Product news for writers: Post reactions, TikTok embeds, updates to the Substack app and more
A rundown of the latest product improvements to help Substack writers succeed
At Substack, we’re focused on building for and with writers. Read on for a rundown of what we’ve released in the past few weeks—from updates to the Substack app to the ability to embed TikToks into posts. Please chime in, in the comments section, with your feedback.
Post reactions
Substack writers thrive because of the direct connection they foster with subscribers.
Last week, we shipped a small change to display “Likes” directly on posts, which we hope will deepen the relationships between writers and their readers.
Reactions can be viewed at the bottom of posts. Tapping the number of likes displays a list of all the post likers, and a new section on Substack profiles also shows which posts they have recently liked.
For writers who lean into the idea of fostering a community, this update will help your posts feel more alive, and facilitate more connections between readers.
For readers, being able to see and click on profiles can forge new connections through viewing what others read, write, and love.
As always, readers and writers are in control. Readers can control the privacy of their likes on the Edit Profile screen. Writers can choose to hide the feature for their publication via the dashboard.
Read more: For writers How do I enable or disable likes on my posts? and for readers How do I hide posts that I liked on my Substack profile?
TikTok embeds
Writers have been asking for TikTok embeds to enhance the reading experience for their communities.
Now, you can embed TikToks by copy-and-pasting the URL directly into a draft post.
TikToks will play within the post in the Chrome web browser and in the Substack app. In other browsers and in emails, the TikTok will show up as a static image that links to the TikTok site.
Read more: How do I embed media in my post (e.g. images, audio, video, GIFs)?
Swipeable full screen images
Since launching our new Substack app for iOS, we’ve seen readers and writers enjoying the app for everything from recipes to podcasts to their morning news.
More than 200 of the world's top writers across genres helped us beta test this app, sharing their ongoing feedback and helping shape its design.
In the latest update, readers can now view images full screen and swipe through them in the Substack app.
This update will particularly benefit readers of comic creators such James Tynion’s The Empire of the Tiny Onion and Kelly Thompson’s 1979 Semi-Finalist, as well as writers with highly visual publications like Megan’s Textile Tales.
More updates to the Substack app
In addition to the new podcast player, we are working on more updates to improve the listening and reading experience on the Substack app.
Some of the latest updates include:
For readers: change the font, text size, and background color to enhance your reading experience;
In the comments: better collapsing and threading allow you to easily engage with your favorite writers and others enjoying their work.
Update or download the latest version of the Substack app for iOS to try out these new features and more to come.
We hope you give these new tools and features a try. As always, please feel free to leave feedback and ideas in the comments.
Great updates! Any news about the app for Android?
We are working on it!
Katie, really excited about that, even though most of my subscribers seem to be email people. :)
I'm surprised that it's not out yet, but thank you!
I was just about to ask the same!
I'm usually a strong supporter of every new Substack feature, but "reactions" seems like going more and more into a social media look & feel. one of my fav things about Substack is how it distances itself from the social media way of doing things. anyway, swipeable full screen images is very, very good. and, please, can we get anchor links? :)
Hi Gaía! I feel you in the social media allergies. Fortunately, "likes" don't drive discovery as they do on twitter, fb, ig... They are just a signal to the writer that people have read and enjoyed your piece. I really fell in love with seeing the people behind the "likes" as we were testing the feature - helped me understand who our most active readers were, and who was seeing the posts even if not commenting. Made the readership more "real" to me. But we would love to keep hearing your feedback as you use it. Keep us updated here or elsewhere if it continues to feel off?
Bailey, I love knowing who likes, but I already get notifications about that. Many in my audience are shy, and I'm afraid of scaring them away from liking. It's a constant challenge to get folks to understand that NBH is a site, not just emails, so navigating their way to the privacy settings (or even knowing this is an option) is another hill for the privacy-conscious to navigate.
This was exactly my reaction. And as a reader, I had a mild panic attack until I learned here that I could turn them off. It’s nobody’s business what else I read or what posts I like! It feels invasive. Of course I want that feature switched off! But the average reader may not realize that’s an option and may be put off from engaging entirely. As someone who appreciates my privacy, I certainly would be…
I use "likes" for a kind of discovery (though after writing this I realize you probably meant algorithmic discovery, boosting highly reacted-to posts, which I am glad substack does not do)--if I find an article I like I see who else liked it, and see what they write or read and follow a chain from there. It can be a good way of discovering otherwise hidden authors through a kind of network-effect.
