Reddit users will soon feel more connected to their fellow Redditors, thanks to a slew of new real-time capabilities being rolled out by the service today. You can now watch upvotes, downvotes, and comments updating in real time without having to reload or visit the thread. Not only will the numbers alter immediately, but you’ll also notice a wonderful animation to draw your attention to it.
Comment counts will be treated similarly, growing whenever someone shares a new comment, and typing indications will now appear when two or more Redditors are posting comments at the same time. This will be displayed using anonymized avatars, so you won’t know who is typing until they share their message, but you’ll get a sense of how many others are composing their own comments.
Reddit is taking this a step further by displaying reading indicators that alert you when five or more people are reading a post. At the top of the comment section, a group of anonymous avatars and a count will appear.
Finally, when readers share comments while you’re reading an article, a new comment pill will emerge, letting you know right away if there’s more to see. By clicking on the new comment indication, you may see the most recent comments and extend the window to see live comments in real time.
These new capabilities are being rolled out throughout the whole Reddit service today, including the Android and iOS apps, so you should start seeing them shortly. While it appears that they will be enabled by default, they are fully optional features that can be turned off in settings if you prefer to use Reddit in the usual manner.