Reddit is the latest platform to split its home page in two, adding separate For You and Following feeds in a change that will reach users worldwide over the coming weeks. For You blends posts from communities you’ve joined with recommendations based on your interests, while Following sticks strictly to the subreddits you’ve chosen.
The move puts Reddit in familiar company. TikTok made the algorithmic For You feed the default way people consume social media, and X and Threads have since adopted their own versions. Reddit says the new feed is meant to help people find communities and discussions they wouldn’t otherwise stumble into, framing it as an early step toward better discovery. The company has been testing the split with a small group since September and says it adjusted the design based on their feedback.
The problem is that Reddit has never really worked like TikTok, and that’s largely why people use it. The site’s appeal has always been control. Join a handful of gaming subreddits and your local community, and that’s what your home page showed you. Recommendations from unfamiliar corners of the site cut against that, and early reactions suggest plenty of users aren’t interested. Questions about how to get rid of the For You tab have been circulating since the test began, and some users have also noticed that the Hot sorting option has vanished from the new home feed, leaving only Best and New. Reddit has acknowledged the complaints and says sorting options are still being tested, but it hasn’t given a timeline for bringing Hot back.
For anyone who wants to avoid recommendations, the For You tab can’t be removed, at least for now. Switching to Following is the simplest workaround, and Reddit remembers whichever feed you used last, so it should stay put between sessions. Following isn’t chronological, though. Users who want the newest posts first can use the Latest feed in the Android and iOS apps or build a custom feed limited to their favourite communities.
There’s also a setting to turn off recommendations in the home feed, found under Privacy in the mobile app’s account settings and in preferences on desktop. It only applies when sorting by Best and doesn’t appear to affect the For You tab, which makes it a partial fix at best.
Reddit’s push for discovery makes business sense, since recommendation feeds tend to keep people scrolling longer. Whether it can grow engagement without alienating the users who value Reddit precisely because it isn’t algorithm-driven is the real test.
