Reddit splits its home feed in two with a TikTok-inspired update - Tubefilter

Would you rather see posts that are suggested for you or posts from communities you’ve chosen to follow? Reddit is letting its users choose between those two experiences.

The social media hub has announced an update for the feed that appears on its homepage. The default option will be a For You feed that will show content from a wide selection of the platform’s 138,000 active subreddits. Redditors who prefer a more customized experience can switch to the Following feed, which will only show posts from the subreddits those users already follow.

Before you ask, yes — Reddit’s For You feed makes it the latest platform to ape TikTok’s signature design choice. These days, it seems as if everyone is trending toward layouts centered around infinitely scrolling vertical videos, but for Reddit, that pivot isn’t exactly new. Redditors have seen posts from subreddits they don’t follow for years, and the platform has already rejiggered its video format to make those clips look more like TikToks.

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So what’s new with For You and Following? Essentially, Reddit’s new homepage design splits its two most endearing qualities into two separate feeds. If you visit the platform to discover new ideas that are hard to find elsewhere, For You will feed your curiosity. If, however, you put more stock in the community-focused aspects of the Reddit experience, the Following feed will preserve those connections.

“At Reddit, good recommendations should help people follow an interest into a community, and from there, into a conversation,” reads a company blog post. “Across thousands of communities, discovery can help people find others who get them, encounter perspectives that broaden their own, and take part in something bigger while sharing their own experiences.”

By letting its users choose to prioritize either discovery or community, Reddit is reflecting the deeper fault lines that have created friction between its execs and its subreddit administrators. In 2023, thousands of subreddits went offline as part of a coordinated blackout that protested planned changes to Reddit’s API pricing and third-party support. Three years later, most of those subreddits are back in business, but Reddit is moving forward with plans to limit API access and disconnect RSS readers.

Amid that landscape, the new homepage feels like a compromise. As Reddit evolves to stay competitive with other social media platforms, it is keeping its original spirit alive on the Following feed. The changes are expected to roll out to all users over the coming weeks.