We wanted to acknowledge that “discover channels” in the chat tab is being reworked and should be up and running in the near future. Sorry for the inconvenience.
This week we want to chat about desktop moderation features for chat channels and what is available for folks, plus what we are planning to roll out soon!
The following moderation features are currently available on desktop web (in the chat tab):
Banning individual users from channels
Banning individual users from subreddit
Ability to accept and remove messages
When hovering over content - the check icon accepts content and the icon with the circle with a slash through it removes content
Ability to report messages - the flag icon when hovering over content
Ability to pin message - the thumbtack icon when hovering over content you, a host, or a mod has made
Here’s what’s coming to desktop moderation in the near future:
Participation requirements
Banned content
Phrases and words, Images, GIFs, Stickers and URLs
Banned account lists
Mod tools parity with mobile clients
Mods can distinguish their messages as mod
Mods can see a list of all reported messages, and easily action them
Mods can still see removed messages
Mods can see a member list + whitelist + ban users
Mods can automatically ban users (temporarily/permanently) who attempt to post banned content
And a little bit more!
What we heard this week
The need for more desktop moderation features (as detailed above, more coming soon)
The want to turn off reactions for a chat channel
Some folks mentioned that adding the ability to search within the chat tab, as well as in the chat channels, will help unlock some pain points for discovery as well as moderation
The want for an ability to add a removal reason for removed content
Chat channels spotlight
Chat Channels are continuing to make huge waves across Reddit. We saw r/illegallysmolcats turn on their chat channel to talk about smol cats of the illegal variety. In addition, we saw a variety of chat channels from geo based ones like r/Sacramento and r/Kerala to another HouseWife chat channel in r/RHOP, and even some political discussion in r/Congress where you can get the latest happenings in the U.S. senate and house.
If you or your subreddit is interested in turning a chat channel on in your community please use this form. We got more than 40 requests last week and enabled it for most of them!
u/Togapr33 here with a short but useful chat channel update for you all.
Community Chat Channels Creation via Mod Tools
Community Chat Channels always start with moderators. And it just so happens that there is a sizable chunk of moderators that use Reddit’s desktop client over our apps to run their communities.
So to better meet mods where you are at, we are ramping up a new feature where community chat channels can be created and managed via mod tools – with its very own section – to all communities that already have chat channels enabled.
In mod tools, below “automations”, moderators can click or tap on chat channels. From here, mods can create new chat channels and access all the current chat channel moderator tools like participation requirements, blocked content, profanity filters, and more.
We hope you enjoy this update. There’s more on the way!
Please let us know in the comments what you think. If you or your subreddit are interested in turning on a chat channel in your community, but don’t have it enabled yet, please fill out this form.
tl;dr – We've launched new features and improvements in Reddit Chat to give you better control, a smoother experience, and fewer distractions. Think easier navigation, accessibility upgrades, and smarter tools to help you stay on top of your chats.
Over the last few months, we’ve been rolling out changes aimed at making Reddit Chat work better for how you use it. Whether you're chatting in a few trusted channels or bouncing between multiple convos, this update is all about streamlining your experience—with more control, smarter filters, and a more flexible interface.
Now available: better ways to manage your chats and stay organized
Filtering, viewing unreads, and marking all as read
If your inbox is a mix of different chat types—or just gets busy—we’ve made it easier to stay caught up:
Filter by chat type: direct chats, group chats, or chat channels.
Use the unread filter to quickly scan what you’ve missed.
Mark chats as read in just a couple of clicks
Pinned chats
Got a few go-to chats you check constantly? You can now pin up to five of them to the top of your chat list so they’re always easy to find, no matter what else rolls in.
To pin a chat on the iOS and Android app, swipe right on any conversation in your chat list and tap Pin. To unpin, swipe right and tap Unpin.
Spam inbox
We’ve added a smarter way to keep unwanted messages out of your way. Chat requests that look spammy or suspicious will now go to a separate “Additional Requests” folder.
If you’ve added people to your chat allowlist (more on this below), their requests will always land in your main inbox. This update works alongside Reddit’s abuse detection efforts to cut down on clutter and keep your chats cleaner.
