What a Reddit follow user action shows you, and what it tells them

What happens when you follow a user on Reddit?

A Reddit follow user action adds the posts that person makes to their own profile to your home feed, and Reddit tells them you followed. Reddit's help article How do followers work and how can I opt in or out? puts it in one sentence: "Following someone adds the posts they make to their profile to your home feed and lets them know."

Both halves of that sentence matter if you follow people for work. The first half is narrower than it sounds. The second half means the follow is not private.

What does following a user show you in your feed?

Following a user shows you only the posts they publish to their own profile, mixed into your home feed. Reddit's help article names posts "they make to their profile" and nothing else. It says nothing about the posts they submit to communities or the comments they write, and Reddit's feed article describes the home feed as "a feed of all the communities you've joined." Reddit documents no route for a followed user's community posts into your feed other than joining that community yourself.

A prospect who asks and answers inside communities and never posts to their profile puts nothing in your feed through a follow.

What the person does	Shows in your home feed because you follow them?
Posts to their own profile	Yes
Posts in a community	Not documented. Reddit's article names profile posts only
Comments anywhere	Not documented. Reddit's article names posts only
Turns off "Allow people to follow you"	No, their posts leave your feed within an hour
Blocks you	No. Reddit's blocking article says blocked users' posts "won't show up in any feeds" for the person who blocked them

Reddit is testing a separate feed for this. Its September 10, 2026 changelog describes splitting the home feed into For You and Following, where "Following is a dedicated feed of just the conversations happening from communities you are a part of or users you follow." Reddit calls it "an experiment for a small subset of global users on all platforms, starting September 2, 2026," so most accounts do not have it.

How do you follow a user on Reddit on web and in the app?

You follow a user from their profile, on reddit.com or in the Reddit app, by clicking their username anywhere it appears and using the follow option on the profile page. Reddit's help centre explains what a follow does but has no step-by-step article for the button itself.

1. Click or tap the username on a post or comment, or open reddit.com/user/ followed by the name.
2. On the profile, select Follow.
3. Return to your home feed. Their next profile post appears there.

If you cannot follow someone, they have turned following off, which Reddit says means "others won't be able to follow you," or they blocked you, and Reddit's blocking article says blocked accounts "can't access your profile." The opt-out section below covers the first case. Old Reddit has its own older version of the idea. Reddit's chat suggestion article mentions people "you've friended on old.reddit.com" alongside "people you're following", and the API reference still lists /api/v1/me/friends endpoints.

What does the person you follow see?

The person you follow gets told, and can see you in their list of followers. Reddit's help article says a follow "lets them know," and Reddit's email preferences article lists follows among the email types about "Activity on Reddit that are about you (mentions, follows)."

The followers list is one click away for them. On reddit.com, Reddit says to "visit your profile page and click on the number under Followers." In the app, they tap their avatar, select their profile and tap the follower count under their username. Users who post to their profile also get a traffic view in their profile moderation tools, which Reddit says shows "how many followers you have, and how they've changed over time."

For a prospect, a follow from a stranger whose profile is full of product mentions reads as a sales move. That is the opposite of how reddiquette asks people to participate, which is by contributing first.

Can Reddit users stop people from following them?

Reddit users can turn off following entirely, and they can hide their follower count. Reddit's followers article says that after opting out, "others won't be able to follow you and those who were following you will no longer see your posts show up in their home feed."

The setting sits in a different place on each platform:

1. On reddit.com. Open Privacy Settings, go to the Social interactions section and turn off Allow people to follow you.
2. In the iOS and Android apps. Tap your avatar, open the menu with three lines, select Settings, tap your username under Account Settings, and under Safety turn off Allow people to follow you.

Reddit lists two side effects. "There's a one hour latency in hiding posts from feed," and "you won't be able to view the list of followers you had prior to opting out." Separately, Reddit's profile settings article says the Curate your profile section lets users "show or hide your follower count," which hides the number without stopping new follows.

