The Chronicles of Mobile Modmail: A New Dawn

https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/16uqnxz/the_chronicles_of_mobile_modmail_a_new_dawn/

created by lift_ticket83 on 28/09/2023 at 20:29 UTC*

0 upvotes, 27 top-level comments (showing 25)

Greetings, Mods and brave adventurers of Reddit

I’m back this week with an update about the improved mobile moderation experience on Reddit. Before we delve into this week's news, let’s take a look at launches from the past 12+ months.

Our journey began last summer when we provided mods with enhanced sorting capabilities[1] and introduced the User Mod Log & Mod Notes[2] on iOS and Android. These tools allowed mods to keep meticulous records and chart the history of their subreddits.
We enabled mobile moderators to use Removal Reasons[3], giving them the power to remove content as their mod team[4], and improved comment locking accessibility.[5]
We enhanced Modmail access[6] and made it easier for mods to share content context within their inboxes[7].
This summer, we launched Mobile Mod Insights[8], revamped the user profile card to be more [9]mod-centric, and recently introduced the Mobile Mod Log[10].
Lastly, we improved the mobile mod queue[11], allowed the reordering of removal reasons on iOS and Android platforms[12], and brought Community Rules Management[13] to mobile.

Now that we’re all caught up to speed, we can unveil what’s next: a new native mobile Modmail experience.

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/vnmpgo/mobile_removal_reasons_mod_queue_improvements/

2: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/v3g6y1/mod_notes_is_now_available_on_both_ios_and_android/

3: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/vnmpgo/mobile_removal_reasons_mod_queue_improvements/

4: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/wpy5c8/announcing_remove_as_a_subreddit/

5: https://new.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/za1dcs/mod_workflow_improvements_for_mod_queue_and/

6: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/za1dcs/mod_workflow_improvements_for_mod_queue_and/

7: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/12kxfd4/mobile_moderation_on_reddit/

8: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/14rgs5n/announcing_mod_insights_and_rule_management_on/

9: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/14ffovv/announcing_a_more_modcentric_user_profile_card/

10: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/149gyrl/announcing_mobile_mod_log_and_the_post_guidance/

11: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/142kh8s/improvement_to_the_mobile_mod_queue/

12: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/13vzawh/you_can_now_reorder_removal_reasons_within_our/

13: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/14rgs5n/announcing_mod_insights_and_rule_management_on/

*Native mobile modmail**

In the past, Modmail dwelled within a clunky “web view” on mobile, plagued by slow loading times and an inefficient interface. Times are about to change though. Our product team has forged a new native modmail experience tailored exclusively for mobile moderators. **These enhancements debut on Android this week and will arrive on iOS in October.** Prepare for:

**Inbox:** Mods can easily access their inbox and have messages quickly loaded within it. Mods can do this by accessing Modmail within the community drawer (which filters Modmail by all communities) or via a specific subreddit’s mod tools (which filters Modmail by that specific community).
**Scanability:** Mods can quickly scan their inbox and understand the state of each message. Unread messages will appear in bold displaying the username, timestamp, and subject line. Replied messages will appear and show the time and date of the last message sent. Highlighted messages will show a star by the username.
**Long press to more easily take actions:** Long pressing on a message will open a menu so mods can take the following actions - Archive/Unarchive, Copy Link, Highlight/Unhighlight, Mark as Read/Unread, Filter as harassment. Long pressing on the user/community avatar to toggle bulk select mode (available from all folders).
**Search:** To search, input your search criteria in the search box and tap the “return”/”enter” button on your keyboard to begin the search.
**Swipe functionality:** Swipe from the left edge of the screen to the right on a message to archive the message. Swipe from the right edge of the screen to the left on a message to mark the message as read/unread.
**Filtering:** Mods can filter their Modmail to show all mail or just specific subreddits. They can additionally filter their Modmail by unread, recent, user, and mod.
**Folders:** Mods can filter between various folders by tapping the folder button. Swiping on a message from the Archived folder unarchives the message and sends it back into the Inbox.
**Message thread:** Tapping on a message will open the message thread. Previous mod actions taken by a mod will display along with a time stamp. Similar to the desktop experience, mods will be able to respond to a message as themself or from the mod team. They’ll also be able to compose private notes to other mods.

https://i.redd.it/406gssrub2rb1.gif

*What’s next?**

This marks the beginning of our mobile modmail journey, and the upcoming possibilities are boundless. We're currently focused on improving the user summary card and plan to include more information on recent posts and comments as well as ban status. We’ll also be updating the mute user functionality across the app so you’ll be able to specify duration no matter where you decide to mute a user from. Further on down the road, we’d like to incorporate Modmail macros into this experience. See below for our early designs of these feature enhancements:

Early design of the user summary card

Early design of Modmail macros

Once you've had a chance to explore, we'd love to hear your thoughts on potential improvements you'd like to see us incorporate. Your feedback will help shape the future of this feature. Together, we want to craft the ideal modmail experience.

