Reddit is testing a new way to consume its biggest asset: conversations.
From August 17, 2026, selected Reddit posts can be experienced not just as text but as audio or video, giving users a “Read” or “Play” choice.
The experiment comes as Reddit reaches 130.3 million daily active uniques and $805 million in quarterly revenue. It also arrives at a moment when the company is trying to make Reddit a destination users visit directly, rather than relying as heavily on search traffic to bring them in.
Reddit Tests A New Format
Reddit’s initial experiment is limited to selected English-language posts and is available through its iOS and Android apps. When the feature is available, users can choose whether to read the conventional post or play its audio or video version.
The distinction matters because Reddit is not replacing its core format with video. The original post and comments remain available, allowing users to continue reading, commenting and participating in the conversation as they normally would.
The company is instead testing whether some Reddit conversations work better when consumed while users are walking, exercising or doing other activities where reading a screen is less convenient.
The experiment follows Reddit CEO Steve Huffman’s comments during the company’s July earnings call about building a “video Reddit” experience. Reddit has been watching the popularity of narrated Reddit stories on short-form video platforms and is now testing whether that behaviour can happen within Reddit itself.
Why Reddit Is Moving Now
Reddit enters the experiment with a significantly larger audience than it had a year ago. In Q2 2026, daily active uniques rose 18% year-on-year to 130.3 million. Weekly active uniques increased 24% to 514.6 million, crossing the half-billion mark.
The financial numbers are equally significant. Revenue increased 61% year-on-year to $805 million in the quarter, marking Reddit’s eighth consecutive quarter with revenue growth above 60%. Advertising revenue rose 64% to $762 million, while net income reached $253 million.
That scale gives Reddit a large library to experiment with. As of June 30, Reddit said the platform contained more than 26 billion posts and comments. Turning even a fraction of those conversations into audio or video could potentially create new ways for users to discover and consume content.
However, Reddit has not said that the new format will become a separate advertising product or disclosed any revenue target tied to it. Any immediate commercial impact therefore remains uncertain.
Video Is Already Expanding
The new test is part of a broader push to make Reddit more multimedia-friendly.
On June 11, Reddit launched video in comments, allowing users to upload or record video responses within conversations. The feature expanded Reddit’s existing mix of text, images and GIFs without removing those formats.
The distinction between these initiatives is important. Video in comments allows users to create new video content. The latest experiment instead takes existing written conversations and gives them an audio or video layer.
That could help Reddit address a longstanding format limitation. A discussion can be highly engaging but still require users to stop and read. Audio potentially allows that conversation to travel beyond the screen, while video could make text-heavy discussions easier to consume for users accustomed to visual feeds.
Growth Comes With Risks
Reddit’s push into new formats also comes as its traffic mix faces pressure. Reuters reported that U.S. daily active users increased 6% year-on-year in Q2, compared with 28% international growth.
The company has also warned about volatility in search referrals, an important source of traffic for a platform whose discussions frequently appear in Google results.
That makes direct engagement increasingly important. A product that encourages people to open Reddit for audio, video or other forms of consumption could eventually reduce the platform’s dependence on users arriving through search, although Reddit has not said that this experiment is specifically designed to solve that problem.
There is another challenge: authenticity. Reddit’s strength lies in community-driven conversations, where context and comments often matter as much as the original post. Converting those discussions into narrated or visual formats may broaden their reach, but the company will need to ensure the new experience does not strip away the community element that makes the content valuable.
For now, Reddit is keeping the test deliberately small. The bigger question is whether users want to experience Reddit conversations in the same flexible, listenable and visual formats that have already reshaped how content is consumed elsewhere.
If they do, Reddit may have found a way to make its enormous archive of conversations work in an entirely new medium.
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