Updates to notifications, avatar enhancements, a better best sort, and more

https://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/l0uh11/updates_to_notifications_avatar_enhancements_a/

created by BurritoJusticeLeague on 19/01/2021 at 22:03 UTC

3250 upvotes, 146 top-level comments (showing 25)

https://preview.redd.it/z0dqiorwxcc61.png?width=1081&format=png&auto=webp&s=629c9163b48389fbbaf14169505621e585704045

Whew, it’s been a crazy two weeks! Here at Reddit we’ve been hard at work and have some fun stuff to share with you today. Let’s just jump in, shall we?

We shall.

Here’s what went out January 6th–19th

• *All about those avatars**

Avatars are great, but they can always be better. That’s why we’ve made some new expansions and improvements.

• New gear for the new year! Check out the latest fashions and accessories[1] to keep your avatar looking fresh.

https://preview.redd.it/c374krzzxcc61.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=6e20d032618b3590a6bcb818d84da6a039b04e20[2]

1: https://www.reddit.com/avatar

2: https://preview.redd.it/c374krzzxcc61.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=6e20d032618b3590a6bcb818d84da6a039b04e20

• Better, faster, stronger… We’ve updated the foundational tech that makes avatars work so they can be more scalable, secure, and have better telemetry. This may sound like boring engineering stuff to some but this work means that you can do important things like change the color of your beard without changing the color of your hair or hold something in your right hand without canceling out what you’re holding in your left hand.
• Avatars aren’t just fun, they’re also functional. We’ve already added profile images and avatars to comment threads on Android and mobile web, and this week they rolled out to desktop as well. (Don’t worry iOS, you’re next.) We’ve found this helps people visually track the back and forth in a conversation, and it also results in more profile views and people starting chats with each other—so avatars are actually helping redditors connect.

• *A notification about your notifications**

An updated interface and more control over what notifications you receive is on the way.

• First off, you’ll be getting a new notification inbox soon, complete with profile and community images and the ability to hide and manage notifications in-line. We’re rolled out to 5% on iOS, Android, and desktop now, and are testing things to make sure there aren’t any major bugs or improvements we need to make before rolling out further. Here’s what it looks like on iOS:

https://preview.redd.it/62bmoqmdycc61.png?width=1464&format=png&auto=webp&s=305ebbcf71a2bde014cf1f34f44eb8753863a106

• Next, you can’t have a new inbox without new user settings as well. Now you can control what inbox notifications and emails you’d like to receive from the mobile web, iOS, Android, and desktop.

https://preview.redd.it/y7wwk5zaycc61.png?width=1463&format=png&auto=webp&s=e71e9caaba953200731d1eaf0ad320a2dafb0f70

• *Rolling out to new platforms**

We’re expanding two features that were mentioned in previous updates, so we can gather more information on how they're performing and make them available to more people.

• Now redditors on Android and desktop have the ability to sign up or log in to their account with a magic[3] link—a link we send to your email address that lets you access your Reddit account with one click. (This is already out on iOS.)
• New redditors on Android, mobile web, and desktop will now be able to select more detailed subtopics they’re interested in, instead of super general ones, after creating their accounts. (This is already out on iOS.)

• *And a few more miscellaneous items**

3: https://i.redd.it/f4i4x1tmt68z.gif

• What’s better than best? An improved best sort! We’re running an A/B test where the best sort on comment threads will prioritize comments with a high upvote ratio. The idea is that this will help high-quality comments that don’t have a lot of views yet get the attention they deserve. (It’s a very subtle change, but we think it’ll make our best sort even better.)
• Previously, the award sheet you see on post and comments was different than what you saw while awarding a live video. Now we’ve cleaned them up to be the same.
• For the next two weeks, we’re testing giving logged out redditors on the mobile web various offers and rewards if they download the app for the first time and log in to their account. This limited test will go to 25% of mobile web users.
• If you haven’t verified your account with an email yet, you should. (Verifying your account gives you a way to log in if you forget your password[4], and helps ensure you won’t get locked out of your account.) We’re reminding redditors who haven’t verified their account yet to do so, using a dismissible banner on iOS.

