Reddit Tests AI-Narrated Videos for Text Posts and Comments

Reddit’s testing something new, text posts turned into videos, complete with an AI voice reading them out loud. The rollout started August 17 on the website, apps got it a day later.

Here’s how it works. Eligible posts now show two options: “Read” for the plain text version, or “Play” if you want the AI-narrated version instead. Press Play and an AI voice reads through the post and picks a few comments to read, along with highlighting the text on the screen.

Each of these videos is tagged, “Real conversation in an AI voice.” So no one pretended a human recorded it, the words are real, just the sound.

Nothing about the original post has changed either. The text stays exactly where it was, still readable in the normal way if someone prefers it.

One example already circulating is a thread on r/boardgames, originally about road trip game recommendations. It’s eight years old, had 101 replies. Reddit has turned it into a three-minute narrated video sitting right above the original text.

It’s small right now. Only English posts, and only in a handful of communities. Reddit hasn’t said exactly how many posts were selected for the test.

Reddit spokeswoman Rosa Kim called it an early experiment, essentially Reddit trying to figure out if people want content in this format before moving any further.

It didn’t come out of nowhere, though. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman brought up the idea during an earnings call in July. His point was that people already listen to podcasts built around someone reading Reddit threads out loud, so why not build it directly into the platform.

It’s not without its problems. AI voices can encompass usernames, gaming slang, whatever specific terms the community uses. And Reddit chooses which comments to include, so the video version could skip the most voted answer entirely and take something else instead.

No one has yet explained what happens when something goes wrong with a statement. That question matters more than its sound, especially for brands or teams that are eyeing Reddit for mentions.

This isn’t Reddit’s first foray into video either. They’ve tried native video hosting before. They’ve also tried TikTok-style short video feeds, with mixed results. Video comments only recently launched, in June, and Reddit says they now make up more than 10 percent of video posts on the site.

Reddit came back online in March 2024. The stock fell nearly 11% after its Q2 2026 earnings, though revenue, profit, and guidance all beat Wall Street expectations, largely blamed on concerns about inconsistent search traffic.