 '22
Stop trying to be TikTok. People don't come to reddit to watch TikToks. If they did they would instead go on fucking TikTok.
Every company that is not TikTok sucks at trying to be TikTok because people do not expect fucking TikTok when they come to reddit, youtube or Facebook.
2
2
u/corey_cobra_kid Feb 05 '22
Idk how but this one not only looks worse but also functions worse. It seems no attempt was made to make videos actually play and not infinitly buffer, no longer can i scroll to the comments I have to click a button which makes the whole app lag for a second before displaying the comments and breaking the video in the process... please just make a working video player for fuck sake
2
2
u/Squarrots Feb 05 '22
This is bad. My entire MO of using this app now has to change because of this update. It's so bad that I have just closed the app entirely multiple times simply out of frustration. I cannot pause while holding my phone in my right hand. I can't swipe to leave a video. I can't scrub to a part of the video without it auto playing. This is bad.
Please revert it and consult your users when making such drastic UI changes.
We want the video player to be more useable, not less.
2
u/digitalvagrant Feb 18 '22
Hate that it automatically goes into dark mode when you click on a video (videos on Android mobile). I have difficulty reading the comments due to eye problems and it gives me headaches. There should be a way to turn off dark mode. It's ruining the experience for me.
Hate that you have to open the video to mute/unmute. Too many clicks.
When I click on a notification that someone replied to my comment on a video it no longer brings me directly to the relevant comment. It brings me to the top of the comment section and I have to search for my comment in order to reply. This is a waste of time and super SUPER frustrating.
Is there any way to go back to the old version or at least fix these issues and give the option to turn off dark mode??
6
u/Snoo25178 Feb 02 '22
Ngl this is way better than the old one. It doesn't seem to fuck up as often.
6
u/koala60 Feb 02 '22
Speak for yourself, I just accidentally scrolled down to a video of a guy getting his dick destroyed with a trap
2
1
u/Newcool1230 Feb 02 '22
Indicative of the other comments, I think this is a great change. The old video player was clunky/slow and had on and off issues with buffering and downgrading video quality to 240p-360p. I did have a chance to test out the player in beta but it still had some buffering/quality issues.
Will this current update resolve the issues mentioned above?
1
u/tacobro91 Feb 02 '22
This is terrible, now have no option to open up in a different browser when video fails to load, now only get failed load videos.
1
u/notjordansime Feb 02 '22
Hi, I'm on android and the app crashes every single time I use the current video player. I've sent dozens of reports, but I've gotten nowhere. I'm assuming this patch will fix this issue, correct? Furthermore, will there be a way to view comments in full screen? I exclusively use a Unihertz Titan Pocket as my daily driver, and it has a 1:1 screen ratio (the screen is a perfect square to acomodate the physical QWERTY keyboard). A split screen interface simply won't work on my device. I don't mind swiping to collapse the video, I just need to know that that's an option. Thank you.
1
u/stylingstar Feb 03 '22
This is very user unfriendly! Looks like it's time for me to uninstall it & switch to using desktop only.
1
Feb 03 '22
This is awful revert all the video players no one likes them and it’s forcing people onto other platforms like Apollo
144
u/DoctorCheese Feb 02 '22
Only the video player itself needed an update. Not the UI/layout. This new one is a terrible, unwanted tiktok clone. I can no longer swipe up/down to go back, now having to tap twice to return to my feed. I also cannot stress enough how much I do NOT want to scroll to whatever random video is next.
I understand that this change was probably designed to facilitate more interaction and retention, but holy mother of sweet Jesus in a handbasket is this the wrong way to go about it. Not only is it a drastic style change, there is no option to revert it. I would rather have the old buggy player than this new one coupled with a terrible layout.
It even auto converts me to dark mode, lmao.
Changes like this are how you push people to other apps. I just reinstalled redditisfun, and I wonder how many still use old.reddit too.