You Can Finally Search for Comments in Reddit Threads

In April 2022, Reddit added the ability to search for comments on desktop. The feature was so popular, they quickly added it to their iOS and Android apps as well. It was a long time coming: The change allows you to search comments across Reddit’s entire catalogue of discussions, increasing the chances you’ll find something useful or interesting. Now the site is building on top of that success, allowing users to search comments within threads across devices.

Reddit announced the major change to comment search on Monday, Feb. 27: You can finally search for comments using a built-in tool, rather than using your web browser’s “Find” feature (i.e. using ctrl+F or cmd+F). Unlike previous changes to search, searching in comment threads is available on Reddit’s iOS and Android apps as well as its desktop client from day one. No matter which platform you prefer to use, you’ll be able to search comments in any thread.

On desktop, you’ll find the comment search bar next to the “Sort By” menu. On iOS or Android, you’ll see a new magnifying glass icon whenever you tap on a new post. Tap the magnifying glass, and you’ll be able to search comments within the thread. This wasn’t possible on Reddit’s mobile apps before, but even the “Find” shortcut wasn’t perfect on desktop. If comments were collapsed or hadn’t loaded, they wouldn’t show up in the search. Now they will.

Comment searching has been a feature in third-party Reddit apps like Apollo on iOS, but it’s a welcome addition to Reddit’s official clients. After all, it’s common practice now to bypass most search results on Google by adding “Reddit” to the end of your query. The site has amassed quite the wealth of knowledge and experience over its 17-year history, and many of us prefer searching it for answers rather than other areas of the internet. There are so many Reddit comments and conversations from across the years that this new feature should help us discover the best of the best.

The company also highlighted some of the recent improvements they’ve made to Reddit search, including searching text within images, an upgraded subreddit search that should deliver more accurate and relevant results, and an improved video search experience that allows you swipe up and down between video results on iOS and Android.

[Gizmodo]