• *Bugs and small fixes**

Here’s what’s up with the native apps:

4: https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043047632-How-do-I-log-in-to-Reddit-if-I-forgot-my-password-

iOS bug fixes:

• Blurred NSFW images in a media gallery will unblur after they’re viewed in theatre mode now
• You can search for posts by filtering by date again
• When you scroll up on a chat it won’t jump you to the most recent message anymore
• The app won’t crash while watching videos anymore
• Reddit live streams will play with the correct color theme now
• Opening comment threads with permalinks won’t crash the app now

Android updates and fixes:

• The pop up asking you to rate the app will show up less often now
• Push notifications open correctly for everyone again
• Chat notification badges update consistently again
• The exit button works while Anonymous Browsing again

Hope you have a great week. As always, we’ll be around for a bit to answer your questions.

Comments

Comment by TeaBreezy at 19/01/2021 at 22:12 UTC

959 upvotes, 13 direct replies

Can you get rid of the annoying prompt asking users to use the reddit app when opening a post in a browser window?

I don't want to use the app, that's why I had it open in a browser and it's annoying to have to opt out every time.

Comment by marcSuile at 19/01/2021 at 22:15 UTC

171 upvotes, 6 direct replies

• The little bubble for 'reddit user is typing...' on mobile is kind of annoying--any chance to have the option to remove that?

• Also, would be nice to permanently turn off recommendations and "is this subreddit about xxx?" while scrolling on mobile app--any chance to have the option to remove that?

Comment by Connorclan at 19/01/2021 at 22:31 UTC

773 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Can you guys *please* add a separate NSFW tag to differ between porn and gore?!

Comment by revy_uzg at 19/01/2021 at 22:43 UTC

208 upvotes, 8 direct replies

Please stop showing me live broadcasts in my feed, I don't know how many times I have to say 'show me less of this' before it gets the picture. The toggle off in settings does absolutely nothing.

Comment by Lynchpin_Cube at 19/01/2021 at 22:11 UTC

227 upvotes, 9 direct replies

Any chance we can get a setting to turn avatars off in comment threads? Some of us are pretty good at keeping track of a conversation without the pictures, and have no interest in redditors “chatting” us

Comment by meowrawrmoo at 19/01/2021 at 23:43 UTC

206 upvotes, 1 direct replies

old.reddit.com **forever**

Comment by Fallout at 20/01/2021 at 00:56 UTC

51 upvotes, 2 direct replies

We’ve found this helps people visually track the back and forth in a conversation, **and it also results in more profile views**

Yes probably because you've put them where everyone's muscle memory goes to the upvote button! I do not Digg this at all :(

Comment by mindbleach at 20/01/2021 at 00:13 UTC

51 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Can I disable chat?

I never want to use it. PMs work better. It takes three clicks just to mark a message as unread and unwanted.

And it's usually spam. Normal notifications have buttons for reporting that - chat does not appear to.

(Also old mode without thumbnails breaks reddit-hosted galleries. There's never a link. It goes to the comment thread.)

Comment by xCamboSlice at 19/01/2021 at 22:13 UTC

52 upvotes, 4 direct replies

Fix the broken mobile views in the browser. I have the app but sometimes you need to view posts in a mobile browser. Also I use Apollo not the reddit app so there is no way I can open in Apollo.

Comment by GhoulishGrin at 19/01/2021 at 22:43 UTC

46 upvotes, 4 direct replies

Can you get rid of the avatar box following when I scroll through someone’s posts under their user profile? It jumps down as I scroll and takes up the majority of the screen. When I try to scroll back up it takes up even more barely allowing me to see the content as I scroll back up.

Comment by Knillish at 19/01/2021 at 22:13 UTC

189 upvotes, 8 direct replies

Still no fix for reddit hosted videos just not working?

