Reddit is testing video and audio versions of posts so people can watch or listen instead of reading a thread. A company spokesperson told Engadget the test is a limited experiment on a sample of posts in select communities. The original text stays live and unchanged.
How the Reddit video and audio posts look
An early example is an eight-year-old thread in r/boardgames that asked for adult road-trip games. Reddit turned it into a three-minute clip. A voice reads the original question and some top replies. On-screen text follows the narration. That clip sounds AI-generated, and it still links back to the written thread.
So the format is a spoken recap, not a new comment section. Users can listen in the background or watch a short video. Then they can jump back into the real discussion.
Why Reddit is doing this now
CEO Steve Huffman previewed the idea on Reddit’s July 30 earnings call. He said podcasts already read Reddit stories out loud on other platforms. Therefore a listened-to or spoken Reddit, he argued, could keep people on Reddit instead. Reddit’s official Q2 2026 results confirm that call happened the same day. That press release does not name this experiment. Huffman’s remarks on the call carry the product teaser.
This test also sits next to a broader video push. In June, Reddit launched video in comments so users can reply with a clip instead of only text. Those replies do not autoplay. They still go through Reddit’s safety systems.
What is still unknown
Reddit has not said how it picks threads for the test. Also, it has not said whether every community will get the player. Until the company publishes a product page, treat this as a limited experiment, not a sitewide launch. The original posts remain the source of truth.
If the format sticks, Reddit keeps the conversation on its own app instead of letting TikTok-style recap channels harvest the thread. That same on-platform push shows up in other social products we have covered, including X Original Content Rewards and tighter YouTube Partner Program rules.
