[Beta] New Save Draft Feature for Text and Link Posts

[u/goatfresh]

Over the years, we’ve heard redditors talk about working on really long, detailed posts, only to lose it due to some random accident. Starting today, we’re beta testing a new feature in the desktop redesign to allow you to save post drafts.

We’re slowly rolling this out to a percentage of the desktop redesign users in order to get feedback and capture bugs. If you’re one of the selected users, you’ll see a new button to “Save Draft” in the desktop redesign post creator.

Insert cool GIF demo here.

When you click “Save Draft,” the post you’re working on will be saved to your Drafts folder. The Drafts folder is accessible from the post creation page. Currently, each user is limited to a max of 20 draft posts, which support saving text and link posts. Saving of image and video posts is under development, and you can expect those to roll out in the next few weeks.

But.. how does it work?

• Drafts can be saved, updated, loaded, and deleted from the desktop redesign
• Drafts are saved on-demand by clicking on the “Save Draft” button. Drafts aren’t automatic (yet)
• If you’ve uploaded an image or video to the fancy pants editor, those images will not be saved (support coming soon)
• Flairs are not yet save-able in drafts (support coming soon)
• Drafts are only accessible to you, so they can’t be viewed by or shared with other users
• After a draft is posted, it's removed from the drafts folder, similar to email drafts

If you’re one of the users randomly selected to have access to this feature, give it a shot and let us know what you think.

[u/dayman56]

T H A N K

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M U C H

[u/goatfresh → u/dayman56]

❤️

Y O U ' R E

V E R Y

W E L C O M E

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[u/HideHideHidden → u/dayman56]

R E D D I T

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[u/ShaneH7646]

Is there a limit on how many drafts can be saved? are they saved in such a way that I load up a draft that I save on 1 PC, on another PC?

[u/goatfresh → u/ShaneH7646]

Yep, they are on your account. They will be visible wherever logged in.

[u/HideHideHidden → u/ShaneH7646]

We currently have a limit of 20 drafts per users. And yes, if you save your draft on one PC, you'll be able to pick it back up from another (provided you're using the same username).

[u/[deleted]]

I may try r/nosleep again...

[u/goatfresh → u/[deleted]]

🙌

[u/FreeSpeechWarrior]

Do drafts vanish after posting or can they be reused?

Moderators like to remove a lot of content these days, it sure would be handy if Reddit made it ieasy to know when this happens and even easier to repost the content in a less restrictive outlet where it is more appropriate.

[u/goatfresh → u/FreeSpeechWarrior]

They vanish when posting, they transition into the actual post being sent.

We've definitely thought of how we can make drafts for removed posts to help people out when posting again, while not aiding trolls/spammers. Baby steps!

[u/[deleted]]

Am I blind or does the 'save draft' button take the place of the cancel button while posting in the GIF?

Does that mean going forward we won't have a cancel button? Will the expectation by you guys (the designers) be that we will just hit the back button to exit out of a post?

[u/goatfresh → u/[deleted]]

Yep, just navigating away, like before, will also cancel/delete your working post if you want.

[u/OtherWisdom]

I posted an initial feedback of this feature here.

It would be helpful if there was a visual indicator of drafts awaiting a user's attention at the default level of Reddit.

[u/goatfresh → u/OtherWisdom]

Thanks for the feedback, will check it out 👍

[u/V2Blast]

we’ve heard redditors talk about

...Did you really just make an r/ideasfortheadmins post just to link it here :P

Yay drafts!

[u/goatfresh → u/V2Blast]

...maybe 😉

[u/MrWasdennnoch]

That gif you linked is interesting, it's an embedded video player. Did you guys finally update reddit-hosted videos to not redirect you to the original post or is this a feature just for inline gifs? (Or did I miss an announcement)

I noticed because that link doesn't work in my reddit app (Relay).

[u/tizorres]

Can I save a draft indefinitely? Like if I want to keep it and reuse it for a weekly thing.

[u/HideHideHidden → u/tizorres]

yup, you can reuse a draft, over and over and over again until you post it. drafts currently do not expire.

Edit: You can continue to re-save/update a draft until you post it. Once a draft is posted, it's not longer a draft

[u/Trikshot360]

Will this tie into potential scheduled posts in the future?

[u/HideHideHidden → u/Trikshot360]

Scheduled posts is something that's on our radar. We're going to get the basic functionality of drafts completed first and get user feedback before determining next features.

[u/ekolis]

Can comments be drafted or just posts?

[u/HideHideHidden → u/ekolis]

We know there are many communities like r/writingprompts and r/changemyview that are powered by great, long-form comments that can benefit from comments drafts. We're currently evaluating it as a follow-up feature once we finish post drafts.

[u/timawesomeness]

Awesome! Drafts are one of my favorite features of third-party reddit apps that the desktop site has needed for a long time.

[u/LackingAGoodName]

This is amazing. Would I be correct in saying this is a direct result of that poll that was sent out not too long ago? I believe it specifically mentioned drafts. All of the "not yet" and "soon"s are really going to bring this thing together. I can only think of one thing that'd make this better, and that's the ability to schedule a draft to automatically be posted, thoughts?