Linked: “Reddit gets a TikTok-style feature that introduces a separate video feed”

Via TechCrunch:

Today Reddit announced updates to its platform, including the test of a TikTok-like feature that separates text and video content into individual feeds. Dubbed “Read” and “Watch,” the two split-view feeds will allow users to switch from browsing text-based posts to videos, depending on their mood.

Me on Reddit last month:

Over the past few months, videos on Reddit are getting REALLY long. /all has some videos that are 10-15 minutes long now. I think at this point, I just want to filter all videos completely or at least videos longer than 10 seconds.

“just scroll past” is a solution but I don’t watch video on my phone and don’t plan on starting so I’d like to just not see these completely. Any solution?

I have never shied away from admitting when I’m a fringe-case. I’ve always had conversations with developers for which I file feature requests where I usually start with, I’m probably the only person with this request and you should ignore me” and that’s the truth. Video and Mobile is here to stay. YouTube Shorts have ruined my YouTube experience for the past couple of years to the point where the only way I watch YouTube for the last 15 years is on a television by visiting the Subscriptions pane on my AppleTV and lately, 50% of the videos are vertical 30 second videos I have to ignore because YT doesn’t give me a way to exclude them from view.

I begrudgingly joined Instagram (posting my nice photos from a 3rd party site on a schedule) only to realize that people don’t really post photos to Instagram anymore. It’s a video site. 

…and my evening routine is for 30 minutes browsing various Reddits that interest me mostly tech topics or old-man-memes but lately (like in the last 6 months), I’ve found Reddit videos have gotten REALLY long. It used to be GIFs then it was GIFs with audio then 10-30 second videos that I could just scroll past but lately these videos are so long that if I was interested, I’d install a Reddit Video Viewer for AppleTV just to watch them. Some are 20 minutes long and I’m on my phone wondering when the funny moment will happen only to realize it’s like a whole TV episode. I would love it if Apollo (the 3rd party Reddit App) could recognize videos and just exclude them from the feed completely.

I’m hoping that this Reddit change comes to the API and that allows for just that because I’m pretty tired of long form videos on Reddit. I don’t watch video on my phone, my phone is for reading. 

I’ve been downvoting long-form-video content on reddit so I’m linking to a few that crossed my Reddit “Home” feed of either Reddits I subscribe to or content from other Reddits that were cross-posted to communities I subscribe to:

  • 8.5 minutes https://www.reddit.com/r/therewasanattempt/comments/11i09pf/to_prove_that_more_guns_equals_more_safety/ 
  • 29 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqBKe63c2tg
  • 1.5 minutes – https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/11kpx44/when_the_cops_call_from_your_house/ 
  • 30 seconds (nothing happens for a while, just bad editing) – https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/11aj57w/what_are_the_odds/ 
  • 1.5 minutes – https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/11fjmhg/pink_the_bordie_collie_absolutely_demolishes_an/ 
  • 1 minute – https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/11fr3v9/attempted_robbery/ 
  • 1 minute – https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/11fqggy/after_defendant_made_a_clever_response_in_court_a/ 
  • 1 minute – https://www.reddit.com/r/therewasanattempt/comments/11eeqqb/to_get_a_snack/ 
  • 3 minutes – https://www.reddit.com/r/iamatotalpieceofshit/comments/11bc7i6/lady_lets_her_big_dog_attack_all_the_little_dogs/

I could go more, this was just the past 24 hours of my Reddit Downvotes when I’m scrolling, a video auto-plays, 3-5 seconds go buy and I start scrubbing only to realize this is pretty long.

In all honesty, I don’t want to watch ANY video on Reddit or at least I’d prefer it be a link to a YouTube video I can save for later or ignore completely but Reddit has gone all-in on video and it’s what the users want so I’m hoping this change will make my life much better. Just the thought of having a text-content Reddit only would be amazing!

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