Hi Scoot, yes this is how I read it too. There's almost never a post I've read and liked that I wouldn't want someone else to read and like. But because everyone has different preferences around sharing their reading, I'm also glad there's the ability to enable/disable the feature. Thanks for sharing your comments and feedback!
I second anchor links!
Oh LAWD, yes! Anchor links!
If you want to share a link to a particular section in one of your Substack posts, do this:
Add #:~:text=targetword to the end (no spaces) of the url you want to link to.
Where “Bonus” is my target word, see it in action: https://pau1.substack.com/p/how-to-make-your-newsletters-undeplatformable#:~:text=Bonus
(Sometimes you have to eliminate everything after and including the ? within the URL)
It will link to the first instance of the targetword, so make sure it is the first targetword on that page.
Thanks so much, Paul!
Me three! Absolutely a huge priority. :)
Anchor- absolutely. Because a future podcast is coming, though likely not until 2023.
Need better control over placement of images, especially when they are resized. Need text wrap around images, center justify, and left and right justify.
Yes, Yes, and Yes. Particularly the “text wrap.”
I would like to co-sign on text wrapping as well.
TEXT WRAP. I was just lamenting this on a previous post.
All pretty good updates although I still say that an audio reader feature on the app would be beneficial. Especially for people who might have accessibility issues in the visual spectrum.
👂
I love these updates and that you keep us up to date on them!
Would you ever consider a tagging function? There’s a long list of pros and cons, but it might be a good way to get a fellow writer looped into a conversation they’d be interested in. (It could also be too social-media-y, so I’ll leave it up to the brilliant Substack team to figure that out!)
You are right, lots of pros and cons! Do you imagine using tags as a tool for discovery primarily?
can i respectfully cast my vote against this? it's one of the many reasons i can't stand social media. someone has to stop the insanity!
Amen.
That’s why I’m hesitant to suggest it! It could open up a can of worms for pile ons. 😬
But Katie (this is where I would tag you if I could), to answer your question: I primarily would want it to have conversations between interested parties.
Alternatively, maybe there’s a way to just tag publications? As in: “This is an interesting article! Have you read anything on @Common Sense? I think you’d have a lot in common.” And then someone from Common Sense would be notified they had been tagged in a comment.
agree! tagging just publications could be a good middle ground...
I like the idea of tagging publications, especially in articles, so I don’t have to go find their URL. 😅 It could also be a good way to let you know who is talking about you on substack.
Would also love to know which parts of tagging feel most annoying! Is it that others are tagging and notifying you, or more the aesthetics of seeing @this and @that everywhere?
it's annoying to me because i feel like it is a tool of 'influencer' culture, which is a giant human centipede i'd rather not get in the middle of. hope that helps! ;-)
My biggest concern is the potential of toxicity, piling on, trying to get a writer’s attention on a post. One of the things I love about Substack as a “social” platform is how I usually don’t see people trashing other writers here. Tagging could open it up to that.
On the other hand, I would love the ability to call people’s in the comment thread we’re already commenting in! If someone said something insightful somewhere else in a 600+ comment thread, it would be nice to point that comment out to them. It would also be cool to tag other publications in a post and have it work a little like recommendations so you can see who reads your post or follows you.
Points in favor, Wordpress uses tags and it is HUGE for helping discover writers. Even if writers don't normally write under a certain topic, if they have a one-off that they tag a certain way, I can see that post. I used it to carve out "territory" for myself and increase my presence in a few specific tags so that other readers in that space would be able to find me.
I can tell that substack is going for a better/different model--so far I like that we are given limited options to categorize our newsletters because it forces people to decide what they are about. There's kind of a taxonomy system at play here. I won't step on the creative technicians behind substack but I can tell this is an active issue and I am excited to see what comes out of it. Keep up the good work!
I disagree with you about the limited categories. As a reader, I find it makes it very difficult to discover substacks I would enjoy reading and subscribing to and as contributor I find it hard to place my substack. I have another substack I'm going to be starting shortly and cannot think how I will categorise it. i think a lot more needs to be done on discoverability.
