Here’s How I Make My Reddit Account More Private

Reddit is already a somewhat anonymous app, but I perform additional steps to keep my account more private. Here are some of my top recommendations for features and settings that can increase account privacy on the social media platform.

1 Limiting Who Can Send Me Messages and Chat Requests

While Reddit can be useful for meeting like-minded people and connecting with others, I prefer to control who can send me messages and chat requests. I impose similar limits on Instagram because, to be honest, I don’t want everyone to be able to contact me.

I allow some accounts to chat with me on Reddit, but they must be at least 30 days old. If you want to take things further, you can set this to Nobody instead. I don’t like that you can’t limit who sends you direct messages to a certain group of people, but I have similarly set this to Nobody on one of my accounts.

If you want to change your chat and message settings, follow these steps:

1. Tap your profile picture in the top right-hand corner to reveal the sidebar menu.
2. Select Settings at the bottom of the page.
3. Under Account Settings, tap on your username.
4. Scroll down to and select Chat and messaging permissions.
5. Toggle your chat and messaging preferences until you’re happy with what you see.

2 Using a Randomly Generated Username

I have two Reddit accounts. One has my name and I use this to find freelance openings, research for articles I’m writing, and to read forums related to my work and businesses. The other, however, has an anonymous and randomly generated username. This account is more for my personal interests, and honestly, I’m more of a lurker than an active contributor.

I stumbled into having one anonymous account and another with my name by accident. When I first joined Reddit in 2020, I just added my name because I didn’t understand how the platform worked. In the end, I just ran with it and figured it would be good to use for work. However, I also felt like it would be nice to have one without my actual name. When creating my first account, I didn’t realize that you couldn’t change your Reddit username after 30 days.

If you’re serious about using Reddit more privately, you should strongly consider using a randomly generated username. You’ll get one when you first sign up for an account, but you can also tweak this. Avoid using the same name that you use on other accounts.

3 Hiding My Account From Search Results

Even with an anonymous username, you might be concerned about others finding your account in search results. Fortunately, Reddit has a feature where you can de-index your profile if you want to.

To stop Reddit from showing your profile in search results, you’ll need to:

1. Select your profile picture and tap Settings when the sidebar appears.
2. Scroll down to Privacy.
3. Toggle Show up in search results to off.

4 Hiding Active Communities

While I like to follow multiple communities on Reddit, I would also prefer to keep this information private. To do this, I hide active communities so that others can’t see them when viewing my profile. To change this setting, I had to go to the Reddit web app rather than using my smartphone.

Here’s how I did it:

1. Sign into your Reddit account from a desktop browser.
2. Tap your profile icon in the top right-hand corner and select Settings from the dropdown menu.
3. Select the Profile tab.
4. Toggle Show active communities to off.

5 Not Uploading an Image of Myself

Perhaps the simplest way you can keep your Reddit account private is by not uploading an image of yourself. On my private account, I use an avatar—and you’ll notice that many people on Reddit do not use profile pictures. While this certainly makes some people much braver than they should be (and not in a good way), it is ideal if you don’t want others knowing what you look like.

You can use an avatar on Reddit as soon as you sign up. However, if you currently use a picture of yourself and want to change that, follow these steps in this article on how to change your Reddit avatar or profile picture.

6 Browsing in Anonymous Mode

Anonymous browsing on Reddit works similarly to incognito mode in your web browser. When browsing anonymously, none of your search or browsing history is saved. Personalized notifications and suggestions are also switched off until you stop browsing anonymously (you’ll automatically turn off anonymous mode if you stop using it for more than 30 minutes).

I suggest using the anonymous browsing feature when you want to simply look for something but not interact with others. However, you shouldn’t have it switched on all the time because you can’t comment or post while you’re in this mode. This feature is only available on mobile devices. To activate it, follow the steps in our separate guide where we outline how to browse Reddit anonymously.

These features allow me to use Reddit while still keeping my online privacy intact. Make sure to review your privacy settings so that you’re not giving out too much information on Reddit or making your profile easy to find through search engines. While anonymous browsing is a temporary option, choosing a username that isn’t your actual name—and controlling who can message you—will also go a long way.