FAQs

• When will I stop being able to send or receive PMs?
  • Starting at the end of March, we'll roll out these changes in phases over the next three months to ensure everything goes smoothly. Our aim is to complete the necessary migrations to inbox notifications and chat before we disable the ability to send or receive PMs. While technical delays are always a possibility, we’ll be able to provide a more specific timeline as we progress further in the process.
• Will I still be able to access my old PMs after PMs are disabled?
  • Your existing PMs will be accessible through a read-only archive viewer on the updatedreddit.com website. PMs will be non-replyable and users will be able to get a unique permalink for all of their historical messages.
• How long will my old PMs be accessible in the archive?
  • Archived PMs will be available for the foreseeable future.
• Can I opt out of Reddit admin notifications?
  • You will have the option to opt out of certain Reddit admin notifications, except for messages such as account action notices, content action notices, legal notices, and other critical account information. Additionally, we will provide extra settings to help you manage certain senders you have opted out from. We’ll provide more details in the next update.
• Will automoderator messages be in chat or in my inbox?
  • Automoderator messages will be sent as inbox notifications.
• Will we be able to link to a specific chat, as we do now with PMs?
  • Yes. All chat messages will have permanent links available
• How will I know that a chat message is coming from a Reddit admin?
  • Similar to mods, admins will be distinguished in chat so that users know who the message is coming from.
• Can you share specific examples of the a11y improvements?
  • As part of our ongoing accessibility improvements, we are prioritizing the following updates to enhance the user experience:
    • Keyboard Navigation: We've identified issues where users cannot access certain interactive elements, such as hover menu actions, or navigate through chat messages easily. We are working to modify these behaviors to ensure that all interactive elements are accessible and can be easily navigated between using the keyboard.
    • Screen Reader Support: We're enhancing support for screen readers to ensure that all labels are properly rendered and more descriptive, improving overall accessibility for users who rely on assistive technologies.
• I only use old Reddit. Will there be any UI changes that I should expect on old Reddit?
  • Old Reddit will receive small UI updates to allow users to access all information previously provided via PMs
  • New button to access the notifications inbox, which will badge if notifications are received
  • Chat button will badge if new chats are received
  • The PM UI on Old Reddit will be discontinued within the same timeframe from other platforms once the migration has been completed.

These changes reflect our commitment to building a more accessible and inclusive product for all redditors.

To make Reddit faster,

Old reddit is consistently faster than new reddit

simpler,

How is a live chat feature simpler to develop, maintain, or use than an asynchronous messaging system?

and easier to use,

Private messages - click on user -> send a private message

seems pretty easy.

we needed to unify our messaging platforms.

You never had to add messaging platforms in the first place

You should get rid of chat and just have messages. Chat is terrible, messages are great.

Why is it always the features users like that get removed while the ones nobody wants get promoted? How disconnected from reality is project management?

Reddit admin, "we still have too many users, what do we do about it?"

We've spent months talking to mods, developers, and users to ensure this migration works for everyone

I would love to hear from the mods and users whom assured you this works for them. 

Chat doesn't notify me of new messages when working via web, ever. I have to specifically open chat.reddit.com to see messages. Chat doesn't work on mobile, period, without the official dumpster fire of an app.

You aren't making things better, you are making things worse. I really hope "new" Digg pans out.

I don't want to fucking "chat" with anyone on this platform or any other. Ever. Can it be disabled? If not and people can pester me with stupid chat shit whether I want it or not, that's the end of Reddit for me.

Two years ago, I reported asecurity issue with Reddit Chats - removed users were still able to access full transcripts of mod group conversations even months after being removed. Worse, even deleted messages were stored and retrievable. This meant that private and potentially sensitive information, including AMA verification details, remained accessible long after it should have been deleted.

Today, Reddit is permanently replacing private messages with Chats. So the question remains: has this been fixed? Can removed users still access old group chats? Are deleted messages truly deleted? Has any security review been conducted to prevent leaks of sensitive data?

If this issue still persists, it raises serious concerns about data security and user privacy. Hoping for an official response.

So you're dropping the PM system everybody likes, and replacing it with the chat system nobody likes? It barely even works on old reddit. Which is the only way to properly interact with reddit.

The enshittification continues.

This is utterly awful, though that's to be expected.

Why is itso difficult for reddit management to understand that features users LIKE should STAY!

Itsreally not that hard. Stop screwing with things people already like, and stop forcing us into your terrible, sub-par replacements for god sake.

Reddit deleted literally every chat older than what, a year? Goodbye to ALL of that important information I can't access anymore. Goodbye to the chats I had with people who passed away, and I can't even read their messages anymore.

God this is shitty.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I couldn't imagine a scenario where I'm cool enough with any particular user towant to have a chat with; that shit is for friends and family, and I want neither of those people knowing who I am on reddit either.