User experience improvements
We’ve made a handful of tweaks to improve how things feel in chat—especially on web:
The chat window is now resizable on the updated reddit.com site, so you can adjust it to your space and workflow. (Pro tip: you can always open chat in its own window by visiting chat.reddit.com)
Every message now has a permanent link. Just hover (or long-press on mobile) to grab a direct link and share any message easily.
Accessibility improvements on web
We’re continuing to improve accessibility across Reddit, including Chat. Recent upgrades include:
Better screen reader support with more helpful, descriptive labels.
Improved keyboard navigation in both the inbox and chat views, including arrow key support for navigating lists and grids.
What’s new: more control over who can send you chat requests
You’ve now got more precise control over who can send you chat requests. In addition to the standard options like “everyone” or “nobody,” you can now set up a personal allowlist—so only people you’ve added can start new chats with you.
Some things to know:
Admins and moderators using Mod Mail can still message you, even with restricted settings.
If you’ve already created an allowlist for private messages, we’ll automatically carry it over to your chat settings.
You can manage your list any time in your privacy settings. These controls will be fully available across web and native apps by the end of the week.
What’s been fixed: chat badging on old Reddit
We’ve fixed the bug affecting chat badging on old Reddit, along with other behind-the-scenes performance issues to keep things running more smoothly.
What’s ahead
We’ve got more cool stuff on the way — including support for longer messages in chat, persistent messaging (yep, chats you can’t delete), image gallery views, and more.
In the meantime, if you’ve got thoughts on these updates or ideas for what we should build next, we’re all ears!
I have a ton of updates to share with you all about what we learned from the User Chat Channels pilot, including what we plan to build based on your feedback (in tandem with our observations), and what you can expect from this subreddit moving forward.
But first things first - we’d like to say a massive thank you for testing and providing feedback for the chat channels product!
Whether you are a moderator who has been testing this product in your community since spring of last year, or a Redditor who is testing our newer user chat channels beta, we can’t thank you enough for your time, patience, and willingness to create and facilitate real-time conversations on Reddit. We’ve come a looooong way since our first prototype with subreddits, and we’re working on making chat channels better alongside you - the community.
Pilot test wrap up + future updates
That said, we’re wrapping up the pilot testing phase for user chat channels so that we can focus on building new Chat features and improving performance.
You can expect the following updates in this subreddit:
Weekly Friday Feedback posts: every Friday, we’ll address feedback you’ve shared either in this subreddit’s ‘feedback’ chat channel on mobile or in post and comments, and answer any support questions. Stay tuned for this Friday’s post, where we’ll be asking you to vote on feature requests you have all shared throughout the pilot.
Product launches and updates: as we release new features, we’ll post updates in this space.
Although the pilot test phase is over, you can continue running your chat channels! If you are unable to continue managing your channel or you need extra hands with moderation, you can add hosts to help.To do so: tap the ‘>’ icon next to your channel name > select ‘manage channel’ > select ‘add hosts’ > search for a user or select from the recent users list below
Please note that chat channels that are not actively being moderated will be auto-deleted.
What we learned from the pilot test
This is our favorite part about running pilots - we receive lots of helpful feedback. The main themes we identified are:
Moderation needs more automation (i.e. message removals, hiding messages, etc.)
Inappropriate images and spam from bad actors ruin and interrupt the experience for everyone
Performance needs improvement (i.e. lag, bugginess, and overheating issues)
Here is some of the direct feedback you all shared:
What worked?
Discoverability
Fun, engaging, and good conversation
Chat participants enjoy the feature
Easiness for people to start chatting
What didn’t work?
Removing messages is too manual of a process
No ability to see what mod actions were taken
Dealing with inappropriate images
Spam
Lack of distinguishing mods or hosts
Performance issues (lag, overheating)
Need more tools to effectively moderate
What we are building (roadmap)
Based on the feedback shared, we’re currently working on features and improvements to make chat channels moderation and performance better.
