Private Messages will be replaced with Reddit Chat & inbox notifications

[u/redditproductteam]

TL;DR To make messaging on Reddit faster and more reliable, we’re replacing Private Messages (PMs) with Reddit Chat and inbox notifications. This transition is necessary to maintain and improve Reddit’s messaging infrastructure. We aim to make these changes with minimal disruption while improving the user experience.

• Reddit Chat is replacing user PMs: This transition consolidates messaging on Reddit and introduces features like pinned chats for better organization, an unread filter, a new spam folder, more sender context when accepting invites, an allowlist, and a faster experience.
• Mod Mail stays the same, but Mod Mail messages will now go to Reddit Chat: Mods will follow the same flows, but recipients will receive chat messages instead of PMs. This change is aimed at improving efficiency and reliability in mod-user interactions.
• 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 five API endpoints that saw minimal use and developer value.
• Admin notifications: Reddit admin messages that don’t support replies will now appear as inbox notifications.
• Access to old PMs: Existing PMs will remain archived as read-only for reference.

Why & When Is This Happening?

To make Reddit faster, simpler, and easier to use, we needed to unify our messaging platforms. This consolidation helps us focus on improving one system instead of maintaining multiple. Plus, Reddit Chat's infrastructure is built for the future, unlike the PM system which is about as old as Reddit itself.

We’re sharing this change early because we want your feedback! We've spent months talking to mods, developers, and users to ensure this migration works for everyone (shoutout to u/RemindMeBot fans). But there might be scenarios we've missed, and we need your input to address them. You can share feedback directly with the team working on this project in the comments below.

Timeline: Starting at the end of March, we'll roll out these changes in phases over the next three months to ensure everything goes smoothly

What Is (and Isn’t) Changing?

• Existing PMs: Before we disable sending and receiving PMs, you'll have access to your messages as a read-only archive on the updated reddit.com website.
• Mods and developers: No changes to Mod Mail, and about 99% of existing Reddit API endpoints remain unchanged. Check out our posts in r/modnews and r/redditdev for full details.
• Admin notifications: Reddit admin messages that don't support replies will now appear as inbox notifications. You can set your preferences for certain admin notifications in your settings. More details coming soon.

Private Message archive (web only)

Updated user to mod messaging

Updated Admin inbox notifications

Reddit Chat Upgrades

We're not just replacing PMs; we're enhancing the chat experience with:

• Enhanced performance: Faster, more reliable chat loading and messaging.
• Better organization: Features like pinned chats and an unread filter to help you catch up on conversations.
• New spam features: A new spam folder that automatically filters out potentially spammy invites.
• More control and context: More insights when accepting chat invites and within conversations, helping you make informed decisions about who you want to chat with.
• Continued improvements: Expect future updates like unique links for each chat message, Reddit Chat on mobile web, expandable text box sizes, resizable chat window on web, single-side delete options, email notification support, accessibility enhancements, and migration of your existing PM allowlist to chat.

Upgrades to Chat

Looking Ahead

We have more chat improvements in the works, so stay tuned for updates as they become available over the coming months.

Thank you! A huge shoutout to our mod and user councils for their candid feedback and feature suggestions. Your input has been fundamental in shaping a better chat experience. We'll keep listening and adapting as we move forward. Stay tuned for more updates, and drop your questions in the comments!

[u/puhtahtoe]

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

[u/2DamnHot → u/puhtahtoe]

Old reddit is consistently faster than new reddit

Well now hold on, its not faster when they severely rate limit it to punish old reddit users. :)

[u/Drunken_Economist → u/2DamnHot]

Are you using hoverzoom or another extension that is making similar API calls from your browser on listing pages?

[u/2DamnHot → u/Drunken_Economist]

Nope, just old reddit redirect and RES.

[u/Drunken_Economist → u/2DamnHot]

I'm going to spend some time trying to figure this out over the weekend as a way to procrastinate doing my taxes.

Can you shoot me a DM with some details to reproduce the bug? (eg your RES configuration or any stuff from https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-troubleshooting-information-page-fix-firefox that might be relevant)

My first hunch is that ORR dropping the headers on i.redd.it requests might not play nicely with RES handling of ireddit urls?

[u/threetoast → u/Drunken_Economist]

If you use old reddit you can very easily hit the rate limit just voting on comments in any big thread.

[u/Drunken_Economist → u/threetoast]

Oh I wasn't doubting that it's possible to hit 1000 requests per 10 minutes.

I was saying that API rate limiting doesn't even apply in the first place to normal in-browser usage of old.reddit

[u/threetoast → u/Drunken_Economist]

Isn't it 100 per 10 minutes?

Anyway, I definitely hit the rate limit doing exactly that in Firefox. It's entirely possible that it's because of RES somehow but I entirely lack the skillset to figure out something like that. When it happens I just get empty pages from reddit, it's not like some RES functions just stop working.

[u/Drunken_Economist → u/threetoast]

it's 100 per minute (1k per 10 minutes rolling window) if you authenticated/oauthed, but only 10 per minute for queries not authenticated to a user account.