Have to skip any video when I see the v.reddit cause 95% of the time it just wont work..

Comment by Picturesquesheep at 19/01/2021 at 22:33 UTC

85 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Please remove (create an avatar) from my profile I don’t want an avatar

Comment by pslocom at 20/01/2021 at 01:51 UTC

139 upvotes, 2 direct replies

For the next two weeks, we’re testing giving logged out redditors on the mobile web various offers and rewards if they download the app for the first time and log in to their account. This limited test will go to 25% of mobile web users.

Please please please stop doing things like this. It's exhausting getting harassed about using the official mobile app when a link I find opens in my phones browser and not the app I prefer. I have a mobile app, I don't need/want the official one.

On that same topic, please make it easier to view pages when I'm not logged in, both for the mobile experience reason above (if a link opens in some web view where I'm not logged in) and for situations where I find a link to Reddit where I don't want to be logged in (for example when I search for something at work and a Reddit discussion is a result).

I'm starting to avoid links to Reddit outside off when I scroll through the app due to these experiences getting worse.

Comment by 100GHz at 19/01/2021 at 22:54 UTC

37 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Can we have an option to not participate in questions about subreddits?

Does /r/pics have profanity in its name?

I don't care, stop asking me ten times a day.

Comment by Olster21 at 19/01/2021 at 22:20 UTC

148 upvotes, 5 direct replies

Did anyone actually ask for an avatar system in the first place?

Comment by santropedro at 19/01/2021 at 22:40 UTC

29 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Please, just give the option to NOT see avatars in comment threads.

Comment by RunDNA at 19/01/2021 at 22:29 UTC

337 upvotes, 6 direct replies

Avatars are great

No, Avatars are shit and go against the spirit of a website which places an emphasis on what you say as opposed to who says it.

Please get rid of them.

Comment by 4InchesOfury at 19/01/2021 at 22:43 UTC

26 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Any way to disable avatars in comments on desktop?

Comment by kindachizophrenic at 19/01/2021 at 22:11 UTC

93 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Can we get better mod tools on the mobile app?

Comment by wowlock_taylan at 20/01/2021 at 04:34 UTC

24 upvotes, 1 direct replies

'' Avatars aren’t just fun, they’re also functional. We’ve already added profile images and avatars to comment threads on Android and mobile web, and this week they rolled out to desktop as well. (Don’t worry iOS, you’re next.) We’ve found this helps people visually track the back and forth in a conversation, and it also results in more profile views and people starting chats with each other—so avatars are actually helping redditors connect. ''

Can we have the option to turn this off? I keep clicking the damn avatars because that's where the 'arrow up/down' supposed to be.

Comment by mart1373 at 20/01/2021 at 00:22 UTC

23 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Yeeeaaahhhh, if you could stop putting ads at the top of each thread, that’d be greeeaaaaatttt.

Comment by MrsMcBasketball at 19/01/2021 at 22:53 UTC

49 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Is there anyway to just ‘turn off’ the avatar. I don’t like it and don’t want to use it. I hate when I go on my homepage that it’s right there. I just want to get rid of it and use a pic again

Comment by PoniesPlayingPoker at 20/01/2021 at 00:05 UTC

44 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Can you stop putting ads into comment sections? It's crashing my app repeatedly and it's so fucking annoying. You don't need that many ads plus all the paying users.

Comment by Yeti_of_the_Flow at 19/01/2021 at 23:06 UTC

41 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Can I turn off the avatars entirely? They're annoying as hell. I don't want to see them in threads, I don't want to see it when I go to my profile.

Comment by Cool_Ranch_Dodrio at 20/01/2021 at 01:23 UTC

19 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Why do I have to block everything from someone if I just want to block them from PM's and chat?

If I don't want them bothering me in private, I have to waive being able to report, downvote, or interact with them in public.

This gives fucknuggets a perverse incentive to be obnoxious in pm's and chat so they can go unchallenged elsewhere.