https://www.reddit.com/r/changelog/comments/owjcoq/addressing_the_new_video_player/
created by Sn00byD00 on 02/08/2021 at 17:28 UTC
129 upvotes, 119 top-level comments (showing 25)
TL;DR: The new video player has launched on iOS with a lot of bugs and mistakes that we're not proud of. (And ya, they have been pretty horrible for some of you.) Today we're here to own up to those mistakes, explain why we're making changes to the video player in the first place, and go over what's next and how we're going to fix it.
As some of you know, Reddit currently maintains up to 10 different video players across different platforms and contexts. Every time we want to make one change or improvement, this means 10 changes or improvements. This makes it hard to ship meaningful updates that improve the viewing experience for everyone (such as closed captioning), and to have a consistent experience that makes sense for the platform. Over the course of the last year our goal was to build a unified video player, and re-envision the player interface to match what users (new and old) expect when it comes to an in-app video player—especially commenting, viewing, engaging, and discovering new content and communities through video. (And, to be fully transparent, create opportunities for better video ads).
For those of you asking why we changed the video player in the first place, the short answer is to make it better and make it easier to ship updates across platforms so we can continue to make it better in the future.
So let’s discuss where we went wrong… While trying to make the player better, we made some things worse. And one of the biggest things we dropped the ball on, is making sure commenting and engaging with the comments worked for everyone. What truly makes Reddit special is the rich discussion you create. And what we’ve heard from all of you is that the new video player makes it harder to engage in this discussion. This isn’t good and was never the intention, so we’re going to fix this ASAP. The following changes to address this launched last week:
1. You can access play/pause and mute controls when the comments thread is partially open.
2. The video pauses when the comments thread is fully open.
3. The “next comment” widget is back (the thing that looks like three upside down chevrons).
4. Tapping on the post title in your feed opens up the video with the comments thread partially open.
To give you all some additional context on the new video player saga… In a series of cascading unfortunate events, we made another HUGE mistake[1] that (rightly) pissed a lot of y’all off—any video posts classified as NSFW were effectively unplayable for about a week. When we fixed this (two weeks ago), we effectively broke the scrubber/seeker (the bar that allows you to quickly move a video through time) for another week. We fixed this one last week, and after testing in-house, we haven’t found any additional bugs. We get that letting these bugs go out on an already-unloved video player was, well, pretty awful, and we’re sorry that these mistakes have made watching and interacting with videos on Reddit so hard for so many of you.
1: https://i.redd.it/t3uh002y2ze71.gif
In addition to the fixes listed above, this is what’s next:
In the near term, the video team will be focusing on quality and fundamentals for the new video player in order to build what was first envisioned: something you all want to (and can) use with no hassle and with no bugs or audio glitches. To this end, we want to be upfront with you all and let you know that we are not going back to the old Reddit video player (please see the second paragraph in this post). We know the new video player needs work, but it’s something we believe in and something we created for our communities and individual redditors.
As always, thank you for your feedback and holding us accountable. We’ll stick around for a while and answer your questions on all things video regardless of how spicy the comments get.
Comment by Sn00byD00 at 02/08/2021 at 17:28 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
If you want to really dig into the weeds on what happened with the successive bug situation, let us know in the comments and we’ll walk through the gory details).
Comment by Dublock at 02/08/2021 at 18:00 UTC
112 upvotes, 4 direct replies
There would have been less anger and more understanding from users if this was communicated out a few weeks ago.
Comment by ozana18 at 02/08/2021 at 18:13 UTC
77 upvotes, 2 direct replies
One major issue that many people (including me) have with the video player is that it has a completely different swipe functionality compared to images. The video player does not swipe left or right to move between posts and instead uses up or down. It cannot swipe to image posts. When swiped either up or down, it loads a completely unrelated video that is impossible to find on the main page and is sometimes days or weeks old. Will changes be made so that it at least loads the next video in the page? Or make it such that it merely changes the interface of the previous one while allowing to swipe left or right to move between image and video posts like the old one allowed?
