Reddit is starting to test a new way to consume its most popular posts: by watching or listening to them, instead of only reading them.
The test will bring audio and video versions of select posts to a limited number of communities. When the format is available, users will be able to choose whether they want to “read” or “play” a post.
For now, Reddit says the experiment is early and limited. It will focus on select English-language posts, appear inside Reddit’s iOS and Android apps, and will not replace the original text post. The post itself and its comments will remain available, readable, and open for engagement as usual.
Reddit Wants Its Stories Back From TikTok
The move is not coming out of nowhere. Reddit stories have already become a format on TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, where creators read viral posts aloud, add text-to-speech narration, or place Reddit drama over gaming, cooking, or other unrelated background footage.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman pointed to that behavior during the company’s second-quarter earnings call in July, describing an emerging format elsewhere on the internet where people effectively create podcast-style content by reading Reddit posts. His point was simple: people are already consuming Reddit this way. Reddit just does not fully own that experience yet.
That is the real signal here. Reddit is not only testing a new media format. It is testing whether its text-based community content can travel inside Reddit as passive entertainment, the way it already travels outside Reddit as short-form video.
The “play” button matters because it changes the posture of use. Reddit has historically been a place to read, comment, search, and fall into threads. Audio and video turn some of that behavior into something closer to background listening or lean-back viewing. That could make Reddit posts easier to consume while commuting, cooking, working, or half-watching a phone screen.
The Feed Keeps Moving Toward Passive Consumption
There is a wider platform pattern here. Social products keep reducing the amount of effort needed to count something as consumption. YouTube’s move to count views the moment a video starts playing showed the same pressure from another angle: platforms increasingly design around instant attention, not deliberate choice.
For Reddit, the tension is sharper. The platform’s value comes from community voice, comment culture, and the strange specificity of text threads. Turning that into narrated media could make Reddit more accessible and more competitive with TikTok-style consumption. It could also flatten some of the messiness that makes Reddit feel like Reddit.
That is why the limited scope matters. Reddit says it wants to understand which posts work in these formats and whether the experience can feel authentic to the platform. Not every Reddit thread should become a video. Not every comment section works as audio. The format has to serve the community behavior, not just chase the short-form video habit.
If Reddit gets it right, it gives users a new way to consume its best stories without leaving the app. If it gets it wrong, it risks turning one of the internet’s most text-native platforms into another place where everything is optimized to play.