Reddit has so many people talking about so many things across so many subreddits. How can you get the best recommendations easily? Well, there are a few sites and apps that collect the best of Reddit.
You can always sort any subreddit by top posts for the day, week, month, year, or all-time. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. These apps have a different outlook. Some collect posts based on how much time you’ll take to read them, others track recommendations across different subreddits.
But the idea, in the end, is the same: to get you the best content and recommendations.
1. Walnut TV (Web, Android): Best Videos on Reddit
People share a lot of YouTube videos on Reddit. Walnut.TV collects all of them in one place to give you the top videos currently being talked about and upvoted on Reddit. It’s a useful and eye-pleasing interface.
On the left, you’ll see a playlist of all the videos coming up. Click any to watch it, or let the endless stream of videos keep auto-playing. You can also skip forward or go back with the left and right arrow keys.
At the top, you’ll see tabs that curate videos from different subreddits, based on topics. At the moment, categories include curious, science, documentaries, music, activities, food, and crafts. You can also search for your favorite subreddit to automatically create a playlist of all YouTube videos shared in it.
There is also an Android app, but it’s mainly the web version where Walnut.TV shines.
Download: Walnut.TV for Android (Free)
2. Shortly (Android, iOS): Curated Short Stories for 5 Minutes of Reading
The subreddit r/writingprompts gives anyone with a flair for writing a chance to exercise their creative muscles. One user will set a premise, and other community members then write whatever short story they come up with, based on that premise. Shortly gives you the cream of the crop in a fantastic interface.
When you start the app, Shortly will give you a quick test to determine your reading speed. Then, you have to choose a story based on how much time you have to read. Options include one-minute, three-minute, and five-minute stories. And just like that, you’ll get a well-formatted short story in a neat font and a pleasing grey background.
If you want to develop a fiction-reading habit, Shortly is an excellent way to begin. Not every story is amazing, but these are the most upvoted short stories on the subreddit, which has been active for several years. So you’re bound to get many winners.
Download: Shortly for Android | iOS (Free)
3. Top Trend Books and Top Talked Books (Web): Book Recommendations From Reddit
There are two book recommendation engines that try to find what Redditors are reading. Both do a good job and there’s no real reason to select one over the other, so try them both out.
Top Trend Books calls itself a data-driven recommendation engine, which collects all comments and posts about a book. It then assigns “trend points” based on upvotes, number of references, and the date. Based on that, you can look through categories like tech, comic, free ebooks, fantasy, and more, and sort the recommendations based on time. You can also search for authors or topics.
Top Talked Books isn’t restricted to Reddit alone, and also includes data from Hacker News and Stack Overflow. You can restrict yourself to Reddit-based sources, but why would you want to do that? Check New, Best of the Best, and even articles. The Explore tab lets you sort by categories and tags.
If you like these, you should also check out these essential “best book” lists to see how many of them you have read.
4. Things On Reddit (Web): Reddit’s Favorite Product Recommendations
On every subreddit, there are experts who will share their favorite products. Some products are shared often by multiple contributors, and gain a reputation for being a favorite and a must-buy. Things On Reddit collects all such favorites in one website.
The Featured Things highlights a few products, while you can jump to any of the popular topics or subreddits to find items from that community. Once you’re viewing items in a topic or subreddit, you can further sort them by mentions, karma, or date. There’s also a short blurb from the best-voted post, often describing why it’s recommended.
Each item on Things On Reddit includes an affiliate link to Amazon or some other store, which helps pay for the website.
5. Unreadit (Email): Get Newsletter Digests of Favorite Subreddits or Topics
Unreadit gives you the best of Reddit without needing you to visit the website or the app. It’s a series of newsletters that curate content from multiple subreddits to create a digest, and send it straight to your inbox.
Here’s an example. If you’re interested in technology, subscribe to the Tech newsletter. Sent every Monday, a human editor handpicks the best posts of the week from r/Tech, r/TechNews, r/Gadgets, r/HackerNews, and r/Apple. And just like that, you’re caught up with what people are discussing and sharing on Reddit. Currently, there are such newsletters for self-improvement, tech, geek, entrepreneur, design, frontend, and indie makers.
Unreadit also offers automated newsletters, which aren’t handpicked by a human editor. These are a bit of a hit-or-miss affair, but they might be worth it nonetheless. It’s a much wider range of topics, such as writing, travel, fiction, blockchain, cinema, gaming, etc.
Awesome Reddit Apps and Extensions
All these apps and sites make it easy to find good recommendations from Reddit without diving into the forums. In fact, you can entirely skip ever visiting Reddit if you use these well.
But then you’re missing out on so much. Reddit is full of great content and helpful communities. If you’ve found it overwhelming or disliked the experience, you might not be using it right. Have you tried these awesome Reddit apps and extensions for a better experience?
Read the full article: 5 Apps and Sites to Find Reddit’s Best Posts and Favorite Recommendations