Thank you for the ongoing updates. Your creativity is very much appreciated.
LOVE that the Substack team is always awake at the wheel steering changes.
I love the embed quality as well...but I wish there was one for Instagram, Facebook, or other videos.
Making it so simple to like a Writer's content is equally brilliant. 👌 Bravo, Bravia, or OI! Whichever suits readers of this comment.
Hi Annabella, we are listening and will continue to iterate and improve embeds across platforms.
Thank you! You read my mind!
I love the new reactions feature!
TikTok embeds yesssss! 🙌
Great updates, thank you! I am wondering if writers can also be given the option to highlight text in their custom color. For example, in draft mode, when I highlight text I'm working on, it highlights it beautifully in my chosen brand color! I would love for this to become a feature. Right now, I have an imperfect work-around--I highlight the text and take a screenshot of it, then delete and upload this image as a photo. The only problem is it doesn't translate to mobile well. But it's a lovely, simple way to accent text within the color scheme. Thank you for considering!!
Great news! Any updates on a link referral program?
Thank you!
Literally I am so happy I have been waiting for the ability to embed tiktoks since I started with Substack... this will revolutionize my newsletter!
Glad to hear it!
Are you still working on the ability to post multiple audio files in a single post? I want to send out one post that has a month of past posts read aloud as an audio file. It's my was of doing a new monthly podcast using my older content
We are, stay tuned Ric!
Ima one track mind on this, lol
Love the updates, any plans to make it easier to share articles on platforms like Instagram? Spotify does a good job of allowing you to share an image of recent podcasts on Instagram stories.
We are thinking about how Substacks might be more shareable on other platforms. What do you imagine an image might be in the case of Subtack on IG? The social preview image? The title of the post? Something else?
Katie, def a picture for Insta! :)
Unfortunately, I can't share an image of what it looks like on this thread but for a podcast, you hit the share button and it shows the preview image, and then the title below it.
Hi, is it possible to create a way for me to use the subscribers first name in the newsletter so it feels more personal?
I see where that could be valuable. Not currently but I will pass along as feedback to our product team.
Great that readers can hide likes if they prefer, but I think it might be better to allow them to make likes anonymous, if that's not already the case. Also, I looked directions, but don't have that option for my own likes on others' Substacks.
Hey Annette! If you turn off the "Your likes" switch at https://substack.com/profile/edit , this effectively make your likes anonymous to everyone but the original author
Thank you, Nick! Done in an instant. :) I really appreciate it.
Thanks for the update!
I’m on tiktok more than YouTube so I love the idea of tiktok embeds coming!
Need a way within the app, regardless of where you are, to go back to your main landing page to see subscriptions and alerts.
Seems I either to click the “back” arrow in upper left hand corner several times (depends on how many articles I have opened) or to force close and restart the app.
Unless I’m missing something obvious?
Awesome stuff. I applaud Substack's focus on writers, as they drive the content of this site. However it does seem like, incrementally, the reader profile (and by extension, the reader as a participant in the Substack ecosystem) is getting more attention. Personally I'm more active here as a reader than a writer, as I imagine most users are. I love reading the excellent content I subscribe to, but I also really enjoy forming something like a friendship with my fellow active commenters for certain blogs. It seems like the Reader Profile could eventually grow to be something *like* a social media account- a place to consciously signal-boost content I enjoy (the featured "likes" is going that way), and a way to communicate with each other. Has there been any thought to enabling some sort of way for readers to formalize a "connection" with each other- a "friendship", a way to send direct messages, a way to see popular comments they've posted or comments of theirs that we have liked? Just some random ideas. Writers obviously drive the content that pulls paid subscribers here, but as someone who started paying for Substack subscriptions after dropping Facebook cold turkey way back in 2020, I ultimately took the plunge to start shelling over my hard-earned cash because I could tell there was a thoughtful community here I wanted to be a part of. Just something to think about!
Love the cross pollination potential of a “friendship” connection feature.
TikTok embeds!! 💛🙌🙌
En androit deben de actualizar
En las redes esto es magia
Hi and thanks,
I find the name of the platform a bit difficult to remember. :)
Thanks for the hard work and for providing an excellent platform for writers and readers. I would like to know if there are any plans to release an Android app?