Is following a user or checking their post history better for tracking prospects?

Checking a prospect's post history is better for tracking than following them, because the history covers posts and comments across communities and sends the person nothing. A follow covers profile posts only and tells them you are watching.

	Follow the user	Read their post history
What it covers	Posts to their own profile	Posts and comments in communities, minus any the owner hid
Does the person find out?	Yes, Reddit "lets them know"	No
Can they block it?	Yes, by turning off follows	Partly, by hiding communities from their profile
Filter by topic	No	Yes, with author:username plus a keyword in search
Arrives on its own	Yes, in your home feed	No, you open the profile, or subscribe to the RSS feed of their history

The history route has two extra tools. Reddit's search takes author:username with a keyword, as the Reddit search operators guide explains, so you can check whether a prospect has asked about your topic before. Reddit's API reference marks the user history listings with "rss support," so a feed reader can collect an account's public activity without a follow.

Keep follows for a different job: people who post useful material to their own profile, such as a founder who writes updates there. For prospects, read before you reply, then answer in the thread where they asked. The buyer intent guide covers which questions are worth that effort.

Reading a prospect before you reply

Open their profile

Search author:username plus a keyword

Read their posts and comments

Reply in the thread where they asked

How does RedReplier fit with following users on Reddit?

RedReplier tracks conversations by keyword instead of by person, which covers the community posts and comments a follow leaves out. RedReplier watches every public subreddit on Reddit for the keywords you target, and you can narrow it to specific communities. It also covers X, Bluesky, Facebook and Hacker News and ranks each match by buyer intent. Matches land on your RedReplier dashboard within minutes of a post or comment going live, and email alerts go out as digests on a cadence you set per keyword, from hourly to daily. RedReplier drafts a reply, and you review, edit and post it yourself. The Reddit lead generation page shows the workflow, and what a subreddit is explains why the communities, not the profiles, hold most of the conversation.

Frequently asked questions

Does someone know when you follow them on Reddit?

Yes. Reddit's help centre says following someone "lets them know," and follows are one of the activity types Reddit can email. You also appear in their followers list.

Do you see a followed user's comments on Reddit?

Reddit's help centre does not say so. It describes a follow as adding "the posts they make to their profile" to your home feed. To read someone's comments, open their profile and check their comment history.

Do you see posts a followed user makes in subreddits?

Reddit's followers article covers profile posts only, and your home feed shows posts from communities you joined. A followed user's community post reaches your feed if you have joined that community.

How do you stop people from following you on Reddit?

Turn off Allow people to follow you. On reddit.com it sits in Privacy Settings under Social interactions, and in the app under Settings, then your username, then Safety. Existing followers stop seeing your posts within an hour.

Can you see who follows you on Reddit?

Yes, unless you turned following off. On reddit.com, click the number under Followers on your profile. In the app, open your profile and tap the follower count under your username.

What is the difference between following and friending on Reddit?

Following is the current feature, which adds a person's profile posts to your home feed and notifies them. Friending is the older feature from old.reddit.com, which Reddit's help centre still mentions when describing chat suggestions, and the API reference still lists friends endpoints.

Why can't I follow someone on Reddit?

The person turned following off, or blocked you. Reddit says that after opting out, "others won't be able to follow you." The setting is called Allow people to follow you, and only the account owner can change it. A block stops you opening their profile at all.

Can you hide your follower count on Reddit?

Reddit's profile settings article says the Curate your profile section lets users "show or hide your follower count." Hiding the number does not stop new follows. To stop follows, the user has to turn off Allow people to follow you.

Does blocking someone remove their posts from your Reddit feed?

Reddit's blocking article says blocked users' posts "won't show up in any feeds" for the person who blocked them. That includes the home feed, so a block overrides a follow.

Can you track a Reddit user's activity without following them?

You can read their public post history from their profile. Searching author:username plus a keyword shows whether they have posted about your topic, and Reddit's user history listings support RSS for a feed reader. None of this notifies the person.