Reddit tests audio and video versions of viral text posts

Why it matters

Reddit is trying to reclaim viewing time and potential ad inventory from TikTok and Reels by turning its text archive into native audio and video while retaining comments and votes.

Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman (@wtfspez) began testing audio and video versions of popular text posts on Monday, an attempt to bring a format already common on TikTok and Instagram Reels back onto the platform that supplies much of its source material.

The limited experiment lets some users choose between "read" and "play" on eligible posts, according to TechCrunch. Reddit is testing both audio and video presentations across selected English-language posts in its iOS and Android apps. The original text and comment thread remain available, preserving the discussion around each post.

Huffman previewed the work during Reddit's July 30th earnings call. He pointed to the large category of videos in which creators narrate Reddit stories over captions, gameplay, cooking footage or other visuals. Huffman described the format as "podcasts where people read Reddit content" and said "listened-to or spoken Reddit can be really engaging."

The experiment amounts to a distribution play. Reddit stories already travel beyond Reddit, where creators and rival platforms capture the viewing time, audience relationship and advertising opportunity. A native playback option gives Reddit a chance to retain that consumption inside its apps while keeping the comments, votes and community context attached.

That distinction matters because the text post remains the underlying asset. Reddit is repackaging existing conversations for situations where reading is inconvenient, including exercise, walking and errands. The same material can function as a conventional post, background audio or a short video without requiring the original author to produce a separate recording.

Huffman co-founded Reddit in 2005 and returned as CEO in 2015 after serving as co-founder and chief technology officer of travel startup Hipmunk, according to Reddit's corporate biography. The audio-video test fits his broader effort to turn Reddit's archive of user conversations into products that can circulate beyond the platform's traditional text-heavy interface.

Reddit wants to own the playback layer

The timing follows a quarter in which Reddit reported 130.3 million daily active uniques, up 18% from a year earlier, and 514.6 million weekly active uniques. Revenue rose 61% to $805 million, including $762 million from advertising, according to Reddit's second-quarter results.

Advertising supplied nearly 95% of Reddit's revenue during the quarter. A format that increases time in the mobile apps and creates additional video sessions could expand Reddit's commercial inventory. Reddit is initially measuring whether the experience is useful and feels native to its communities, rather than presenting the experiment as a new advertising product.

The company also has to prove that automated-feeling narration and short-form visuals can preserve the qualities that make a Reddit post travel in the first place. Humor, sarcasm and credibility often depend on usernames, formatting, edits and the replies beneath a post. Reddit's decision to leave the original post and comments one tap away limits that problem, while the early test will show whether users actually choose playback over reading.

A long-running video push

Reddit has been building video features for years. It introduced native video hosting in 2017 and later developed a full-screen video feed. On June 11th, 2026, Reddit made video replies in comments available to users in eligible public communities after an earlier testing period.

Reddit told TechCrunch that video comments now account for more than 10% of video posts on the platform. That figure is company-supplied and does not indicate how many communities or users regularly create video replies, but it gives Reddit a reason to keep testing richer formats around conversations.

The new experiment goes further because it can turn material created as text into audio or video consumption. Reddit does not need to wait for users to upload clips; it can apply the format to posts that have already demonstrated demand through votes, comments and sharing.

The initial test is deliberately narrow. Its outcome will depend on whether users treat the play button as a useful accessibility and background-listening feature or another short-form feed competing for attention. For Huffman, the bet is that Reddit can capture the audience for narrated Reddit stories without stripping away the community discussion that made those stories valuable.