The users here are largely just a faceless blob to me, even in the subs I frequent. Some names might standout over time, but I'm not PMing these people, let alone "chatting" with them.

BOOOOOO.

Every time there's a new post from/u/redditproductteam the product gets worse.

see our post on the mod subs

I already get a feeling how those posts are going right now.

also you didn't even link to it sohere

archive chats

this has long been requested so thanks for that but I don't see how that is different from hiding a chat. it is basically the same thing.

wait cant you delete chat messages?I got a responce and that is a no if it was sent with "modmail"

I don’t WANT people to be able to chat me willynilly. People who chat expect immediate replies. I answer my inbox private messages maybe once or twice a day. Will you enable an “out-of-office” / do not disturb functionality for users and mods who don’t wish to be “always on”?

Why do you insist on ruining this platform and turning it into some shit Facebook clone- oh, money. Of course.

I can't wait for 'Log In With Reddit'.

Hate it. Pretty soon you're gonna replace reddit right out of existence.

Why do you want our feedback if you've already decided to do this terrible thing? Oh, that's a lie, got it.

I use old reddit and chats have always been broken for me. I never get notifications I have a chat and they constantly fail to load.

Do you plan to fix chat for old reddit users? or are they just going to be left in the dust and unable to receive messages anymore?

The community has already largely told you it won't use chat. You trying to force it because you spent millions developing a dead feature won't change that

So most mods will just stop reading mod mail messages because chat is where randos send spam and death threats.

A huge shoutout to our mod and user councils for their candid feedback and feature suggestions. 

There'sno way that a single active mod told y'all that this is a good idea.

Fucking horrible decision.

this is awful. the chat system is complete and utter trash. this is just further proof that the reddit admins don't actually use reddit.

this change should be cancelled immediately.

These changes reflect our commitment to building a more accessible and inclusive product for all redditors.

the "an error occurred status: 500" error that keeps popping up when trying to submit this sure isn't making the site very accessible.

Yuck.

Who wants this?

I mentioned something to OpusCroakus a few weeks ago during one of theirr/help townhall meetings and they mentioned looking into it. With you guys messing around with chats, will there be an option to alter the text like we can here in comments?

sometimes I want italics in chat

sometimes I need big text

Those types of things.

Edit: spelling

Please, allow us to clear chat messages received from spammers or banned people. I have on my chatbox 1 supposed unread message, but in fact, I don't have any. So please, fix it.

No. This is dumb. You're dumb. Nobody wants this.

Are you guys morons? Genuinely asking.

I mean, look at the response down here. You cannot be serious.

I don't hate chat like a lot of other people do, but this change feels really pointless and damages reddit.

Stop trying to make new reddit happen already.

Rather than make Reddit worse, how about you fix the countless bugs in the new desktop website and the mobile app?

Like the first image of many in a series uploaded being blurry

To make Reddit faster, simpler, and easier to use, we needed to unify our messaging platforms

Yeah... I'm thinking old.reddit is toast. It's only a matter of time at this point.

I only use desktop, andonly old reddit.

I also block chat with uBlock Origin.

So no PM's for me I guess.

No big loss.

But it's something foryou to be aware of, if you are using this crappy new system for "admin notifications".

New Digg can't happen soon enough...

Sigh.

Just more stupid bullshit.

Oh yuck, I really hate chat in websites. Having a little window pop up in the corner of every page I'm loading with real-time chat stresses me right the fuck out. I've had Reddit's chat turned off since the day it launched.

I cannot overstate how much I detest this change, and if it will go through as described I will 100% either quit the website or use it far, far less. It will be actively disruptive to ongoing conversations I have with different users over important personal and research matters.

The chat UI is not at all suited to long messages, and the vast majority of PM's I have sent or or receive are of multiple paragraphs in length. It is a giant pain to navigate and view chats that long, let alone within that conversation

As the post notes, on old reddit, the chat notification button is bugged and does not properly notify me when I have new chats. Having messages show up in the same notification feed as comment replies is way more convenient

What is somehow even worse then all of that, then, is the announcement thatI will be no longer able to access that notification feed at all on Old Reddit:"Old Reddit will receive...An...New bell icon button...to access the notifications inbox...you’ll be directed to the inbox on the updated reddit.com site to view notifications and your read-only, archived PMs". This is COMPLETELY unacceptable, if I found the New Reddit interface to be usable, I would use it. I don't.

I am profoundly requesting you all to reconsider these changes.

TL;DR: "We're taking away more features people like and forcing you to use the shittier features nobody but the out-of-touch management wanted in the first place."

Remember everyone: lemmy exists and still has private messages!

yeeey an other "upgrade" no one asked for in stead of solving problems you've had for years now. good job reddit team, solid decisison making.

my only question is, what data can you get more out of chat then messaging and how can I stop you from collecting it.

