Previously, Reddit went dark owing to its API changes, because of which many renowned third-party apps had to shut down. However, even after such a wide protest that was staged by communities, Reddit stayed firm with its decisions. Nonetheless, while every other person was fixated on how the protests would turn out, Reddit introduced some other changes because of which many of the users’ private chats were removed from the platform.
Many Redditors have complained in recent weeks that their private chat logs and messages shared with other Redditors throughout the years have vanished. Users can no longer view messages or live chats that took place before 2023.
One of the redditors posted, “I lost EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. of my Chats – 7 years of history I was saving.” They added, “I just discovered this and I am devastated. I’ve lost contacts with Redditors I wanted to save, a ton of research shared back and forth, information that isn’t available anywhere publicly (at least not via Google or the other top search engines), step-by-step technical support I saved for issues in the future, and so much more. I can’t even remember most of the usernames of my Reddit “virtual friends” and that’s such an unexpected loss.”
Reportedly, messages and chat history after January 1, 2023, are no longer available. Reddit made a changelog announcement 23 days ago. It was an update about the chat and flair navigation. Under the long message, the platform has clearly mentioned its decision to make a quick transition to the new infrastructure.
The platform has expressed, “In an effort to have a smooth and quick transition to this new infrastructure, we will migrate chat messages sent from January 1, 2023 onward. This change will be effective starting June 30th. To continue having the best experience using chat on mobile, including creating and sending new chats, update the Reddit mobile app to the latest version from the iOS App Store or Android Play Store.”
The note appears after two other feature announcements, at least ten paragraphs into the changelog page, and it appears that many Redditors missed it. Additionally, it is not specifically stated in the warning that messages from before 2023 will be deleted. Additionally, a few Redditors have reported that days before the deadline of June 30, their discussions and messages vanished from their accounts.
As per reports, the platform did not offer any possible solution for users to view their old chats. However, by submitting a data request while signed into their Reddit account at https://www.reddit.com/settings/data-request, users may be able to download all of their messages, including those from before 2023.
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