Reddit Announces Major Update: Improved Sharing for Instagram Stories and Messaging Apps

On Tuesday, Reddit announced a significant update that includes new tools for sharing posts on other social media platforms and messaging apps. Previously, users had difficulty sharing posts they came across that they wanted to share with others or post elsewhere. The platform’s developers hope that these new tools will make it easier for users to share their favorite content.

The update is part of a larger effort to simplify the platform and increase user engagement. This comes after the platform had reportedly planned to charge for its API, which posed a risk to third-party clients such as Apollo.

The update brings four main changes to how Reddit users can share posts. Firstly, users can share content directly from the platform to Instagram Stories without having to take a screenshot or download the content. Secondly, there is an updated shared link preview for text posts that Redditors share through messaging services. The appearance of the shared post now includes a visual preview of the content, the subreddit name, and the total number of upvotes and comments.

The third new feature is a custom share sheet that shows Redditors their most frequently used sharing channels. This sheet appears when the user clicks on the share icon under a post, making it more convenient to share content without leaving Reddit. Finally, a one-tap screenshot-sharing feature enables users to share content without saving images to their devices. This means that they can link to the content rather than sending a screenshot.

In addition to these changes, Reddit aims to enhance the posting experience for publishers. The app will introduce a toolbox that simplifies the process of displaying Reddit content on other platforms. The toolbox features self-serve tooling that includes features such as displaying the predictable height of a post or comment, prominently showcasing the community that the content is from, and showing the total number of upvotes and comments. According to a press release, these features will make it easier for publishers to display Reddit content on their own platforms.