So first the inbox gets broken so you randomly don't get a notification on replies/messages anymore, and now messages are getting completely killed in favor of chat which gets 0 notifications

Great..

I have never once used chat and I plan to continue this tradition.

Once again you guys find a way to make the platform even worse. The private messages work so much smoother than the Chat feature. As a desktop user primarily, I don't agree with these changes.

This is the worst idea I’ve heard keep the normal DMs not everything needs to change let alone these

Boooooooooooooo

Reddit team continuing to prove they have no idea what they're doing. Unless of course, making things worse is the point.

How out of touch can you really be with the users of your site? 🤷‍♂️

This is a terrible system. Chats lack most of the message editing features of private messages such that it's very difficult to compose anything longer than a few sentences, don't reliably display notifications on desktop, don't reliably displayanything on mobile browser, are lost forever if you misclick and reject one unless you memorize the username, and make it far harder to search message history.

What a terrible idea, chat is unreliable and bugged at best, borderline unusable at worst.

Oh look, another change absolutely no one asked for.

This is a terrible idea. Reddit chat is an awful experience and does not serve as a replacement for the PM system. I can't disagree with this more.

Enshittification continues.

This is a terrible change. You should be going theopposite direction. retire your failed chat experiment and transition everything back to PMs.

Ew

This is a terrible idea

This is not a good idea, all this is going to do is make users dislike this platform even more.

Hahaha you've got to be fucking kidding me

April 1st isn't for a couple of weeks...

If I'm understanding this correctly, this will eliminate the way I interact with and organize comment replies and modmail. Calling it terrible is putting it mildly.

I hate the chats. They're so tiny and not at all great for thoughtful messages or formatting. Reddit sucks harder each day.

Add them deleting comments, flagging people who upvote content that doesn't break a rule, and letting mods run amuck...

What a dumb fucking move

Because barely anyone uses chat, nobody is going to see our modmails. Being notified of a pm is easy and noticeable, chat is easily ignorable and there'll be settings to just block chats. So modmail is likely just not gonna get through to most of them. For the people who may use chat, those with removed posts will probably just try to use chat to message us about it and we'll never see it because we don't use it either. So this whole thing is just going to mess up the modmail system and being able to have clear and effective communication with our users.

Boooooooo

Terrible decision. Please reconsider.

This decision is bad and you should feel bad for making it. Reddit chat is terrible. This doesn't serve the user at all. So there must be some advantage for moving ad views. Great. Can't wait to have my private conversations sponsored by Activia or whatever.

[Nobody liked that.]

This is a #badidea

I'm pretty sure Chat uses up more resources then what is the equivalent of a in site text message.

I don't know who came up with and approved this idea but they should be fired for gross incompetence.

Yikes

Oof. Reads like pushing people to the app. 

Messages work with mobile web browsers.

Chat does not.

Explain how this is easier? Easier to deliver your app maybe? Not easier for the users at all.

I repeat myself, chat does not work with any of my mobile browsers.

This is a fucking awful idea

This is just stupid.

Luigi

This decision makes no sense whatsoever. It's entirely tone-deaf. Why would you do that? Chatting and messaging serve 2entirely different functions.

Chatting is only useful for real time conversations, which by nature are less in depth than than if you're able to take the time formulating your response. You're communicating in the moment which gives you less time to think about your phrasing. It's for casual communication.

Messaging gives people the time to think about their phrasing, address points individually, and write a well thought out message, which simply isn't possible with real time chatting.

I have literally never used the Chat function on Reddit, because I like writing long, thought out responses that take a long time to write.

Hey ya'll just asked me to take a user experience survey, then would only let me proceed if you could RECORD MY SCREEN. THAT IS INSANE.

Great, GREAT way to pre-filter your feedback to only hear from people who will tell you what you want to hear!

Chat doesn't work properly on old reddit. Are you getting rid of PMs as a predecessor to killing off old reddit?

Boooooo

Here we are, folks! The next step of enshittification for this site! What will they do next? Stay tuned because it's almost certainly going to be worse!

Bollocks. Fuck spez.

• New spam features: A new spam folder that automatically filters out potentially spammy invites.

I havenever received a single spam message via DMs. They'veonly ever been an issue with Chat. An endemic one y'all have never managed to solve.

Y'all designed Chat as a mass messaging platform, where messages can be disseminated to hundreds of accounts. DMs as a one-on-one communication platform is seemingly useless to spammers.

Why do you insist on developing a platform no one likes, while sabotaging the one that already works?

I don't like this. Notifications for chat messages don't work very well. Also, does this mean that the modmail to Discord bot will stop working? I need that.

But PMs arebetter than Reddit Chat. They don’t shit to death on Old Reddit. Which isbetter Reddit.

