Reddit’s new UI that removes ability to swipe between feeds is reaching more users, and they hate it

After a recent update, the iOS app on Reddit has lost the feature to swipe between feeds. Earlier, it was limited to a few users who lost this feature due to the A/B testing of the new UI design. Now, a lot more reports have been coming out over the past week, and Reddit is actively testing the removal of swiping for a lot more users. 

I’ve checked myself, and I cannot swipe to flick between feeds such as Home, Popular, News, etc. Instead of swiping, I had to tap the menus instead. If you’re used to swiping, this will slow down your navigation through the app significantly.

The app interface was recently changed, with a glowing orange search bar and multiple navigation shifts. Many people didn’t like these changes, and now we have this new UX downgrade. Some people report that the swipe functionality briefly returned, before disappearing again. Reddit is running A/B tests, and UI elements are randomly shifting with no warning.

The swipe method earlier was objectively a lot more convenient. UIs across smartphones are moving towards swipe mechanisms. Apple’s Liquid Glass design famously features a swipe bar at the bottom to switch between menus. It’s weird to see Reddit drop this feature, since many people find this less efficient.

Complaints about losing the swipe feature flooded Reddit, and users are actively reporting feedback to try to get the developers to listen. It’s weird that Reddit has added and also removed this feature multiple times over the past month, implying that they’re unsure whether to go ahead with the new navigation.

A few reports claim that the swipe function is present in the mornings, but goes away in the afternoons. Numerous posts highlight that it’s very frustrating how you can no longer switch between Home, Popular, News, and Latest. If you want to revert to the older method, there’s no specific way to do it, since Reddit controls that through a server-side switch. Meanwhile, you can try to use Safari to access Reddit instead, and the mobile version of the web app still supports swiping.

The information about this being an experiment comes directly from an Admin on Reddit, who confirmed that certain versions do not support side-swiping between feeds. Reddit has not yet adopted Liquid Glass, but if they do, that will sort of bring back the same functionality.

I can confirm that the A/B testing for removing swiping has begun on Android as well, since it no longer works on my phones. Other users report the same. I’m hoping Reddit actually takes this feedback seriously and doesn’t move ahead with implementing this in the final version of their design.

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