Reddit Answers is going into main search bar

Reddit Answers is Reddit's AI-powered search tool that was introduced last year to highlight informative, well-sourced responses to questions asked within the platform’s many communities.

Now, Reddit is making some changes to make the AI-powered answers available on the platform’s main sitewide search. CEO Steve Huffman announced this update during the company’s first-quarter earnings call.

Steve said they're working on integrating Reddit Answers into Reddit core search experience to the feature even more prominent in the sense that it'll help streamline the path from question to answer on the social platform.

"We're integrating our AI-powered search into Reddit's main search bar to simplify finding answers," said Huffman. "This means users can type their query into a single search box and receive either a direct AI-generated answer, a curated Reddit Answers response, or traditional Reddit search results, depending on the query."

This follows the introduction of automatic translation for Hindi posts and comments. Reddit integrating it AI-powered answers into its core search experience is part of its efforts to improve accessibility. The platform launched automatic translation feature a few days ago, which was rolled out to support India’s vast Hindi-speaking user base.

As highlighted in this post, the translation feature allowed users to seamlessly translate content into Hindi, setting the stage for more advanced tools like AI-powered answers, which deliver concise, relevant responses to user queries directly within the search interface.

However, Reddit is still claiming that Reddit Answers is still in beta testing. Meanwhile, Steve made it clear that the feature is already getting 1 million users on a weekly basis. The feature has recently became available to all US Redditors, and it's well used across international markets.

The introduction of Reddit Answers into Reddit's core search experience is to keep users engaged within the Reddit ecosystem, and to improve search across the platform. Steve explained that Reddit Answers is a feature to make Reddit easier for new users to use and to help people who find the site through search engines like Google.

It might give quick AI summaries to guide them. However, this could be controversial because many Reddit users don’t like big changes to the platform. Huffman also said that not every search will get an AI summary—sometimes users can stick with traditional results if they prefer.

In conclusion, Reddit Answers is a feature designed to deliver fast and dependable responses to user queries by summarizing relevant discussions from across Reddit. It mirrors the process users often follow when they append “Reddit” to their Google searches to find community-sourced answers, but it eliminates the need to leave the platform.

By pulling together and condensing existing conversations, Reddit Answers taps into the collective wisdom of Reddit’s user base, providing a streamlined alternative that saves time and keeps users engaged within the Reddit ecosystem.