Recently released features:
Violent images are now blocked from sending
User chat channels: all violent images are blocked
Subreddit chat channels: all violent images are blocked in SFW subreddits (i.e. subreddits not marked as NSFW); violent images are blurred in all other subreddits according to user individual settings
Private individual and group chats: violent images are blurred according to user settings
User chat channel creators, hosts, and mods are exempt from the "banned content" filter settings
Changing participation requirements no longer kicks out existing participants
Muting threads is now available on iOS and Android for all users
Features coming soon:
Mods can remove all messages from a user when banning them
Mods can distinguish their messages as mod
Show who added reactions
Automatically collapse messages that our systems detect as potentially toxic
Automatically collapse messages reported multiple times by different users
See a list of threads you've participated in
User created chat channels featured in the home feed
Allow mods/hosts to turn off Content Types (image, gif, sticker)
Mods can receive notifications when messages are reported
Features coming later:
Mods can see a list of all reported messages, and easily action them
User flair support
Mods can still see removed messages
Mods can automatically ban users (temporarily/permanently) who attempt to post banned content
*Keep in mind that nothing here is guaranteed. The features, timing, and priorities in this list might change over time — but rest assured we’re doing our best to improve your experience.
Next steps
As mentioned, we’ll be heads down building new features based on your feedback, making improvements, and writing new Help Center articles.
In the meantime, keep chatting! Continue to share any feedback you may have in the ‘feedback’ chat channel or in a post.
For urgent issues (i.e. Reddit content policy violations), please send a modmail so that we can investigate and address it.
Lastly, stay tuned to this space for weekly posts and product launches.
To apply for Chat Channels in your community, fill out this form.
Finally, IF your community has been approved and activated, read more below on how you set up your channel (or this mod article).
We’ve noticed that a lot of folks keep asking how to sign up and turn on Chat Channels for their communities, so here we are.
If you or your community are interested in participating in Chat Channels, please fill out this form. Our community team will evaluate whether you or your community are a fit for Chat Channels.
As for setting up Chat Channels, here is a full set up guide for Chat Channels (will reshare below as well). Additionally, you can follow this mod article to create your public chat channel.
The Four Steps to Setting Up Chat Channels
Step 1: Mod permissions
Visit mod tools
Select ‘Moderators’ under User Management
Enter the username
Select Channel Management to allow a mod to create, edit, and delete chat channels
Select Channel Moderation to enable a moderator to manage chat channel settings, access the chat mod queue, action on chat content, access mod notes, and ban and mute users.
Step 2: Create chat channels
Visit mod tools
Select ‘Channels’
Select ‘Create Channel’
Name the channel and select public or moderators-only (private)
We recommend setting non-moderator channels to ‘public’ to chat with your community
Step 3: Set up who can participate in your chat channels
Visit mod tools
Select ‘Chat Crowd Control’
Select the member requirements you’d like for your channel
We recommend starting with an ‘open chat’ and adjusting as needed to test out the various control levels
Step 4: Pin a message in your chat(s) to share:
A welcome messages to your members
Rules or important updates
Conversation starters or keeping folks on topic
To pin a message, long press on a message you've sent and select "Pin message".
Best practices
Share with your community!
Share with your community in a stickied post that you are part of a pilot program and you’re testing chat channels. Let users know that you’ll be sharing feedback directly with the Reddit Chat team, and encourage them to share any thoughts they have. We’d love to hear how your communities are responding to the features and what we’ll ship along the way!
We would recommend letting them know that this is for the latest versions of the iOS and Android apps at this time. We are also launching a small holdout group, which means some users won’t be able to see chat channels.
Check out the below section for a template!
Deciding topics for your channels
We recommend starting with one channel and expanding to more as needed.
Every subreddit communicates differently, and chat channels are a great way for users to talk to each other in real-time and more in-depth on specific topics. Consider what themes come up a lot in your subreddit where you think members would like to talk in more detail.
A tickets channel in a folk music community where users can chat about availability to a sold-out show
A S2E9 channel in a reality tv show community to discuss and react to the latest episode
A breakingnews channel in a small town community for local residents to get live updates on the latest events
Start chatting: get the conversation going!
Start the conversation and set the tone by sending a message in your channel to get the chat going. Folks are usually more likely to start chatting when there is a prompt, question, or something to react to! Here are some examples:
Share a prompt about what you think will happen in an upcoming episode premiere
Send a message about your predictions for who would win a fight or tournament
Send a message with a question or advice you’d like to get some help on
Let your community know of any breaking news you saw or heard in your neighborhood
Template: Letting your community now about chat channels
Post title: Sub Update: participating in a Reddit chat channels pilot test
Content:
Hey everyone,
Our little corner of the internet [SUBREDDIT NAME] is participating in an official Reddit pilot test for a new feature called chat channels, which are spaces where redditors can have real-time conversations on different topics! The feature is only available on the iOS and Android apps at this time.
