Reddit will begin testing a new audio and video experience on Monday that allows users to listen to posts while doing other tasks, according to an announcement from the company. The initial trial will include both video and audio versions of posts across select communities, designed to see which formats connect with users and can grow at scale. The company aims to bring its most viral stories to life through what it calls a "video Reddit" experience.
The tests will focus exclusively on English-language posts for now and will be available through Reddit's iOS and Android applications, the company told TechCrunch. Users will see the option to either "read" or "play" a post when the feature is available. The original text-only posts won't be replaced by these new formats, and both the initial post and its comments can still be viewed and interacted with as they were before. Reddit has previously experimented with video features, including native video hosting, TikTok-style video feeds, and more recently support for video in comments, which now represents more than 10% of video posts on the platform.
CEO Steve Huffman revealed the plans for narrated Reddit videos during the company's second-quarter earnings call in July, noting that "people were already consuming Reddit content like this on other platforms." He pointed to how platforms such as TikTok and Meta's Reels frequently showcase popular Reddit stories through text-to-speech features or creators reading them aloud. "There is an emerging content type elsewhere on the internet of, basically, podcasts where people read Reddit content," Huffman explained, adding, "I think this version of, like, listened-to or spoken Reddit can be really engaging, as well." Some of these videos display the words on screen as they're narrated or pair them with unrelated footage like video gameplay or cooking content.
Reddit described the current trials as early, limited experiments meant to help the company understand how these formats can serve users and whether they can be executed in a way that feels authentic to the platform. The company suggests people may sometimes prefer to listen to Reddit audio while exercising, walking, or running errands, while others might enjoy watching written conversations brought to life through combined video and audio. The move reflects Reddit's effort to reclaim content consumption that's already happening on competing platforms and to offer users more flexible ways to engage with its community-driven stories. For a platform built on text-based discussions, the shift toward audio and video narration represents a calculated bet that users want Reddit content in formats that fit their multitasking lives, not just their screens.