Instagrams Reels and Snapchats Spotlight are just a few of the many social media platforms that are looking to the TikTok boom as inspiration. Reddit, an online discussion forum, has made short-form video more prominent on its iOS app.Reddit says that most iOS users should place a button in their app to the right side of the search bar. When tapped, the button will display a stream of videos in a TikTok-like format. Users can comment, upvote and downvote videos, as well as the source of the video. Users can swipe up, just like TikTok to view another video. They can also feed content from related subreddits. If you subscribe to r/printmaking then you might see content from either r/pottery, or r/bookbinding.Reddit has been trying out this interface for the videos over the past year. This way of viewing Reddit videos used to be done by scrolling through your feed. Instead of promoting discovery of other communities and allowing for easy access, you had to tap on the video to view it. The first few videos that were recommended would all be from the same subreddit.Reddits' mission is to create community and belonging for everyone around the globe. Reddits video teams mission, according to a Reddit spokesperson, is to create community through video. They noted that our goal over the past year was to create a unified player and redesign the interface of the player to meet the expectations of users, both new and old, when it comes to in-app video players, including commenting, viewing, engaging, discovering and creating new communities and content through video.Reddit does not yet know when this feature will be available to everyone. However, it confirmed that the icon was first introduced to some users in July and continues to roll out to nearly all iOS users. Reddit signals a growing interest in short-form video by displaying a wider, but still personal, video feed on its home screen. In December 2020, Reddit acquired Dubsmash, a Brooklyn-via-Berlin-based TikTok competitor. Although the terms of the deals are not disclosed, Snap and Facebook reportedly expressed interest in the platform. It had 1 billion monthly visits in January 2020.Reddit declined comment to confirm whether its new video player uses an algorithm to encourage discovery of subreddits based upon user activity. Reddit spokeswoman however confirmed that Dubsmashs technology will be used by the company to develop future features, but not for this product.Reddit's native video platform was launched in 2017 and allows users to upload MOV and MP4 files. In August 2019, Reddit launched RPAN (Reddit Public Access Network), where users can livestream to select subreddits. The most popular livestreams on the platform are promoted through the network. Reddit hosts 100,000 active subreddits and attracts 50,000,000 daily active users.
