Reddit is testing its own verification mark and new accessibility features
After Twitter’s (now X) rollout of a new paid plan offering verification, other social media companies like Meta, LinkedIn, and Tumblr have tried to implement their own badges. Reddit is now joining the bandwagon by testing a new “official” badge.
The company said it is testing these labels with a small set of profiles as proof of authenticity. The label appears like a flair next to the username.
“This is currently only available to a *very* small (double-digit) number of profiles belonging to organizations with whom we already have existing relationships, and who are interested in engaging with Redditors and communities on our platform,” the company said in a post.
Image Credits: Reddit
Reddit clarified that the official label is only visible on its iOS and Android apps for now. The social network didn’t specify if there will be an application process or any charge attached to the verification when it opens up for other organizations or users.
The company is also rolling out a change to automod notifications. From now on, Reddit will run the moderator bot on a comment or a reply to check if it follows Reddit’s rules, and only send a notification to users if the post is not removed. This prevents some confusion from ghost notifications where users would click or tap on them to find that the post doesn’t exist anymore.
The promise of accessibility features
In a separate post, Reddit also outlined its roadmap to roll out accessibility features on its own apps. The company said that parts of the service, such as the left navigation menu, profile drawer, bottom tab bar (which includes buttons for creating a post, Chat and Inbox) Community page, post detail page, and Home & Popular feeds will be compatible with screen readers next month.
This is the company’s move to appease the community heavily protesting Reddit’s API changes last month, which forced many apps with good accessibility features to shut down. The company exempted accessibility-focused apps from paying for its API as long as they don’t have commercial intents. However, moderators were not happy with the functionality of those apps at the time.
Earlier this week, r/Blind moderators posted on the community that the Reddit app’s recent updates have made it worse for screen readers. Additionally, after announcing an accessibility feedback group, the company didn’t reach out to moderators who filled out the form.
With the latest announcement, a Reddit admin said that the company will start reaching out to people next week. u/MostlyBlindGamer, a moderator for r/Blind, complained that the company hasn’t held a feedback meeting for a month and it is sending “mixed signals.”
Given the massive changes to the platform in the last few months, users are still protesting them in whatever way possible. Last week, the community took to r/Place, an event where people collaboratively paint on a massive digital whiteboard on Reddit, to protest these changes.