Popular online discussion platform Reddit has introduced a new “Discover” section that will surface a personalized stream of photos, GIFs, and videos on its app.
According to Jason Costa, the director of product for content and communities at Reddit, the feed, the first time a new section has been added to the Reddit app in more than two years, is meant to help drive Redditors to corners of the site they might not encounter on the front page or in r/popular, reports Engadget.
“Discover is more meant to solve the breadth problem and really help people traverse the wide corpus of Reddit,” Costa was quoted as saying by the website.
He noted that early testing of the feature shows that one out of five users has joined “at least one subreddit as a result of Discover”.
Discover also gives Reddit the chance to showcase the vast catalog of memes and GIFs and videos that are shared every day, but aren’t always front and center in the app, the report said.
While much of Reddit remains a “text-based experience,” the new Discover feed could help draw in people who would rather aimlessly scroll rather than read, it added.
The feed itself is meant to be personalized to each user much the way Instagram’s Explore section would be. New users or people who aren’t logged in will see popular content that may be trending on the service or getting a lot of engagement.
While existing users will see recommendations based on subreddits they follow and the types of content they spend the most time viewing.
For now, the Discover fee is limited just to Reddit’s mobile apps, but Costa said that if Redditors like the feature it could influence more aspects of the service.
