Reddit Launches Mobile App for AMAs
Reddit is finally entering the fray of mobile apps with Ask Me Anything (AMA) interviews, its most popular feature. Already available for iOS, the Official Reddit AMA app will also be available for devices later this week, according to an exclusive report in Variety magazine.
AMAs on Reddit allow users to post any statement about their background or personal circumstances, including celebrities. Other users can then ask any questions they want and engage with the person who posted the invitation. The more comments and votes Reddit users give the AMA, the more popular it becomes.
An example of one popular AMA currently on Reddit is the following:
I work at an indoor gun range with fully automatic weapons, AMA
The ensuing questions and comments range from asking the person’s opinion on the recent shooting death of a gun instructor by a 9-year-old, to questions like “What is the most terrifying or stupid thing that someone has done?”
Many posts involve the personal conditions of people posting, such as Reddit users who say they have bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
Others share about their work and offer to let people in on their worlds, such as one post from an academic:
I am a researcher at Northwestern university working on Alzheimer’s disease. AMA
Celebrities are also welcome to post AMAs on Reddit, and one high-profile upcoming AMA will be with Denzel Washington.
According to TechCrunch, Reddit users have wanted a mobile app since AMA launched a version in 2011 that failed.
Reddit’s app of the hugely popular AMA lets people read and ask questions in real time and look at other AMAs and find out about what interviews are trending. Reddit will be turning 10-years-old next year, and the move into broadening its user base is seen as a significant move toward broadening its user base and making more money.
“We want to make it easier for new users to join Reddit and experience all the awesome content,” said Ellen Pao, senior VP at Reddit, who oversees the company’s mobile efforts in an interview with Variety. “That’s part of the overall goal of becoming a more mature company.”
Reddit is essentially an entertainment, social networking service and news website with 133 million unique visitors a month where registered community members can submit content, such as text posts or direct links.
Since its launch in 2005, its unique visitors have doubled every month. Reddit users can “upvote” comments and posts, and reply to them. Most Reddit users who engage in the site’s 7,800 subsections of the site live online, but AMAs are largely mainstream Reddit users.
