I love Reddit, but visiting the main website is a sure-fire way for me to end up reading bizarre stories and upvoting dodgy Doctor Who puns.
Reddit Mini is a suitably named Chrome extension that puts a streamlined version of Reddit right in the browser.
With a single click you can load up your favorite subreddit and scroll through the latest posts, images and comments without needing to open anything in a new tab.
Reddit Mini is not a fully-fledged Reddit client, though. It can only display one sub-reddit at a time and you do need to enter its name manually (i.e. there’s no list to choose from). But since you only have one pair of eyes, and is designed to be a window on the web’s most eclectic forum rather than a door, this is not a massive drawback.
Helpfully, Reddit Mini remembers the last visited subreddit and shows it automatically the next time the add-on is clicked.
Images appear auto-expanded inline by default (NSFW images don’t, but you can toggle the behavior for both to suit your, err, desires) and .gif images auto-play, too. You can set how many posts appear, too: 5, 10, 15 or 20.
Reddit Mini lets you read comments on post. Click the comments icon to load these in the extension.
Is this extension ideal for full-time Redditors? Maybe not, but for casual readers or those all-too-aware of the time suck that the full site can be, it’s a clean, compact and digestible way to get a Reddit fix.
“Reddit Mini lets you check Reddit without leaving the page you’re on. Yo dawg, you could even reddit while redditing. Type in your favorite subreddit and enjoy.” the official Web Store blurb reads.
Another really great thing about this add-on? It doesn’t require any permissions, none at all. It also doesn’t run in the background sapping your bandwidth or hogging memory. When it is visible it uses around 70MB of RAM but as soon as you close the pop-over window it stops running.
What Reddit Mini Doesn’t Do
The name of this extension should give you some indication of what to expect from it. It’s not a Reddit client or app, so you won’t find all of Reddit’s famed features packed into the small portrait-sized window. It also isn’t pitching to be a replacement for the main website, either.
There is no sign-in option and you can’t post stories to subreddits, or upvote/downvote comments and shared items. You won’t find any options to sort posts by hot, rising, controversial, etc, and clicking a story will open it in a new tab, not in the pop-over window.
Given the point of the extension these features aren’t hugely missed. And if they are, well, you can always open the main website since you’re using this in your browser anyway.
Which leads me on to one small feature I do find lacking: an option to detach Reddit Mini from the browser, like Twitter Notifier allows. This would allow me to ‘dock‘ the window in Chrome OS.
Install Reddit Mini in Google Chrome
A free extension that requires zero permissions, works well and is light on resources, Reddit Mini is totally worth checking out.