When you think of Reddit, you probably imagine endless threads of text posts, comments, and the occasional image or GIF. While videos have become more common on the platform in recent years, sound is still noticeably absent for the most part. Open a video on the official Reddit app and more often than not, you‘ll see a message that "this video doesn‘t have sound." What gives? Why has Reddit been so slow to embrace audio compared to other social media giants?
Reddit‘s Text-Based Roots
To understand Reddit‘s soundless present, we need to look to its text-based past. Since its founding in 2005, Reddit has been a home for threaded discussions, AMAs (Ask Me Anything), and hyper-focused communities organized into subreddits. For many years, multimedia content like videos and audio weren‘t even possible on Reddit. The platform‘s stripped-down, retro web 2.0 vibe was part of its charm.
As Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman explained in a 2019 interview with The Verge, "There‘s always been a heavy bias towards text. It‘s just the most efficient way to communicate." For the first several years of Reddit‘s existence, it was entirely text-based. It wasn‘t until 2008 that the platform added support for images, and video came even later in 2017.
The Pros and Cons of Sound on Reddit
As Reddit has grown into one of the most trafficked websites in the world, it has gradually opened up to more diverse content types, including native video hosting. However, audio has remained a second-class citizen. The reasons are multi-faceted, spanning community norms, technical hurdles, moderation challenges, and the nature of Reddit itself.
Community Norms and Moderator Policies
Many subreddits actively prohibit video and audio posts in order to keep discussions focused and on-topic. Moderators and users alike often view sound and video as disruptive to the core Reddit experience of scrolling through text posts and comments. A blaring audio clip autoplaying in your feed is a quick way to ruin that vibe for many Redditors.
As one Reddit user put it in a discussion thread about the pros and cons of audio, "I come to Reddit to read things, not to watch videos or listen to audio. If I wanted that, I‘d go to YouTube." This sentiment is common among many longtime Redditors who value the platform‘s simplicity and focus.
However, opinions are far from unanimous. An informal poll on the r/polls subreddit found that 62% of respondents wished that Reddit would enable sound for videos (based on 8.3K votes). Many users argue that optional, tap-to-unmute audio would enhance funny videos, music, and other content without being too disruptive.
Some subreddits are also more audio-friendly than others by nature. For example, r/hiphopheads and r/music would likely embrace more audio clips and discussions, while information-dense subreddits like r/askscience and r/explainlikeimfive might want to keep things quiet to avoid distracting from in-depth explanations.
Technical Challenges and Infrastructure
There are significant technical challenges to enabling widespread audio hosting and streaming on a platform as massive as Reddit. With over 52 million daily active users and 100,000 active communities according to official 2021 stats, Reddit‘s infrastructure must be able to handle an enormous amount of data and traffic.
Historically, Reddit has struggled with stability and performance issues, leading to frequent outages and the dreaded "hug of death" for websites featured on popular subreddits. The platform has made major strides in recent years, moving to a microservices architecture and expanding its engineering team. However, adding audio hosting and streaming into the mix would be a major undertaking.
Consider that YouTube, the web‘s largest video platform, uses multiple petabytes of storage and serves over a billion hours of video per day. Audio may be less data-intensive than video, but hosting and streaming it at the scale Reddit requires would still be a massive technical challenge.
According to a post by a former Reddit engineer, the site already struggles to efficiently manage hosted video. Adding audio would require transcoding infrastructure, increased storage and bandwidth, new content delivery networks, and much more. It‘s a significant investment for a platform that only recently became profitable.
Moderation and Copyright Concerns
Moderating audio content also presents some unique challenges compared to text and images. Automated tools for transcribing and analyzing audio are less mature and reliable than their text and image counterparts. This makes it more difficult to quickly flag and remove things like hate speech, misinformation, and illegal content.
Copyright is another major concern. While copyrighted images and text snippets are sometimes shared on Reddit, they are easier to identify and remove than audio clips would be. If Reddit enabled unrestricted audio uploads, it could quickly become a hotbed for sharing pirated music, movies, and more.
Reddit would likely need to implement content ID systems like YouTube‘s to automatically scan uploads for copyrighted audio and prevent them from being posted. This is a complex undertaking that has led to many frustrations and false copyright claims on other platforms. Reddit may be hesitant to open that can of worms.
The Current State of Audio on Reddit
Despite the lack of official sound support in the main Reddit apps, there are some ways to get your audio fix on the platform today. Third-party Reddit clients like Apollo and BaconReader have managed to enable audio playback for videos by using clever workarounds and tapping into the audio streams directly.
However, these apps rely on unsupported techniques that go against Reddit‘s official APIs and content policies. They could potentially be shut down or limited if Reddit decides to crack down. The most robust and reliable audio experiences are still found off Reddit, on dedicated audio and video platforms.
Some subreddits have also found ways to incorporate audio content via things like in-browser media players and site embeds. However, these are still relatively rare, especially for shorter videos and soundbites. For now, the default state of Reddit is still silent.
The Future of Sound on Reddit
Reddit‘s slow embrace of sound may be finally picking up steam. The platform has been spotted testing several new audio features and integrations recently. These include:
- Reddit Talk: Live audio conversations within subreddits, similar to Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces
- Voice Chats: Drop-in audio chat rooms for subreddits
- Rumored Voice DMs: The ability to send voice messages to other users directly
These features hint at what the future of audio on Reddit could look like. Rather than trying to be a direct competitor to something like YouTube, Reddit seems to be pursuing audio as a way to enhance conversations and communities.
Imagine AMAs with live audio Q&A, real-time voice discussions during major events and releases, or being able to quickly send a voice memo to your favorite subreddit. This could unlock new ways for Redditors to connect and share without fundamentally changing the platform‘s community and conversation-driven nature.
As user habits evolve and the demand for audio grows, Reddit will likely continue to expand its sound capabilities. The key will be finding a balanced approach that thoughtfully integrates audio where it makes sense, while preserving Reddit‘s core identity.
Tips for Using Audio on Reddit Today
While full-fledged audio support on Reddit may still be a work in progress, there are ways to effectively use sound on the platform today. Here are some tips and best practices:
Check the subreddit rules: Before posting any video or audio, carefully check the rules of the subreddit you‘re in. Many have explicit policies against sound-heavy content.
Use descriptive titles and captions: Since sound is not a given, make sure your titles and captions clearly describe what users can expect, e.g. "(with sound)" or "audio version in comments."
Offer a silent alternative: Consider posting a text transcript, image gallery, or GIF version along with an audio-heavy post. This makes your content more accessible.
Keep it short and relevant: If you do post audio, keep clips brief and on-topic for the subreddit. Avoid anything overly distracting or disruptive to the browsing experience.
Try a third-party app: For the best audio experience today, check out third-party Reddit clients that have sound support. Just be aware they are not officially supported.
Conclusion
From its text-only origins to its cautious experiments with sound today, Reddit has taken a slow and steady approach to audio. The platform‘s unique mix of community norms, technical challenges, and content considerations have made integrating sound tricky.
However, as user demands evolve and platforms like Clubhouse show the potential for social audio, Reddit is starting to make some intriguing moves in the space. Features like Reddit Talk and voice chats could be game changers for AMAs and real-time discussions.
Looking ahead, the challenge will be thoughtfully integrating audio in a way that enhances Reddit‘s existing communities and conversations. If the platform can strike that balance, the front page of the internet may be a lot noisier in the years to come.
