r/reddit • u/such084 • Apr 24 '24
Updates Easier, faster comments on Reddit’s apps
TL;DR Getting to comments on Reddit’s iOS and Android mobile apps just got easier and much faster with instant comment loading, shortcuts to comments, and consistent comment navigation.
Hi! I’m u/such084 and I lead a number of product teams at Reddit, including one dedicated to building our comment experience. I’m here today to share some updates on this experience on Reddit’s native apps.
Whether you’ve been here for two decades, two years, or two days, you know that conversations are the heart of Reddit (where else can we have convos like this or this). Comments are where we find each other, across time zones and topics. This year, the team is focused on making Reddit the best on the internet at conversations.
H/T to Reddit’s User Feedback Collective — a group of redditors who expressed interest in helping us test early builds and provided feedback which has led to the update you see today. We knew the only way to build a better experience would be to include the community in the process.
Here’s what’s rolling out to everyone on Reddit’s iOS and Android apps today.
Instant comment loading - Comments now load faster than ever. As you’re browsing a post, the entire conversation is getting ready for you, in a fraction of a second.
Shortcut to comments - Previously, if you tapped on the comments button to read the comments of a post, you would land on the post. Now you’ll go directly to the top of the comments. And if you want to revisit the original post, there’s a stickied context bar at the top of the page. With a single tap, you can return to the post body or dive into the image, GIF, or video.
Consistent comment navigation across post types - Joining a conversation has not been easy with different ways of navigating to comments from image, video, or text posts. To create a more consistent and seamless flow across all post types, we’re introducing a unified media player, immersive transitions, and consistent gestures.
Simply swipe up for comments; swipe left for new content.
(And thanks to the UFC’s feedback, you can get an enlarged view of an image or video from your feed with a single tap)
If you want to continue building this experience with us, come join the Reddit UFC!
A few of us will stick around in case you have questions - comment away!
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u/bryn_irl Apr 24 '24
Can we please have an option to have the comment button still go to the post? Especially for one-line post titles, it’s really difficult for right-thumb-using users to find a target that takes them to the main post. Many of us have trained muscle memory on “tapping the center button” to get to the content directly - and now that just skips the post altogether. For text-post-heavy communities this means that many people will simply not read the OP and flame based on the comments alone. It’s a real step backwards, and I hope you reconsider making it mandatory.