As a part of the pilot, we get early access to the prototype feature and we will be sharing feedback, feature requests, and suggestions directly with the Reddit Chat team on how they can make chat channels better. We’ll also get visibility into the roadmap to see what features are coming next.
If you use the app to view this sub, you’ll start seeing channels that we’ve set up and you’ll be able to chat in these spaces.
If you can’t see it, try updating your app to the latest version, or force-closing and reopening the app. If that still doesn’t work, it’s not rolled out to everyone yet, but it will be soon.
Here’s a list of our channels!
[If you have a list of chat channels set up, share them here and their purpose. Ex. ‘Breaking news’ is for chatting about the latest information going on in the neighborhood]
If you have any questions, let us know in the comments!
Troubleshooting
Why are some users reporting that they can’t see chat channels?
A few potential reasons:
They might not be using the official Reddit mobile app (Android and iOS supported).
They might not have updated their app to the latest version.
We’re launching this with a small holdout group, which means some users won’t be able to see chat channels.
Why aren’t chats loading on Android?
This is a known bug that we’ll fix. In the meantime, go back and try to load it again.
Why isn’t chat mod queue loading?
This is a known bug that we’ll fix. In the meantime, restarting your app might resolve this.
Hey all, we really appreciate the feedback you share with us, so to give you some insight into how your feedback is shaping the roadmap, below is a list of features we're working on.
Note: we edit this post every month with the latest updates.
Recently released features (most recent at top):
[Android] Show who added reactions
Profanity filters (swearing, sexual language, and insults)
Mods can still see removed messages
Increased channel member limit from 30k to 100k
Mod tools on desktop (participation requirements, banned content)
Mods can distinguish their messages as mod
Channel descriptions for subreddit chat channels
Banned users can no longer access chat channels
"Not appropriate for this channel" report reason
Mods can see a list of all reported messages, and easily action them
Mods can disable sending of images/gifs/stickers
Mods can receive notifications when messages are reported
See a list of threads you've participated in
Automatically collapse messages that our systems detect as potentially offensive
[web + iOS] Show who added reactions
Mods can remove all messages from a user when banning them
Mods can see a list of banned users
Changing participation requirements no longer kicks out existing participants
Mods are exempt from the "banned content" filter
Violent images are blocked from sending
Features coming soon:
Mods can see a member list + whitelist + ban users
Transfer channel ownership
Mod log
Features coming later:
User flair support
Mods can automatically ban users (temporarily/permanently) who attempt to post banned content
Automatically collapse messages reported multiple times by different users
Search for channels
Features considered for much later:
Standard emoji set support
Edit your messages
Custom emoji support
Search inside your chats
Bot support
Dev platform integration
If you have any other feedback or feature ideas, please share them below and upvote ones you agree with. Examples of specific problems you’re having, or how something could help your experience are encouraged too.
Keep in mind that nothing here is guaranteed. The features, timing, and priorities in this list might change over time — but rest assured we’re doing our best to improve your experience.
u/Togap33 here with two exciting chat channel updates for you all.
Community Chat Channels are Easier to Set Up and Find on Desktop Web
A lot of chatters and moderators are on desktop and we want to meet you all there when it comes to chat channels. So our first update is that you all can now create chat channels and easily manage and discover them on desktop (more desktop moderation tools are also coming soon so be on the lookout).
This means that community chat channels will also be discoverable for redditors in your subreddits via a chat channels widget on the right side rail. This will help more chatters come into your community’s chat channels and for mods to more easily discuss in their mod-only chat channels. Something of note – mod-only chat channels will only be visible to mods and users won’t be able to see them. The placement of the chat channel widget is something we’re potentially thinking about reordering if needed.
In addition, communities who are eligible for chat channels will now see a dismissible banner at the top of their community page - making it super simple to see your mod-only chat channels, and set up a public chat channels in less steps. The dismissible banner will give moderators a shortcut in setting up a community chat channel right from their subreddit.
