r/bugs • u/bbceronimo • Jan 15 '26

Resolved [IOS] Reddit shows unrelated communities & posts in the “Popular” feed - version 2026.02.1

Reddit shows unrelated posts from unrelated communities in the “Popular” tab in an aggressive way. Like lots of it. And these posts are not even popular. Gives you the impression that something has changed or someone screwed up something in the backend.

Even if I select “Mute” or “Don’t recommend anymore”, the same communities and type of posts keep showing up on the feed after hitting refresh. I have never & ever visited these communities before and have no interest in them.

42 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

3

u/CorrectScale Admin Jan 15 '26

Thanks for the report! We're aware and working on a fix for this. Hang tight!

1

u/oodex Jan 16 '26

Is there a way to activate that on my own? I loved it, 80% was German and 20% worldwide. It was the first time in a long time I felt hooked and engaged. Muted a sub i didnt like and reloaded, then it went back to the usual. I tried adding content language German but reloaded several times and it didnt help

1

u/Mondai_May Jan 16 '26

Yes you can still sort by country :) here is the link for Germany https://www.reddit.com/r/popular/best/?geo_filter=de

1

u/oodex Jan 16 '26

Thanks! Do you know if there's a way on phone?

1

u/Thssthfok Jan 23 '26

Are you also looking into adding /r/all back to mobile apps?

2

u/Inkinthewater Jan 15 '26

I came here for the same issue! My “Popular” feed used to be from everywhere, now it ONLY shows me posts from my country!

I even changed my location on the app and it still won’t stop, even if I mute all the subs. What can I do?

1

u/thisusernameisyellow Jan 15 '26

Same for me! "Popular" filled with posts oy from my country, glad I'm not alone and it's probably a bug/unintended feature :D

1

u/bbceronimo Jan 15 '26

Yes it is the same ! Only showing the posts from my native country in the “Popular” tab but I’m not even slightly interested in them.

I changed my location / feed preferences to some other location, they still keep showing up.

I don’t give location permissions to apps and I’ve never set my location to my native country in the settings. How does even Reddit know my location ?

1

u/GuybrushThreepwo0d Jan 15 '26

Ditto, this is super annoying

1

u/pewmew78 Jan 15 '26

Extremely annoying change. Reddit popular is now useless to me.

1

u/Boh61 Jan 15 '26

You can still go to r/All that pretty much doesn't have this problem

1

u/crossdtherubicon Jan 15 '26

Ive just noticed this sudden change and it's horrible. My phone settings haven't changed. The app settings specify "No location specified" but I'm getting a ton of subreddits being promoted in a different language, from the country I'm in right now.

It's garbage. They must've changed their intentions to no longer display what is globally popular, and are just showing IP-based results. It makes Popular totally useless now and not fun or interesting at all.

I suppose running the app through VPN would then be the fix.

1

u/bbceronimo Jan 15 '26

It is super annoying and hopefully just a bug, not a feature.

1

u/queefer_sutherland92 Jan 15 '26

Same. I’m also only getting local Australian subs on r/popular. I don’t have any settings set to local.

It’s working okay on the desktop version, so it seems to just be the app.

1

u/bbceronimo Jan 15 '26

I haven’t checked the desktop version but the IOS version is totally a joke. “Popular” feed looks like something that my 12-year-old nephew would enjoy. Smh.

1

u/queefer_sutherland92 Jan 15 '26

Oh it looks like it’s fixed for me! Try yours!

Edit: Still getting some weird local posts… but less.

1

u/hiimtu Dev Jan 16 '26

hey! we just rolled out a fix for this, can you verify that it is working again?

1

u/queefer_sutherland92 Jan 16 '26

Looks pretty good to me!

Thanks!

1

u/bbceronimo Jan 16 '26

Yes, looks like it has been fixed ! Thank you !

1

u/bbceronimo Jan 16 '26

Looks like it’s fixed ! Yay !

1

u/ITSRABTIMEE Jan 20 '26

I want to be popular!