Reddit began testing a new audio and video experience on Monday, August 18, 2026, allowing users to watch or listen to popular posts rather than read them. The initial tests are limited experiments running across select communities on Reddit’s iOS and Android apps, focusing only on English-language posts.
When a compatible post is available, users will see an option to either “read” or “play” it. The original text post and its comments remain fully intact and accessible — the new formats are additions, not replacements. Reddit says people may want to listen to audio posts while exercising, walking, or running errands, while video versions bring written conversations to life through combined audio and visuals.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman first outlined the plans during the company’s second-quarter earnings call in July 2026. He pointed to an already-existing trend on platforms like TikTok and Meta’s Reels, where creators narrate popular Reddit stories using text-to-speech tools or by reading them aloud, sometimes accompanied by unrelated footage such as gameplay or cooking video. “There is an emerging content type elsewhere on the internet of, basically, podcasts where people read Reddit content,” Huffman said on the call.
Reddit told TechCrunch the tests are designed to help the company understand whether these formats can be useful to users and whether they can be executed in a way that feels authentic to Reddit’s culture.
This is not Reddit’s first attempt at video. The platform previously launched native video hosting, tested a TikTok-style video feed, and more recently added video support in comments — a feature Reddit says now accounts for more than 10% of video posts on the platform. The current tests represent a broader push to bring Reddit’s text-based content to audiences who prefer audio or video consumption.
Source: TechCrunch