We are rolling community chat channels desktop web creation starting this week. In the following days and weeks we will ramp it up to more and more communities.
A Chat New Safety Feature
We recently launched a safety experience that prevents redditors from sending images or media in private 1:1 chat invites until the chat invite has been accepted. Once the invite is accepted, images can be sent - and everything goes back to normal. This is now live on all Reddit platforms.
Once again, thank you to all the mods and redditors who shared feedback on the chat experience. Happy chatting and let us know what you think in the comments below!
It’s been a busy week for chat channels and we’ve got another update for you.
As of September 12, new user chat channel creation will be paused. This means that no one will be able to make a new user chat channel.
Existing user chat channels, subreddit chat channel creation, and subreddit chat channels won’t be impacted.
The TL;DR is that users are excited to create chat channels. However, the downside is that with so much interest in creating channels, we’re pausing to make sure our bad activity detection and automation tools are sufficient to identify and stop bad actors that are breaking our content policies. Until then, we’re halting user chat channel creation to 0%.
Hope you all understand and we’ll keep you updated on user chat channel creation.
u/Togapr33 here with some much asked for product updates on chat channels.
We Added Rate Limits to Reduce Report Button Abuse
Over the course of the many months we saw repeated anecdotes about mods seeing a ton of false reports in their chat channels, and them having to triage through these reports. We heard you, and have added rate limits to reduce the number of users abusing the report button in your chat channels.
This is launched and should be live as of this post!
Subreddit Chat Channel Mod Events Are Now in Mod Log
Many of you told us that the moderation look and feel of subreddit chat channels was too different from what you all see in your subreddits’ posts and comments. So to help bridge this gap, we have made it so moderators can now see all chat channel related mod-actions displayed in the subreddit mod log, so they can go through what happened in their chat channel, and have the full picture of their community at all times.
You can filter the mod log for just chat actions and view everything!
This will be launching soon to all subreddit chat channels, so be on the lookout.
A Better Unmoderated Chat Channel Experience
We had a not so great unmoderated chat channel experience where unmoderated channels would get frozen without warning, and moderators/hosts wouldn't get notified as to what was happening. So we added push and email notification that alerts moderators and hosts 15 days before a chat channel is deactivated. In addition, once a moderator or host goes to view a frozen channel it is reactivated immediately.
This will also be launching this month.
Hope you all enjoy these updates. Happy chatting and keep letting us know what is and isn’t working for you.
u/judy-funnie here with some exciting chat channels updates rolling out soon! We truly appreciate all of your feedback throughout this phase that we used directly for these improvements. Let’s get on to the updates.
Banned redditors can no longer view your chat channels
We heard you loud and clear that banning redditors from messaging and reacting in your chat channels wasn’t enough. Banned people were able to harass other members via DMs and direct chats because they could still view the channels. This was a safety concern and added more burden for you all as mods and hosts.
Soon, redditors you ban from your chat channels will longer view the channel. Below is what someone will see if they are banned from a channel.
Important note: currently, banned people are banned from engagement but aren’t removed as members in a chat channel. As a result of this change, they will be removed as members. That said, you may see a change in the number of members in your channel.
Distinguish as a mod or host on mobile
Coming soon, you can now choose to distinguish yourself as a mod or a host in your chat channel. When accessing your moderation tools (by long-pressing on a message), you’ll now see the option to “distinguish as mod” for chat channels in subreddits, or “distinguish as host” for chat channels by individual redditors.
Members can now report messages as “not appropriate for this channel”
For many user chat channels, people join for specific topics or interests and expect for the conversation to be relevant. Sometimes, we just don’t want to see messages about a person’s relationship woes in a dog channel. We’re just here to talk about dogs. However, the message isn’t necessarily a site policy violation, harassment, or spam.
Now, members can report “not appropriate for this channel” so that people don’t report benign content as something more serious.
We’ll be rolling out these features in the coming weeks.
Let us know in the comments how these tools are helping you manage your channels! Just as we are eager to hear your feedback, we also want to know how these improvements impact your chat channels experience.
We’re updating the name of this subreddit to r/redditchat! Why? Because this space is evolving to cover all things Reddit Chat—not just chat channels.
