By Hamza Faisal
Reddit is splitting its homepage in two. The social platform announced on Wednesday that users will now see two tabs when they open the app or site: "For You" and "Following" — a redesign that gives algorithmic recommendations their own feed for the first time in the company's history.
The "For You" feed combines posts from communities users have joined with recommendations tailored to their interests, designed to surface conversations they might not otherwise come across. The "Following" feed, by contrast, shows only posts from communities a user has actually joined — no recommendations, no algorithmic extras. Users can switch between the two at any time, and Reddit will remember the feed they last viewed and open it next time they return.
Two feeds, two philosophies
Reddit has long mixed recommended posts into its home feed alongside subscribed communities. The new layout separates the two experiences: discovery gets its own tab, while the curated view stays pure. The company says the "For You" feed is dynamic, designed to surface different content on each visit, including material from communities users have not yet discovered or joined.
The company gave a simple example of how it works in practice: if a user regularly visits a community like r/Silksong without joining it, threads from that community may now appear near the top of their home feed. "This new feed experience is a first step in helping drive discovery that leads to something novel and relevant — an idea, a connection, a unique perspective or even a new interest," the company wrote in its announcement. The change is rolling out globally over the next few weeks.
Following the TikTok playbook
Reddit is the latest major platform to adopt the two-tab homepage that TikTok popularized with its For You Page after its global launch in 2018. X introduced an algorithmic For You tab alongside Following in 2023, and Threads followed with a similar two-tab system. Instagram built its Reels recommendation feed on the same logic. Reddit, founded in June 2005, held out longer than most — its community-defined homepage was long treated as a point of pride.
The move also fits a broader strategy: Reddit wants users engaging beyond the communities they already follow, and recommendation-driven feeds are the industry's proven way to do it. For a company that makes its money from advertising, more discovery means more time spent scrolling — and more posts from communities users might eventually join.
Not everyone is cheering
The reaction has been mixed. Some users expressed displeasure during the testing phase, and the rollout has drawn complaints from users who liked the old blended feed and see little reason to change it. The grumbling lands in a sensitive moment for Reddit's relationship with its most loyal users: recent platform changes eliminated RSS feeds and limited access to the classic desktop layout known as Old Reddit, moves the company has defended as a necessary response to surging AI-driven bot traffic.
For now, the choice itself is the concession. Users who want nothing to do with recommendations can simply live in the Following tab and never open For You again. Whether most of them do — or whether the algorithmic feed quietly becomes Reddit's default way in — will be decided by what the recommendations actually surface in the coming weeks.
