Official Reddit App for iOS Gains Chat Function, Live Comments, Theater Mode and More

The official app for social news and discussion site Reddit is receiving a major update today, introducing several new features and interface tweaks to allow the app to better compete with popular third-party apps like Apollo.

There's a new Theater Mode designed to let iOS users view GIFs, photos, and videos in full-screen in either portrait or landscape mode, and there is a new option to open links in Safari View Controller instead of using the native in-app browser.

Live comments and a new chat feature, which has been in beta testing on the main Reddit site, is launching in the iOS app starting today. Live comments allow breaking news and hot topics to be discussed in real time, while chat allows for one to one conversations for those who opt into the beta test.

"Flair," used as a sort of informational label for identifying posts on Reddit, can now be added on mobile, and a cake icon will be displayed on a user's "cake day," aka the anniversary of when a person first joined Reddit. In-feed usernames for original posters will make it more clear who first shared content on the site.

For moderators, there's a new "Mod Mode" that can be switched on to allow moderators to approve, remove, and flag content on the site, and a "Mod Queue" feature allows for easier management of large subreddits. There's access to Modmail 2 and beta moderator features. Banning, muting, and other existing actions have been simplified.

Today's update to the Reddit app is the most significant update it's seen since the company took over Alien Blue and then retired it in favor of an official Reddit app back in April of 2016.

Reddit told TechCrunch that it is focusing more on the mobile experience as many younger Reddit users prefer mobile devices. 58 percent of Reddit users that are 18 to 34 prefer to use mobile web and mobile apps for viewing the site.

Reddit is now up to 330 million monthly active users, with over 9 million posts per month.

Reddit can be downloaded from the iOS App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Update: The new version of Reddit is now live in the App Store.