Going forward, this will be the go-to spot for updates across the entire Reddit Chat experience (direct messages, group chats, and chat channels), including new features and key product changes.
This change will be official starting May 15th, 2025. Thanks for being part of the journey—more to come soon!
Thanks again for your reports and patience. Your chat channels that disappeared should now be up and running again.
All information and activity within your channels should be restored. This includes:
Name and description
All users including mods and hosts
Settings
Messages
If you are mod who has created a chat channel in your community that has the exact same name as the channel that disappeared in your community, it has not been restored.. This is because we have unique name constraints for chat channels in subreddits. I will reach out to the folks impacted by this.
If your restored channels are not working or appearing as expected, please let us know in the comments and we will investigate further.
u/udy-funnie here 👋. It’s been great getting to see you all introduce each other in the user-chat-channels-hub. Very excited to see your channels flourish soon.
Quick housekeeping: Some of the Reddit Chat team will be offline for the next few days due to the US Thanksgiving Holiday. We’ll resume answering any questions on Mon. November 27th.
Okay, back to chat channels!
For user chat channels, I wanted to share a reference guide all about how chat channels work, some designs, and how to set up your channel.
Product testing starts around December 5th, so I’ll be sure to give a refresh on all of the details at that time - but we’re super excited to share some of the details and designs with you now! Keep reading to see how it works.
How to set up a chat channel
Step 1: Create chat channels
Open the Reddit app on your mobile device and select the ‘Chat’ icon on the bottom navigation bar
Select the chat bubble icon on the top right corner of the screen
Select ‘Create a public chat channel’
Add a channel name
Must be between 3-30 characters
Only letters, numbers, spaces, underscores, or hyphens are allowed
Add keywords or topics - this will be a helpful signal for us to recommend your channel to other redditors that share the same interests
Add a brief description (up to 100 characters) - let others know they can expect from your channel
Next step - channel customization and management.
Step 2: Channel customization and management
Once you create your channel, you’ll see your channel screen with a welcome banner and options to manage your channel.
Select ‘Add a channel icon’ - you’ll have the option to take a photo or select a photo from the photo library on your mobile device
Select ‘manage channel’ to view some helpful tools
Participation requirements - Control who can participate in your channel. Reddit uses a variety of signals to determine platform standing for Redditors. You can choose: Open chat, Peak participation, General participation (recommended), Limited participation, and Heavily restricted. You also have the option to restrict 18+ (NSFW) accounts
Banned content - Restrict specific words or hyperlinks from being shared in your channel
Add hosts - Need some extra hands to help manage your channel? You can invite a user to help you moderate.
You can remove a host or a host can leave their moderation duties on their own
3. Select ‘Help people discover your channel’**
In the search bar, you can type some keywords relevant to your channel
Below, we’ll recommend relevant subreddits based on those keywords
You can select up to five related subreddits
**Important note: Members in the subreddits you choose will not be directly targeted. Rather, the keywords, topics, and subreddits you input are some of the signals our recommendation system will use to help users discover channels relevant to them.
In next week’s post, I’ll share in more detail about:
How you can report and ban users
How to pin a message to the top of your channel
How to select and remove co-hosts
Sharing and promoting your channels
How to leave a channel you’ve created
Other best practices to set up your channels for success
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments or, feel free to catch up in the chat channels in the sub on mobile. Stay tuned for more updates :)
If you are a redditor based in the US and observe Thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful holiday!
We’re here for our first Friday check-in post pilot program. One of the biggest pieces of feedback we received was you all voting on features requests. This also helps us understand which features are most needed and what we should prioritize.
Soooo without further ado – please vote for your favorite feature request (part 1 of many) in the poll below and let us know in the comments why. If you see something not in the poll today that you wish to see included for this product as a feature – please share in the comments.
We are going to be doing a series of polls based on feature requests we saw, so get your upvotes ready.
Hi all! As we start to enable chat channels in your subs, check out the below for a guide on getting started, tips, troubleshooting support, and a template to introduce chat channels to your community:
Your role in the pilot program — help shape the product
Give it your best effort to make chat channels successful in your community, and let us know how we can help. We can jump into your channels to chat, troubleshoot issues, or even help out with moderation from time to time.