We’re also in the process of revamping the mobile mod queue experience. We intend to launch this feature later this year.

*A quick thank you.**

Over the past month we’ve had a wide variety of mods help us QA and test this feature. Their feedback and partnership helped us identify and troubleshoot bugs, call out areas of improvement, and provide us with some excellent ideas that we look forward to incorporating down the road. To all those who lent their time and expertise, we extend our deepest gratitude. Your support and partnership have been instrumental in helping us launch this feature.

Should you harbor any queries or wish to impart your insights, do not hesitate to reveal your thoughts in the comments below.

Comments

Comment by SmurfyX at 28/09/2023 at 21:32 UTC

75 upvotes, 2 direct replies

I feel like I physically cannot read any more corporate written language. I see the word "experience" to somehow describe clicking a link and it's like I just stop being able to process words all together. I think my brain is trying to save me.

Comment by THEDARKKCHILD at 28/09/2023 at 21:28 UTC

49 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Why remove the mod mail access in the notifications sections? It was fast to go to mod mail that way

Comment by PaulJP at 28/09/2023 at 22:08 UTC

25 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Any chance we can turn *off* swipe actions? (Play Store doesn't have the update available for me yet so I can't tell.)

I typically turn swipe actions off in messaging/mail apps. Vertically swiping through a long list of stuff will sometimes get just enough horizontal movement to falsely trigger the swipe action, then I need to dig through to find whatever it was that the app just archived/deleted/did something to.

The Outlook app seems like a solid design to look to for the feature. It allows changing swipes to a variety of actions, like flagging, archiving, ..., or "none" to disable. For those that use swipe actions it could fit well with the macros coming up too - "swipe right to [run macro A], swipe left to [run macro B]".

Comment by j1ggy at 29/09/2023 at 03:32 UTC

26 upvotes, 1 direct replies

We need mute options higher than 28 days to stop mod harassment.

Comment by amireallyreal at 29/09/2023 at 14:57 UTC

8 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Recent posts and comments used to show the recent posts and comments *pertaining to the sub*. Now it just seems to direct to the user profile and all their posts and comments on all of reddit, rendering it next to useless when a mod is trying to check the activity of a user on their sub specifically, especially a prolific one. Please find a way to fix this so it displays the information it used to. This was an invaluable resource that has been eliminated without warning.

It is also far too easy to accidentally archive things with swipe actions. Having already accidentally archived numerous things and having to undo it, this is not an accessible change to individuals with motor difficulties, so an easy way to turn this function off is necessary.

Comment by [deleted] at 02/10/2023 at 13:42 UTC

9 upvotes, 0 direct replies

This new modmail is awful and slow to load, no easy way to view previous modmail messages either from a user or quickly link to their last comments in the sub without crawling through their profile. Cant use any of the old search functions either because you broke the APIs for those.

How did you move and update the look and make it work worse and still have less features than the old third party apps.

Comment by Whisgo at 30/09/2023 at 21:18 UTC

7 upvotes, 1 direct replies

I am no longer able to see a history of previous modmails to review history of violations with links to take me to those mails. Sorting through the mod actions in the mod log is not sufficient enough for us to review past history to determine if any further actions should be taken...

I did my best to slog through the official mobile reddit app to moderate prior to this since you KILLED 3rd party apps. This update has made it impossible for me to moderate effectively via mobile. I am not going to manually search for a username in the modmail search to review these..

Comment by missspiritualtramp at 29/09/2023 at 19:14 UTC

5 upvotes, 0 direct replies

In the app today I am not only unable to perform mod duties but I'm not even able to stay subscribed to the subreddit.

Assuming that's just a random bug as I am still subscribed and modded when viewing on desktop and mobile browser. Is anyone else having this issue today?

Comment by Zavodskoy at 28/09/2023 at 22:29 UTC

18 upvotes, 0 direct replies

So you're making modmail more awkward to access?

Comment by TwistedWitch at 28/09/2023 at 20:51 UTC

16 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Speaking of inbox stuff. Any chance of the ability to disable inbox replies on mobile posts? Cause right now it's impossible at any stage of the process.

Comment by Empyrealist at 29/09/2023 at 17:53 UTC

11 upvotes, 0 direct replies

*A quick no thank you.**

All of this should have been done long before you did what you did. All of "This marks the beginning of ..." something that should have started a decade ago. The upcoming possibilities are absolutely finite, as are the people willing to moderate.

Save the corpo speak for the masses. This is unbelievably patronizing.

Comment by RJFerret at 29/09/2023 at 15:44 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

That app doesn't run on all devices, so unless it's a mobile *web* feature, waste of time as it can't be used.

