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A new design change on Reddit has proven controversial among users, allowing communities to pick a color theme that displays for most visitors. It means the pages you visit may have different color palettes on homepages and posts, and that user interface elements like the upvote button may change shade.
First announced in early February, the feature called community color theming now appears to be rolling out to more users. According to Reddit, the change began for 10% of its users last week, but an influx of new reports suggests it's now ready for launch and rolling out to more users.
PCMag first spotted the change in the Android app and found it also active on the web version, while others are reporting it across iOS. To see the new color theming, you need to be logged in to an account; if you're not, you'll see a standard white background across all communities.
The colors are chosen by each community's moderators: r/reddithelp chose light blue, r/ask chose pink, and the popular r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit chose light orange
This feature is on by default for all users who have it, but if you don't like it, you can turn it off. To do so on Android or iOS, head to your profile, followed by My Account. Hit Settings, then scroll down to View Options, where you'll find a toggle labeled Use community themes.
On the web, tap your profile picture in the top-right corner, then Settings at the bottom of the list. Oddly, Reddit has decided to include the option in a different section here under Preferences > Experiences > Use community themes.
If you turn this off, you won’t see color theming across any communities on Reddit, so you can't pick and choose which pages it's active on.