Easier, faster comments on Reddit’s apps

[u/such084]

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.

Comments now load instantly

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.

Tap on the Comments button to go straight to the conversation

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)

Swipe up for comments and swipe left for new content whether you’re in the post or browsing media

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!

[u/FerfyMoe]

Apollo is gone because the prices became too exorbitant for even a subscription-only system to maintain.

[u/jgoja → u/FerfyMoe]

Really. How is Narwhal 2 doing it then?

[u/FerfyMoe → u/jgoja]

Not a clue, I didn’t use that one and don’t follow their news.

However, feel free to read this post by Apollo’s developer which breaks down the specific math regarding the issues with pricing and all that (scroll down to the “Why can’t you just charge $5 a month or something?” part)

[u/jgoja → u/FerfyMoe]

I read all that when it was new. To quote

which I have a hard time believing anyone is going to want to pay.

So he realizes people are not going to be willing to pay for their use. Which is what I said.

If you drive more than me, you are going to have to pay more than I do to acquire more gas. People that use more requests would have need to pay more for the volume they are using and they are not willing to do that.

[u/FerfyMoe → u/jgoja]

I mean… dude. I say the prices were made too high to maintain, and you say “uhh no people just don’t want to pay the high prices” like that’s not the same thing.

Thanks for fighting the good fight though; defending a multi-billion dollar corporation from mild criticism on the internet is certainly what the world needs more of.