Comment by FinchMandala at 11/10/2023 at 18:03 UTC

4 upvotes, 0 direct replies

The "new" way doesn't even load on my phone so I have to access the previous way through Chrome's desktop function on said phone. Well, it loaded once. Wouldn't allow my mods to discuss among themselves on a member's modmail privately.

Muting someone for longer than a month would be great because my mods have been exposed to long-term abuse by people who can't take no for an answer.

And as an aside, I reported something on an unrelated sub for breaking their rules and I got an official Reddit warning for abusing the report button. What on Earth was that about?

Comment by carrotcypher at 28/09/2023 at 23:26 UTC

9 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Awesome, much appreciated. One thing that is still sorely lacking is the ability to restrict new mods from viewing past modmail, or permanently delete mod mail (even if it means 30 day delay like a trash folder on most email providers).

This is important as a lot of the time modmail contains sensitive information, and adding a new mod is always a gamble. If I r/redditrequest some subreddit tomorrow, I’ll be able to look through all the previous modmail for example. Makes no sense.

Comment by SoyUwUBoy at 29/09/2023 at 02:20 UTC

3 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Is this live already for Android?

Comment by WizKvothe at 29/09/2023 at 03:18 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Well, I was waiting for this for quite a while now. Thanks for rolling this.

Although I do have a request to implement something in the user mod log of the app.

So, we have posts that gets filtered in our mod queue or get removed due to trigger from certain words configured in the automod. In these situations, user modmail us as why their post was removed?

Now, as a mod, we do review their post and find them okay but however when they ask what triggered the removal we have to check the sub reddit mod log and do the tedious work of finding that user's post in order to find which word triggered their post removal cuz ofcourse, in the user mod log, automod doesn't document the reason as what caused the removal of their post.

So, it would be really save us some time, if the user mod log can have automod describe why their particular post was removed? Like which word triggered their removal?

Not to mention, just to be sure, sometimes we actually need to scan the post to find the word that made automod remove the post to see if it's used in a proper context or not. And oh boy, scanning a lengthy post for a single word is really tough specially when you don't even know what word you need to scan. So, if user log has the feature I suggested then we can easily see that a certain post was removed because automod detected the "X" word in it. Hence, we can scan for that word in the post and approve or remove the post easily by understanding the context.

So, we need two things here:

1. The reason mentioned in the user mod log (one that is accessed by tapping on the username and one that is accessed via the modmail) as why automod removed their post.

2. The ability to look for a word in the post not just in the comments.

Also, can't wait for mod macros on mobile!

Comment by lampishthing at 29/09/2023 at 10:36 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Very very happy about the macros, thank you for this.

Comment by Sun_Beams at 29/09/2023 at 07:01 UTC

2 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Can we now ban from modmail? Or will it be a feature at some point?

Comment by AcrossTheNight at 28/09/2023 at 21:37 UTC

-15 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Looks good, thanks for the update!

Comment by HS007 at 05/10/2023 at 09:10 UTC

1 upvotes, 1 direct replies

The last update on play store is from 25th Sep. My app name says "Reddit:Made for India" so I don't know if that is an India specific version which doesn't have this update??

Comment by foreverinfinate at 06/10/2023 at 19:32 UTC*

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

The links to the offending content that is in the modmails to users for removals is no longer highlighted or clickable. It only hyperlinks the subreddit name.

Muting via mobile modmail now nolonger leaves a link to the modmail next to the users name on the muted tab on web.

Comment by czechtheboxes at 11/10/2023 at 17:11 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

You used to be able to toggle between private mod note and visible message while typing in modmail on mobile. What could possibly be the benefit of removing that? Now you have to delete your comment and completely back out of the modmail message to get the private mod note option again. It's incredibly annoying and very easy to accidentally send a mod discussion to a user or reveal which mod is responding. There is no reason to get rid of this convenient and useful feature, so why?

Comment by snaphunter at 11/10/2023 at 20:35 UTC

1 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Similar to the desktop experience, mods will be able to respond to a message as themself or from the mod team. **They’ll also be able to compose private notes to other mods.**

Either I'm being daft, or it's a UX failure, but how do I write a modmail note to other mods? Toggling the button on the left switches between "Reply as <COMMUNITY> mod team" and "Reply as <USERNAME>" but no "Create a private note" like on desktop.

Android 2023.40.0

Comment by IamAlso_u_grahvity at 25/10/2023 at 20:32 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Well, waking up today as a moderator was a real shitty experience. Considering throwing in the towel once and for all. Modmail is next to unusable. Those mods you say helped QA this feature were obviously in it for sabotage.

Comment by uppercasemad at 25/10/2023 at 22:19 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

How do I easily access past mod mails with the user I’m corresponding with?