Reddit tests TikTok-style audio and video feed

Reddit is testing a new TikTok-style audio and video feed that can turn text posts into something users can listen to in the background, according to TechCrunch. The company says the initial experiment will roll out on Monday across select communities, starting with a limited set of English-language posts on iOS and Android.

Reddit has been watching its content travel elsewhere for years, packaged as narrated clips on TikTok and Meta’s Reels. CEO Steve Huffman previously told analysts that people were already consuming Reddit this way on other platforms, with creators reading posts aloud via text-to-speech while unrelated footage plays underneath. The new test is an attempt to pull that behaviour back into Reddit’s own apps, where the company controls the interface, the ad inventory, and the measurement.

The mechanics are straightforward: when a post is eligible, users can choose to “read” it in the traditional format or “play” it as audio or video. Reddit says the feature will not replace text posts, and that the original post and comment threads remain intact. But the design goal is different. A feed that works while someone is walking, exercising, or running errands competes less with other reading apps and more with podcasts, short-form video, and the endless-scroll products that keep phones busy.

This is also a bet on format standardisation. Reddit’s identity has long been tied to text and comment depth, but the company has repeatedly tried to make video native to the platform, including earlier experiments with TikTok-style feeds. It recently added video in comments, and TechCrunch reports that video in comments now accounts for more than 10% of video posts on Reddit.

The unresolved question is what happens to the incentives that made Reddit valuable in the first place. Narration and repackaging reward posts that work as standalone stories and punchlines, not necessarily the ones that produce high-quality discussion. If the most “playable” posts become the most promoted posts, moderators and long-time users may find themselves maintaining communities that increasingly serve as raw material for a separate product layer.

For now, Reddit is calling it an early, limited experiment. On Monday, it will begin finding out whether its most viral threads still look like Reddit once they start sounding like everything else.