Just admit that you guys hate old Reddit and are doing everything you can to kill it.

God almighty all these stupid fucking pings I'm getting now! I don’t give a shit about “achievements” ffs!

If you're going to forcibly introduce a new feature to your legacy platforms, at least have the common decency tomake sure they work. I have no interest in using Chat where we've had private messages for decades, but I'm now forcibly stuck with a very annoying notification badge that will NOT clear itself.

Congratulations, you made a worse UX. Do not pass Go.

Who the fuck asked for this?

A horrible decision nobody wants. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You can literally just leave PMs alone.

On top of that, the language in this tries to gaslight us so hard into thinking they’re doing this to “improve” and “make Reddit faster” or better in some convoluted way.

You’re going to kill your site with changes like these and deliberately not listening to your userbase. What’s more you’re going to kill the internet. What a uniquely evil notation you’ll hold in history. Companies tend not to truly realize the value of user relations or the importance of upholding their trustworthiness, but I’m sure, like every other major exec making needlessly bad changes before them has realized, in time, they will.

Out of Insta, out of FB, never had X... soon out of here too...

but I understand you can't datamine private messages with your AI, and you have to keep it private, so you have corporate obligations, since the users can keep to themselves, unlike the forums, and you don't have the obligation to keep the chat private, but you can keep the chat log for your AI. Makes sense (for you, temporarily).

As far as I can understand this also allows you to sell access to spammers (which are 99% of chat messages I've received so far on this platform).

Your website will die, because this is not Discord, and you cannot compete with discord, because real time communication with friends isunreliable considering the US is dangerous for most people in the world (datamining and spying), and people know that having their data with ByteDance is a lot safer than with Telegram, Facebook, or Reddit.

Besides that your chat is abysmally bad even in comparison with equally abysmally bad adult sites having their own "chat" solutions.

You would have to move your server out of USA and to a place like Sweden, and actually cut your ties with USA, if you ever want to compete with Discord.

Was this change prompted by the UK requiring UCHISPs to backdoor or eliminate all functional encryption?

PM APIs remain active for 99% of requests: Developers can continue using PM API endpoints to send and read chat messages without code changes. During the transition, we’ll remove six API endpoints that saw minimal use and developer value.

Which ones?? At least specify what's that 1% of requests that will be affected.

Will PM depracation be rolled out to only some users at the end of March with more to follow?

Will this impact existing modchats within a sub? Our mods all use it to communicate with one another. It said no change to mod mail, but I didn’t see a reference to Modchat (if I missed it, my mistake).

Fix your fucking website. Why do links in comments STILL not work. It’s been over a week of this garbage already. Can’t even click on the links YOU posted because it does nothing.

Chat doesn't work for buy/sell boards because people can delete the chats, increasing scams and thefts, and people on old reddit or 3rd party apps don't get chat notifications.

Why must everything fall to enshittification?

God damn.. Good that third party apps still work, somewhat at least.

I came here years ago, because all of social media goes to shit. Unfortunately reddit seems to go the same route because management or what ever.

Just fire them already, then they won't have to do stupid shit like this, just to make sure their positions stay "relevant". It's just bullshit for anyone.

Why Is it at all necessary to get rid of PMs? It's a very functional, cohesive system. Chats are a very different format. Please reconsider.

Sorry, but chat will never replace PMs. As someone said, people expect instant replies in chat/DMs versus the same doesn't exactly apply in PMs, generally speaking.

You must not roll out this change until you've completed making the chat accessible and usable by those of us using access technology like screen readers. You cannot make this change and then work on making the chat accessible; the remediation and redesign absolutely has to happen first before such a sweeping change is made!

I guess I'll never read PMs ever again then. Don't @ me.

Plus, Reddit Chat's infrastructure is built for the future

vomit

the PM system which is about as old as Reddit itself.

You know what's older than reddit? Stetoscopes. Imagine if they decided stetoscopes worked fine, but just to put something on their porfolio, they discontinued it, and everyone would die because the new device to listen to the heartbeats didn't work.

fuck that shit

How about just fixingyear old issues?

Wow. I hate everything about this. Great job admins, you've found another great way to make me interact with Reddit less. I think it really is time to start looking for a new website that actually listens to its userbase.

Oh look, something no one asked for

Stop banning people saying Luigi.

So you’re starting to roll this out before completing not just the mobile version, but your a11y updates to it? I mean, it’s not surprising, considering how the a11y feedback group died after like one meeting, and old Reddit remains better even on mobile. But damn, just because my expectations are on the ground doesn’t mean you have to keep tunneling beneath them.

I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised, considering there is no way that a chat feature could ever be better for message replies than a PM system… whoever is making these decisions shouldn’t be expected to have the cognitive ability to realize a feature shouldn’t be launched until it’s ready, after all.