Comment by elfmere at 02/08/2021 at 18:14 UTC
42 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Have you addressed all these issues
video changes while viewing comments
Notifications dont go directly to comment
Another notifications dont go to comment
Another big one for me which is in the list. Swiping to another video becomes a random video instead of either following your feed or following the sub your in
Video UI has no controls in feed
Another video UI has no controls in feed
Comment by Watchful1 at 02/08/2021 at 17:38 UTC
39 upvotes, 3 direct replies
In my experience, the absolute biggest problem with the video player is that it does not immediately serve the highest quality of video my device/connection can support. I get a blurry 240p video for 10 seconds, then it updates with the high quality stream. I would much rather wait an extra 2 seconds to get high quality the whole way through.
Things like play/pause button location, how the comments look, etc, are not nearly as important as the video player actually being able to play the video I want.
Comment by Phaneronym at 02/08/2021 at 18:01 UTC
19 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Can you make the "next comment" button draggable like it is on normal posts, please?
Comment by Halaku at 02/08/2021 at 17:49 UTC
41 upvotes, 1 direct replies
To this end, we want to be upfront with you all and let you know that we are not going back to the old Reddit video player (please see the second paragraph in this post).
Thank you for being upfront about it, and the explainations.
Individual users may find one of the ten individual players they *like*, on the platform they *prefer*, and don't want to see it change in order to achieve parity (example: If I used my **X** brand phone with **Y** brand operating system, I might be really pissed if my perfectly satisfactory video player kept getting 'tweaked' in order to make it work for users on an inferior phone / OS) but it's in the long-term interest of the site as a whole, and sometimes it takes an Admin or devteam member to simply say so.
Comment by PM_ME_LOSS_MEMES at 02/08/2021 at 23:33 UTC
12 upvotes, 2 direct replies
This is… a step in the right direction? But there’s a still a few things that you seem to have sidestepped. Namely:
1. Come *on,* the video player is literally a TikTok clone. Why?
2. There is nothing this video does that is an improvement over the old video player in any way. If there was even one thing improved over the old one I’d at least have some confidence this was for something besides ad$ense.
Help me out here.
Comment by epmuscle at 02/08/2021 at 17:44 UTC*
35 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Honestly, at this point, with the massive amounts of negative feedback - I am confused as to why the developers are staying the course with this decision change. You can already see the massive amounts of comments of users moving to 3rd party apps for Reddit because that’s how bad the video player is.
I’m all for change but this is such a poor user experience change that it makes no sense to continue to work on developing something that users very clearly say is not intuitive or adding to the experience.
If you want more users to use the official Reddit app you probably should be more open to reversing course on decisions. With all the A/B testing that happens in the official Reddit app I’m surprised this even made it to a wide release.
Comment by PasswordSecurity at 02/08/2021 at 19:38 UTC
11 upvotes, 2 direct replies
It would've been a very decent (maybe even good) video player if those bugs didn't make it into production.
Comment by thatpaulallen at 03/08/2021 at 01:29 UTC
11 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Honestly, my biggest gripe about the video player is the card-style UI for the comments. I hate having to slide the card up to hide the video and see the comments full screen. And even then I still have the top of the card taking up screen real estate. I miss the video minimizing automatically as I scrolled through the comments. Now it’s multiple swipes for what used to be a simple gesture.
Comment by baltinerdist at 02/08/2021 at 18:50 UTC
10 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Is the team aware of and working on the placement of the progress bar on iOS? Because it is so low, you cannot scrub through the video without inadvertently triggering the iOS navigation pill.
Hell, even moving it up 10 pixels would probably solve the problem.
Comment by diceroll123 at 02/08/2021 at 17:37 UTC
22 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Snark aside, I keep fat-fingering the seekbar and it activates the gesture navigation on the bottom while trying to seek.