In r/RedditChatChannels, share your feedback with us (bugs, suggestions, ideas) in the #feedback channel. We welcome your own feedback, plus feedback you want to pass on from your users or other mods.
Join the weekly town hall calls (every Wednesday for 4 weeks), where we’ll announce new updates, share upcoming features, and give you the floor in Q&A.
How to set up chat channels in your community
Step 1: Mod permissions
Visit mod tools
Select ‘Moderators’ under User Management
Enter the username
Select Channel Management to allow a mod to create, edit, and delete chat channels
Select Channel Moderation to enable a moderator to manage chat channel settings, access the chat mod queue, action on chat content, access mod notes, and ban and mute users.
Step 2: Create chat channels
Visit mod tools
Select ‘Channels’
Select ‘Create Channel’
Name the channel and select public or moderators-only (private)
We recommend setting non-moderator channels to ‘public’ to chat with your community
Step 3: Set up who can participate in your chat channels
Visit mod tools
Select ‘Chat Crowd Control’
Select the member requirements you’d like for your channel
We recommend starting with an ‘open chat’ and adjusting as needed to test out the various control levels
Step 4: Pin a message in your chat(s) to share:
A welcome messages to your members
Rules or important updates
Conversation starters or keeping folks on topic
To pin a message, long press on a message you've sent and select "Pin message".
Best practices
Share with your community!
Share with your community in a stickied post that you are part of a pilot program and you’re testing chat channels. Let users know that you’ll be sharing feedback directly with the Reddit Chat team, and encourage them to share any thoughts they have. We’d love to hear how your communities are responding to the features and what we’ll ship along the way!
We would recommend letting them know that this is for the latest versions of the iOS and Android apps at this time. We are also launching a small holdout group, which means some users won’t be able to see chat channels.
Check out the below section for a template!
Deciding topics for your channels
We recommend starting with one channel and expanding to more as needed.
Every subreddit communicates differently, and chat channels are a great way for users to talk to each other in real-time and more in-depth on specific topics. Consider what themes come up a lot in your subreddit where you think members would like to talk in more detail.
A tickets channel in a folk music community where users can chat about availability to a sold-out show
A S2E9 channel in a reality tv show community to discuss and react to the latest episode
A breakingnews channel in a small town community for local residents to get live updates on the latest events
Start chatting: get the conversation going!
Start the conversation and set the tone by sending a message in your channel to get the chat going. Folks are usually more likely to start chatting when there is a prompt, question, or something to react to! Here are some examples:
Share a prompt about what you think will happen in an upcoming episode premiere
Send a message about your predictions for who would win a fight or tournament
Send a message with a question or advice you’d like to get some help on
Let your community know of any breaking news you saw or heard in your neighborhood
Template: Letting your community now about chat channels
Post title: Sub Update: participating in a Reddit chat channels pilot test
Content:
Hey everyone,
Our little corner of the internet [SUBREDDIT NAME] is participating in an official Reddit pilot test for a new feature called chat channels, which are spaces where redditors can have real-time conversations on different topics! The feature is only available on the iOS and Android apps at this time.
As a part of the pilot, we get early access to the prototype feature and we will be sharing feedback, feature requests, and suggestions directly with the Reddit Chat team on how they can make chat channels better. We’ll also get visibility into the roadmap to see what features are coming next.
If you use the app to view this sub, you’ll start seeing channels that we’ve set up and you’ll be able to chat in these spaces.
If you can’t see it, try updating your app to the latest version, or force-closing and reopening the app. If that still doesn’t work, it’s not rolled out to everyone yet, but it will be soon.
Here’s a list of our channels!
[If you have a list of chat channels set up, share them here and their purpose. Ex. ‘Breaking news’ is for chatting about the latest information going on in the neighborhood]
If you have any questions, let us know in the comments!
Troubleshooting
Why are some users reporting that they can’t see chat channels?
A few potential reasons:
They might not be using the official Reddit mobile app (Android and iOS supported).
They might not have updated their app to the latest version.
We’re launching this with a small holdout group, which means some users won’t be able to see chat channels.
Why aren’t chats loading on Android?
