Reddit is one of the more popular sites on the internet. With thousands of different subreddits, there is definitely something for everyone. Since its inception, there hasn’t been a way to upload photos, GIFs and videos directly to Reddit. You would typically need to upload it elsewhere and then share the link on Reddit. Which is how Imgur got the majority of its users. However today, that has changed.
The Reddit Product team announced today that they are beginning the roll out of their in-house image hosting. It’s currently only available in a handful of communities or subreddits. There are a few limits though, when it comes to uploading images and GIFs to Reddit. Images will be limited to 20MB in size, with GIFs limited to 100MB in size. Those are some pretty generous limits, actually. Seeing as most pictures are around a megabyte or smaller. Additionally, this new image hosting will allow you to click on the image (specifically if it is on a page that is not the thread, i.e. the home page, subreddit, and profile pages) and be taken directly to that thread on Reddit to see what it’s all about. You’ll also be able to view GIFs within Reddit’s native apps without leaving the app.
While this image hosting is only available on 16 subreddits right now (these are the default subreddits like GetMotivated, EarthPorn, Gaming, Space, OldSchoolCool, Sports, Art, Aww, Dataisbeautiful, Food, Funny, GIFs, mildlyinteresting, movies, photoshopbattles and pics), the team is looking to expand it to about 50 more as soon as next week. If all goes well, we should see it available to all of the communities on Reddit real soon. Uploads are limited to just one picture or GIF at this time, however.
This is a pretty big deal for Reddit. And it’s one of many new features that have rolled out since swapping CEO’s last year. In June 2015, Ellen Pao stepped down from Reddit, with Steve Huffman replacing her. Huffman is one of the co-founders of Reddit and has a pretty lengthy agenda to turn Reddit into a better place, one that’s not so hostile. But it is also nice to see that he wants new features coming to Reddit, and under his leadership, we have also gotten an official Reddit app for Android.