Comment by AnonymooseProxy at 02/08/2021 at 18:02 UTC
31 upvotes, 4 direct replies
create opportunities for better video ads
and there it is.
For those of you asking why we changed the video player in the first place, the short answer is to make it better
For you and advertisers, not us.
Remember how popular Facebook was until it wasn't? Facebook got in the way and the feedback fell on deaf ears because they were to busy trying to optimize for ads.
Your one true job as a platform is to **get out the dam way** so we can get to the content that we create.
As some of you know, Reddit currently maintains up to 10 different video players across different platforms and contexts.
Wtf are you doing?! Why bother with all that? Just let videos hand off to the native player for each platform, job done.
In short, if you really must push this shit then just give us a toggle for **"Use native video player"** so we can get back the video content that **we** create and love.
No one is excited about trying being the next TicTok except you and your ad customers.
Comment by Courwes at 02/08/2021 at 18:03 UTC
10 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Ok well thank you for finally addressing some of the concerns regarding people complaints over the past few weeks.
I still don’t see one huge issue addressed which was the final straw that pushed me to a 3rd party app was what caused the app on iOS devices to massively drain battery and heat them up to potentially damaging temps. This issue has been resolved but is not acknowledged in this post at all. This went on for a full week with no notice or concern as to what was going on. No telling how many devices the app actually damaged.
What exactly did you all mess up and why did it take a full week to fix with no acknowledgment from the development team warning anyone about it? I know you all knew it was happening and you stayed radio silent and just continued to let people use their devices knowing it was draining the battery and heating to temps that were literally burning their hands.
Comment by justcool393 at 03/08/2021 at 02:16 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
As some of you know, Reddit currently maintains up to 10 different video players across different platforms and contexts. Every time we want to make one change or improvement, this means 10 changes or improvements. This makes it hard to ship meaningful updates that improve the viewing experience for everyone (such as closed captioning), and to have a consistent experience that makes sense for the platform.
Oh my
Comment by GenericTrashyBitch at 03/08/2021 at 03:14 UTC*
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I don’t want to “discover new content” in a video player. If you want that please make it an option (like the suggested communities are currently) or make it a separate tab similar to YouTube shorts (which this seems to be emulating) so users can choose whether or not they want that.
Comment by austinTbird at 06/08/2021 at 14:57 UTC
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I thought I would put together a handy “field guide” for newer users to Reddit Admin behavior when confronted with months after months of negative feedback, so you can better understand what they mean when they finally say “oops, my bad” about the new video player… and promise to do better… here’s the dirty little secret. They won’t. The exact same pattern repeats itself:
Step 1: Reddit decides to upgrade/rebuild/redesign/add something
Step 2: They do it, but instead of designing it to function similar to the original product and then iterate from there, they try to jam in as many “hot in the moment” feature and designs as they can and completely change the user experience.
Step 3: Current users are confused and angry about this sudden change in everything that fundamentally made the thing work in the first place
Step 3.5: Things break, because they changed things so drastically
Step 4: Radio silence. Admins will either not acknowledge that there is an issue at all, or try to blame it on “old” users resistance to needed upgrades. I mean really why aren’t we all super happy they gifted us these amazing new features (that no one asked for)? /sarcasm. And now our current step for those playing along at home:
Step 5: After an overwhelming amount of negative feedback on every admin post, and even negative articles written in tech blogs or news sites, a few admins will finally post in one of the several hundred places where admins make announcements (will anyone see that post in r/blog? Maybe, maybe not, but who cares right?) and say how sorry they are and that they are here to take their lumps… maybe they might even roll back a few super bad things… not the whole thing of course, just a few peripheral features here and there. Don’t worry, those will all come back… just after people move on a bit.
