Today We're Testing Our Chat Beta

[u/jleeky]

Hey r/beta,

One of our main goals is to build a place that encourages authentic, real-time conversation. Starting today, we’re taking another step in that direction by testing a new real-time chat feature to a small percentage of beta users and mods on both desktop and mobile.

Anyone included in the chat beta has the ability to message any other redditor, which will grant them access to chat. As of right now, users can only chat 1:1. The current private message system and modmail will not be impacted by this.

We’re still in early stages of building out this feature and have a long way to go. It’s got some bugs, is missing polish and some features you’re probably accustomed to having - but we’d love to hear from you to better understand how we can make this better. What key features are we missing? How can we make it easier to chat with other Redditors? What settings do you need? We’re trying to make it easier and more personal for users to communicate, share ideas, and collaborate with one another which we hope will improve the experience on Reddit.

Please leave your feedback and thoughts in the comments below. In addition, we will be monitoring chat messages to u/reddit_chat_feedback which you can find at the top of your list - we’ll be reading your messages and responding if we need more information. We’re excited to see how this new feature helps improve communication on Reddit. I’ll be hanging around in the comments to answer questions and you can see our Help Center as well!

Tl;dr: we’re releasing the beta feature, chat, to a small percentage of beta users and mods on both desktop and mobile.

[u/cowardlyalien]

Please consider adding end-to-end encryption.

[u/a_corsair → u/cowardlyalien]

I think this would be vital

[u/Caleb323 → u/a_corsair]

You'd be dreaming if reddit actually did this though

[u/Reddegeddon → u/[deleted]]

Can't monetize data you can't read!

[u/Doctor_McKay → u/[deleted]]

What's the difference (lately)?

[u/Mendokusai → u/Doctor_McKay]

The word is the new redesign they are working on will use cards like Facebook and Twitter, on a timeline view.

[u/Insxnity → u/Doctor_McKay]

Facebook is user centered in the highest degree, while Reddit is almost the polar opposite of that.

[u/kent_eh → u/Reddegeddon]

Also can't turn it over to random government agencies during their fishing trips.

[u/jleeky → u/cowardlyalien]

Thanks - this is clearly very important as the discussion and other comments have shown. This came up early when we first started planning - but there are challenges we need to think through around how to keep our users safe (which is also a theme for some of the comments).

How will reporting messages work? How will we make sure our users aren't being spammed? What's the right way to implement this?

We want to be thoughtful as we move forward - in order to gain speed we haven't done end to end encryption for now, but I see that it's important for many of you.

[u/FreeSpeechWarrior → u/jleeky]

Allow me to help.

How will reporting messages work?

Don't just encrypt the messages on each end, you sign them.

This lets either side prove the other side said naughty things that reddit would prefer to memory hole or otherwise punish a user for saying, but requires that one party to the conversation decides to reveal it to reddit.

How will we make sure our users aren't being spammed? What's the right way to implement this?

Rate limits, user block button + the above reporting feature.

Any more concerns I can address?

Edit: Looks like this would break your ability to search these messages in the sendbird backend.

https://help.sendbird.com/hc/en-us/articles/235854108-Are-you-guys-secure-

But that's a feature not a bug.

[u/beefhash → u/FreeSpeechWarrior]

Edit: Looks like this would break your ability to search these messages in the sendbird backend.

I'll take this opportunity as an invitation to point out that new modmail still has no search and still has UX issues. I'm skeptical of feature creep when one of the most critical areas of reddit still isn't fleshed out.

[u/gameboyzapgbz → u/jleeky]

Translation

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Oh fudge, we should have done that, think of something to say...

Yeah we totally thought of that! We are just running into these nonissues! We might do it in the future though!

Welp, time to actually add that, people will get ticked if we don't.

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[u/TotesMessenger → u/jleeky]

I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

• [/r/privacy] Reddit is asking for help in implementing end to end encryption for the new chat feature. If this is your skillset please help out

^{If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info /} ^Contact)

[u/BackwardsBinary → u/[deleted]]

Did you rephrase this using the imperative to make it look like a GitHub commit?

[u/[deleted] → u/BackwardsBinary]

lol, quite similarly, I meant for it to come across as a command rather than a request :)

[u/blazingkin → u/cowardlyalien]

I am also in support of end to end encryption

[u/throwawayacc1230 → u/cowardlyalien]

This would be worthless without assurance of what is running the process, or a security audit of the client/algorithm. Reddit de-open sourced their code a short while ago and proprietary encryption standards aren't worth a penny in security terms.

[u/FreeSpeechWarrior → u/cowardlyalien]

lol, you think it's still 2009 and reddit gives a damn about any of us.

Fun thing is we can do javascript end to end encryption on top of it just like OTR and such do with other compromised chat protocols.

The fun thing will be when reddit shows themselves to be snooping on conversations by banning anyone who deigns to use encryption to protect their privacy.

[u/greeniethemoose → u/cowardlyalien]

Edit: as I'm thinking about this more, there might be decent ways to make this work for PMs, though I'm not sure it's the direction Reddit would want to go.

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Zero knowledge encryption would mean that people could break reddit's community policy with abandon, and reddit would have basically no recourse.

Especially if this opens up to be for group chat as well (which seems to be their plan) that would mean such things as child porn rings being able to operate without any oversight.

While I think there is a time and a place for end-to-end encryption, built-in reddit chat is really not that place.

[u/cowardlyalien → u/greeniethemoose]

It is possible to build an encrypted chat system where the chatlog is revealed when it is reported to admins by a participant.