This is a known bug that we’ll fix. In the meantime, go back and try to load it again.
Why isn’t chat mod queue loading?
This is a known bug that we’ll fix. In the meantime, restarting your app might resolve this.
Hi all, u/judy-funnie here with a product update called host mode and moderator mode!
The feature is slowly rolling out for mods and hosts over the next week, so if you don’t have it yet, it’s coming :)
Finding and actioning reported messages inside chat channels just became a lot easier, thanks to our new feature:
“Host mode” for chat channels run by individual redditors or “Moderator mode” for chat channels in communities. .
In host mode you can easily find all reported chat messages, with context inside your channel, and action them in one tap.
Here’s how it works:
If your channel has unreviewed reported messages, the next time you visit your channel you will see this banner at the top of the screen that tells you how many reports there are:
Tapping “Enter host mode” changes your timeline to host mode where:
Reported messages now show report reason(s), and one tap buttons to approve the message, remove the message, or ban the user.
Tapping the ⬇️ ⬆️ arrows jumps you to the next reported message to review.
You can stay in host mode, leave it at any time by tapping on the 3 dots in the banner, or by switch the toggle in channel settings:
As mentioned, host mode / moderator mode is slowly rolling out to you over the next week. If you have host mode / moderator mode enabled now, give it a try!
We’d love to hear your feedback on on the feature when you get the chance to try it out. Let us know in the comments!
The reason is that the relatively small community of ACTIVE chatters on reddit is becoming too spread out. There are too many channels, and more being created regularly.
Once a channel has too few active chatters, people lose interest. And I don't mean temporarily. What reddit has created is a chat feature that appears increasingly uninteresting to the participants. As people are spread out wider to more and more channels, they cease to be able to have a real time conversation. Replies are a minute apart.
This means that RCC are converting from Chat Rooms to Message Boards.
The trajectory we're headed for is that people will lose interest in Reddit Chat Channels altogether. They will come and see a wide galaxy full of dead and dying stars.
Your only hope of curbing this trend is:
Slow down the creation of new channels
Allow channels to merge in order to retain high engagement.
Remove channels that are not performing and migrate those members to more active channels. Reddit is already adding people to channels automatically so this shouldn't be an issue.
Otherwise Reddit Chat Channels will one day become barren and quiet, and your chances of reviving it as a feature will be low.
We know some users have been downvote and poop reaction spamming, and you have no recourse because it doesn't show who's doing it.
To solve this, in the short-term:
On Android and Web, the downvote and poop reactions have been temporarily removed. We're not removing any that already exist, so a user can still tap on a pre-existing downvote reaction and add another one.
On iOS, we were able to remove the poop but the downvote reaction is still there. We will be able to remove this in the app update that goes live next week. This also means user on versions older than next week's release will still have access to the downvote icon until they update (most iOS users update automatically within a few days of release).
In the near future: We will show you who added reactions, and let you ban users who are spamming them.
Last Friday, we intentionally disabled the "Remove all messages" option displayed when banning a user, after a bug was reported. The issue has been identified and fixed, and the feature should now be available again on all platforms.
My chat has been spammed with hundreds and hundreds of reports and my phone is being blown up with notifications. It's completely absurd that the chat owner can't see and ban who's weaponizing the reporting system.
3:17PM EST update: Hey all, we want to assure you that we are actively investigating the issue where some chat channels disappeared from the channels list. We appreciate your patience and will provide an update as soon as possible.
Reiterating, please refrain from creating additional chat channels with the same name as the channel(s) that disappeared.
Thanks for your understanding and patience.
Hi all, the Reddit Chat team is currently investigating an issue where some chat channels have disappeared.
In the meantime, we ask you to please refrain from creating additional chat channels with the same name as the channel(s) that disappeared. We'll keep you posted as soon as we have an update.
I'm becoming frustrated with the administration of reporting. In the channel Make Friends, our mod team gives warnings and coaching in the chat and we try to ban as few people as possible.
The problem is that almost all of our mods have been banned for 3-7 days at some point for coaching chatters. In fact I only know one who hasn't been.
Are the reddit Admins taking the mod role and context into consideration? It seems like this is being executed in a clumsy way, and there is little effort being put into understanding context and the role of the moderator.
