Reddit has added a host of new “live” features, apparently aimed at making it feel less like a forum.
The new tools allow people to know what other members of its community are doing right that moment, which it says should make it “feel more lively”.
The new updates come in the form of a variety of new tools and changes to the design of the site.
They include new voting and comment counts. That means that the number of replies a certain thread has will no longer be a static number, but instead Redditors will be able to see as the responses go up or down in real time.
Similarly, a new typing indicator will show when two or more people are writing a comment at a given time. The names of those Redditors will not be show, and users will instead see avatars near comments windows.
If more than five people are typing a message, a similar image will show, with a group of different avatars near the top of the comment section.
The site will also show new comments as they arrive in real time, without having to refresh the site to see them.
The new changes are being rolled out now on desktop, iOS and Android. The animations can be turned off within the Reddit settings.
While individually minor, the changes represent a new way of seeing how Reddit works. As many social networks have moved towards more live coverage like feeds and rolling video posts, Reddit has until now largely stuck with a more traditional forum format, with posts appearing on static pages that only update when they are refreshed.
