Reddit reworks sharing from its apps and the look of link embeds for better social reach
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May 2023
Reddit's blog post today admits it "didn't make it easy" to share content like cool conversations and memes to other social platforms -- but now it's finally doing something about it. Reddit is enhancing link embeds for messaging apps and adding more sharing functions like sharing directly to Instagram stories right from Reddit's app.
If you've ever tried to share a Reddit link from the official app on, for instance, iMessage on an iPhone, you might recall it not having a particularly content-rich preview. Now the company is enhancing it with a more robust visual preview of the content, its subreddit name, and the number of upvotes and comments it has.
Third-party Reddit client apps have, for years, built out better ways to share content -- like how Apollo can create a threaded screenshot displaying however many replies you'd like -- but these don't include a link for the recipient that encourages them to visit Reddit.
Reddit's newfound prioritization of its own app and platform comes in hot as the world looks for the next best app to use as an information channel, adding these features built for Reddit's official mobile app on iOS and Android.
Even official Reddit app users have gotten into the habit of just screenshotting everything they want to share. But now Reddit will remind them another way to do it: with a pop-up notification inviting the user to share the link via the share sheet.
Reddit's focus on providing richer embeds also extends to content publishing platforms, like the one The Verge uses to bring you these articles, thanks to the company's release of a new embedding toolbox (PDF). Content from other social platforms like Twitter or YouTube has often been easier to embed on websites than Reddit links, but that may be changing.
It's particularly notable that the new tools and abilities also come just after Reddit's recent extensive overhaul of how it allows outsiders to handle its data. In a post on Reddit, the developer of Apollo called the changes "not necessarily for the worse in all cases, provided Reddit is reasonable," but said that based on discussions with the company, it doesn't plan to offer free API access for commercial third-party apps in the future.
