Reddit reveals to others whether you’re online by showing a green dot next to your avatar whenever you’re logged in. If you’d rather hide your online status on Reddit, we’re going to show you exactly how to do that.
Why Has Reddit Enabled Online Status?
Reddit calls this feature “Online Presence Indicators,” and claims that the goal is to encourage people to post and comment more. The social network specifically pointed out real-time discussions as one area where knowing the status could be useful in terms of seeing who’s online and available to talk on Reddit.
However, as many Redditors have pointed out, enabling online status by default is not good for your privacy.
The good news here is that once you hide your online status on any one device, Reddit will stop displaying it on all apps and devices where you’ve logged in. Of course, you’ll have to do this once per account, so if you have multiple Reddit accounts, it could take a while to disable this feature everywhere.
The steps are slightly different on each platform, but we’ll walk you through them all.
RELATED: What Is a Throwaway Reddit Account, and How Do I Create One?
Hide Your Reddit Online Status on Desktop
If you’re logged in to the Reddit website in a desktop browser on your Windows 10 PC or Mac, you’ll see the green dot on your avatar, which is located in the top-right corner of the social network. Click your avatar to reveal the drop-down menu.
The first option here will be “On,” under “Online Status.” Toggle the item off.
Your online status will change to “Off” after several seconds. This means that your online status is now hidden on Reddit.
Hide Your Online Status on Reddit’s Mobile Website
Once logged in to the mobile Reddit website on your smartphone or tablet, tap the three-line menu icon found in the top-right corner.
Next, tap the “Settings” option.
This will reveal the “Show Online Status” setting.
Tap the check box (and make sure that it’s unchecked to hide your online status on Reddit).
Hide Your Online Status on Reddit for iPhone and Android
Reddit’s iPhone and Android apps make it easy to hide your online status, but the method for doing so is not very obvious. Once you open the Reddit app on your iPhone or Android, tap your avatar icon, which is located in the top-left corner of the app.
You’ll see a green “Online Status: On” indicator under your username. Tap it.
The button will turn gray and change to show “Online Status: Off.” That will get the job done.
If features such as Online Presence Indicators annoy you, we have a list of excellent Reddit apps that you should check out. Apps such as Narwhal and Apollo offer almost all of the official Reddit app’s feature list and then some.
RELATED: The Best Apps for Browsing Reddit on an iPhone or iPad
