Reddit rolls out new features to enhance live audio experience

Reddit rolls out new features for Reddit Talk that enables live audio conversations. This includes a recording function, improving accessibility to web users, adding the ability to interact with text and emojis, and Live bar.

Last year, Reddit introduced Reddit Talk to assist moderators to hold live audio conversations in their communities. There has been an active growth in the percentage of daily listeners by 250%.

The platform has launched new features in order to boost its user engagement on the app. With the new update, listeners and hosts can reach out to a wider audience with recordings of past sessions. The recorded sessions have a playback bar that allows Reddit users to skip, pause or unpause, and fast-forward or rewind the recording.

The users can also access the Reddit Talk features via a Web browser. Reddit has also enabled commenting and emoji to heighten engagement in audio conversations. Live Bar will help the listeners to know more about live conversations happening.

Here's a walk-through of the new features.

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Recordings

If Redditors can't make it to a live Talk, the platform wants to make it easy to listen to past Talks on their own time. Starting today, when a Redditor visits a Reddit Talk post from a past live session, they will be able to listen to a recording of the conversation. The new feature includes a playback bar that enables users to skip to any timestamp, pause or unpause, and fast-forward or rewind 10 seconds at a time.

Web Experiences

The platform is also bringing Reddit Talk features previously reserved for their native app to web users. Now, anyone can listen to Talks and raise their hands to speak and moderators can mute speakers and remove them from the stage when using Reddit.com. Creating talks on the desktop is coming later this month.

Comments and Emojis

Redditors can now use text and emojis to actively participate in a Talk. Previously, users who were listening to a Talk were able to raise their hand to join the stage, but couldn’t comment in real-time. Enabling comments and emojis makes Talks easier to engage with, even without speaking.

Live Bar

The company heard from Redditors that it was hard to find live audio talks in their favorite communities. So, they are testing a live bar at the top of home feeds that highlights what Reddit Talks are happening, making it easier for Redditors to discover Reddit Talks in the communities they love.