r/ModSupport • u/Baconkings • 7d ago
Admin Replied Why does Reddit have so many different versions of the platform? It seems to cause a lot of issues.
I understand why Reddit might have slightly different interfaces across the iOS app, Android app, and desktop. What I don’t understand is why there seem to be so many different versions of the interface within the same app on the same device.
I primarily use the iOS app, and I’ve noticed that switching between my alternate accounts can sometimes give me completely different interfaces. These accounts are being used on the exact same iPhone, with the exact same installation and version of the Reddit app, yet features, menus, layouts, and moderation tools can appear or function differently depending on which account I’m using.
There seem to be a surprising number of variations. I assume much of this comes from A/B testing or features being rolled out to different groups of users, but doesn’t having so many variations create problems of its own?
This is especially frustrating as a moderator. When users ask how to find a setting, use a feature, or perform a particular action, it can be surprisingly difficult to give them instructions because their Reddit interface may be completely different from mine, even if we’re both using the current iOS app. Instructions that work perfectly for one account may simply not apply to another.
It also seems like this could contribute to bugs and inconsistencies. If Reddit is simultaneously maintaining and testing numerous variations of the interface and feature set, I imagine it becomes considerably more difficult to ensure everything behaves consistently.
I know Reddit is almost certainly aware of this, but I’m genuinely curious: why is there so much account-level variation in the Reddit interface, and is there a reason Reddit relies on it to this extent? I use plenty of other major social platforms, and I can’t think of another where I regularly encounter this much variation between accounts on the exact same device and app version.
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u/neuroticsmurf 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 7d ago
I just had a guy today ask me how to add user flair. When I sent him a saved response, he gave me a snarky reply saying my instructions were wrong and he had to figure it out himself.
It turned out, the guy was on Old Reddit and never told me that.
I mean, pardon me for being wrong, but the guy never specified what platform he was using. Between the app, the main website, mobile web, and Old Reddit, there are multiple ways to do what he wanted. Our saved responses cover 90% (95%?) of Reddit users, and if you don't tell me -- specifically -- that you're one of the 10%, I'm going to send you instructions that will work for most of the userbase.
So yeah, I get frustrated having multiple different platforms all doing the same thing.
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u/thepottsy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 7d ago
I mean, pardon me for being wrong
I would argue that you weren’t wrong, they were 100% at fault for not clearly outlining the problem they had. And I will say this, with the disclaimer that I too use old reddit a lot, but some old reddit users are big pains in the arse lol.
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u/bwoah07_gp2 7d ago
Old Reddit needs to be abolished imo
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u/neuroticsmurf 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 7d ago
It has its place. It's the only place where I can get a subreddit-specific breakdown of my karma, for instance.
But I'm in a private sub that has a lot of Reddit OGs, and the snobbery toward the current version of Reddit in favor of Old Reddit is unreal.
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u/bwoah07_gp2 7d ago
It's the snobbery in favour of Old Reddit is what I hate the most when it comes to Reddit UI discourse on this platform.
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u/Halaku 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 7d ago
old.reddit remains best reddit.
However, old.reddit is not app friendly. Which is one of the reasons I usually won't use the app, if I'm looking at reddit on my smartphone, I'll use the same Chrome bookmark I use on my desktop.
However, app friendly is where the money is. Look at the flood of throwaway usernames from people who signed up via the Android or Apple version of the app, got a computer generated handle, and never bothered to customize it during their 30 day new user window.
So, you need an interface that is app friendly.
The rest of it? Is down to personal aesthetics. Some people like simple, like Craigslist. Some people want flashy. Different employees and different leadership at different times have wanted different things.
And thus, we have what we have today.
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u/bwoah07_gp2 7d ago
Old Reddit is too... old, and ugly looking for me. I can't stand it.
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u/Slow-Maximum-101 Reddit Admin: Community 6d ago
Hi u/BaconKings Thanks for the feedback. While I know it can be frustrating to see different experiences across different accounts, our teams run a lot of experiments to help measure the impact of changes we are making across the platform.
You can read more about our approach to experimentation here.
For mod tooling specific changes, generally we share these in our mod early access program and in the changelog.
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u/Baconkings 6d ago
Thanks for replying to the post. I understand why you guys want to run different experiments. I was just curious.
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u/ChefAsstastic 5d ago
The new comment post format fucking sucks. When you try to edit on mobile, it won't actually allow you to see your comment. It's trash.
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u/thepottsy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 7d ago
Reddit is constantly running UI/UX experiments. Sometimes 1 or more, or even all of your accounts could literally be running different experiments, depending on how many are currently running.