We all know the power that Reddit has, not only to bring together people who share likes or interests, but also to make an impact outside the platform. It happened at the time with the GameStop case, when users hit Wall Street on the chin, and it's happening right now during the Ukraine war.
Thinking about the arrival of their communities, it is logical that Reddit wants to add new features. Today, for example, Discover was introduced, a new section in the mobile app that makes it very easy to find new subreddits. It appears identified with a compass icon that is located in the navigation bar, at the bottom edge of the screen.
When accessing there, users will find that the concept of Discover is basically the same as that of Explore on Instagram. Yes, after all, they look like traces. Just as the social network belonging to Meta shows us a search box and publications related to our interests, practically the same thing happens on Reddit.
The new section of Reddit is based on two key elements to choose what to show. On the one hand, analyzes which other communities the user is subscribed to; on the other, how much time does he spend in them. But in addition to access to the recommended communities, people will be able to filter the type of content they want to see, either from the search engine or from the pre-established categories (technology, sports, gaming, history, outdoors, etc.).
“We're making discovering relevant content and communities more intuitive with the Discover tab. It's a great new way for people to explore and engage with hundreds of thousands of communities around the world,” Reddit said in the official announcement.
Reddit now looks like a little more to Instagram
The new Discover section had already been tested for some time, although only in beta. With its definitive incorporation into its mobile applications, Reddit takes a new step in this process of opening towards a more open social network model. This does not mean that its distinctive characteristics change, far from it. But it does give the impression that those in charge of the platform intend to make it more “friendly”, especially for users who have just joined.
As with all tools that rely on algorithms to make recommendations, at some point Discover may not necessarily display the content users want to see. For this reason, Reddit has included the option to notify if the subreddits that are displayed are or are not useful to the interests of each person; thus, we can indicate if we want to see more or less of certain content, or directly request that certain communities remain hidden.