They will then praise themselves for learning from their mistakes, and how closely they listen to feedback and take it to heart. They will then pat each other on the back about how quickly they jumped to fix the issue (that they created!) and how from now on they will never make this mistake again! Bonus step 5.5: I neat little trick that happens with the admin that draws the short straw to make this announcement, they will then just disappear for a while after getting huge downvotes. I like to call it ghosting(™). For example, /u/KeyserSosa hasn’t posted in over a month after getting savaged for announcing the cancelling of Reddit Gifts.
Right before the ghosting stage, they will try to answer a few cherry picked comments… nothing too in depth though, because after all they aren’t really changing or fixing anything, just a few band aids to placate everyone until they forget about how bad it was and move on to the next broken new feature. I believe they do this to make themselves feel somewhat better about having to trot out the same old excuses over and over before they start the ghosting(™) step.
Step 6: Repeat
So there ya go, please use this handy guide to apply to the next sht storm, and for extra fun look back to all the past fck ups and follow along with each step.
Tagging /u/Sn00byD00 for visibility... wishful thinking I know
Comment by WonderedFidelity at 02/08/2021 at 22:43 UTC*
14 upvotes, 1 direct replies
“Why did we change the video player?”
Cmon guys, admit it, it was to be like Tik Tok. But we don’t need a Tik Tok player on Reddit. That’s not what Reddit is for.
“We’re not going to change it back”
…ever heard of Digg version 4?
Comment by Youareyou64 at 02/08/2021 at 18:37 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
What caused these issues to not be caught in testing before release? Some of the bugs seem like they should have been pretty obvious, so I'm genuinely curious as to why they were not caught.
Comment by Python_Child at 02/08/2021 at 18:06 UTC*
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Hi, so I have a question about the video player
By any chance do you have plans to make it so we can customize where the upvote and the reward buttons, ETC are on the screen so we can relocate them to different areas on the screen
So for example, let��s just say I’m left handed, I move the upvote bottom to the left side to have easier access to it
Also I do apologize for being quite mean about the switch from the old to new video player. Hopefully you’ll read the feedback and improve it
Comment by meerdroovt at 02/08/2021 at 20:19 UTC
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Reddit admins on crack:
Comment by LengthyPole at 02/08/2021 at 20:00 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
The video still being at the top of my screen is really jarring and I find it a lot harder to read comments while it’s up there, even if it’s paused. I don’t know if that’s my dyslexia or if others experience it too?
I want to be able to just skip ahead without having to open the entire video, I’m not invested enough to want open it if I’m skipping.
Comment by scunliffe at 03/08/2021 at 03:38 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
1.) The biggest complaint I have is the re-arrangement of thumbs up/down, comments, share action icons moving from a “standard position across all posts of all types” on Reddit (web/iOS at least)… as a horizontal bar under every post or comment… to now a vertical panel on the far right. From a usability point of view changing this consistent behaviour is frustrating… and also worsened by not having enough contrast with the background. If there is any way to move it back (or have it be an option) it would be much better.
2.) When the vertical flick to dismiss feature is fixed/restored, would the team consider a double tap on the right side of the video as an option to seek forward 15s (vice versa on the left side)? The scrubber does work but is harder to control for quick easy gestures (eg seek back 15s to repeat that last key bit that you didn’t quite hear/catch.
Comment by Dreamland-Nomad at 03/08/2021 at 04:30 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Hey there Reddit. Not sure if you’re still reading/replying to these comments but I’d really like to offer my two cents to this experience as a senior UX designer (and redditor every day since 2015 on my other account)
First of all, I understand the need to place advertisements. That’s how you guys get paid to do the work you do, and that’s what keeps this platform up and running. We run ads on the app I work for. Video ads are a great opportunity to monetize, and I understand the **need** for a uniform player so you can iterate and ship quickly.
Thank you for fixing the comments issue. That was my biggest complaint. But there are a few more things I think are worth addressing in your next iterations. I may be speaking into the void, but I want to offer these user stories with the best of intentions.
If you read through this, thank you so much. I won’t pretend to know your current OKRs or goals, but it means a lot to me as a user to know we’re being heard.