I’ve had readers complain about having to register before commenting. I get why it’s there as a rule but is there a way around this as it’s putting my readers off!
Estas actualizaciones nos ayudan muchísimo a ganar mas ingresos
Thank you for getting the TikTok and Spotify embeds in there!! 🤘
If possible,,, I'd like to request displaying function of posted images like Instagram or Pintrrest, which can also show captions. I'd love to use my substack page like "picture book".
Great to see the continuing improvement and innovation for Substack.
I would love to see a bionic reading option that users could toggle when reading Substack. https://bionic-reading.com
Something I keep finding myself looking for is more granular stats on things like subscribers. I like seeing where gross annualized revenue falls, but it would also be nice to be able to look at monthly revenue for each month, etc. I never quite feel like I have the financial picture in mind. If my wife were to ask me, "how much are you expecting your Substack to bring in next month so I can budget?" I would have no idea what to tell her.
If this functionality is already there and I'm not seeing it, sorry!
Any progress on restoring the floating tool bar on mobile? That loss was big.
I appreciate that Substack is "helping writers succeed"...but I encountered a tech glitch and Tech Support hasn't answered my query in three days. I tried to block a verse with the poem-blocking feature, and it published the verse as a mass of text. I had to publish an apology to subscribers, which is a drag. Am stuck, and am not hearing back...
Awesome updates. Thanks for always being so quick to push these out. Would love to see Facebook post embeds added.
The tiktok embed is not working on my posts. It keeps telling me that it's "Unable to load Tiktok embed" when I paste the URL and "Invalid value" when I paste the embed code. What do I do?
Hi! Loving these product updates. I want to share feedback on an old feature that stopped working recently: the "share post with caption." Now when I use this button, only the caption is displayed, but not the "Share" button. The button is missing in both email and on the website. Could you check on this? Thanks!
Love to see all the incremental steps forward Substack takes. Thank you!
How about a way to minimize comments in the iOS app? Some posts have hundreds of comments. The website makes browsing them easier through collapsing them by clicking on the line on the left.
Do you mean collapsing individual comments which are a longer length? Or on the comments page being able to collapse all?
Individual comments, with their threaded replies. That way once I’ve seen that I’m no longer interested in the thread I can minimize it to easily get to the next one. Also ideally with collapsed status remembered between visits. That would make dipping in and out a little easier.
Generally, the Reddit iOS app does this well enough, along with a widget to go between top level comments.
Check out an Astral Codex Ten post with 500+ comments on the phone and try to skim through all of them and you’ll see what I mean.
Awesome, great updates! I believe I might have been the first to suggest a TikTok embed like a year ago.. 😜
So here are a couple of other things I'd like to see:
1) Live social proof like the fomo notifications: https://fomo.com/, letting people know someone just signed up to the Newsletter, someone just liked and article, etc.
2) A more advanced text editor where I can change the colors of text, add highlights, align text to the left, center or right, justify text, etc.
3) Tags for articles and tag cloud on home page for enhanced discovery and search (authors should be able to turn this on or off)
4) An enhanced Dashboard, like a proper one displaying graphs for all KPIs (e.g. Total subscribers, total paying subscribers, total posts, unsubscribes, open rates, demographics, etc.) visual, graphs, trends and deltas (e.g. +10% growth on subscribers last month)
5) Integrations, addons and powerups. I'd like Substack to open up a third party "marketplace" where developers can create things that integrate with Substack or enhance its functionality. Obviously, Substack and also create their own, but should not limit them only to Substack development. So something like this: https://trello.com/power-ups
6) Quora answer embeds
7) More payment options for readers/customers: ApplePay, Paypal, TransferWise
8) A place where authors can add their suggestions for Substack and we can all prioritise them, upvote, etc. so something like this: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/ad198462-1c1c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472 or https://gumroad.nolt.io/
9) Substack app for writers. The Medium one is pretty good, use it as a reference. It doesn't need to be a separate one of course, could be one for both readers and writers
10) Chat option, so readers can chat with authors and also an email me option, like a contact us. Authors should be able to enable or disable these options
11) A Substack Grow for people with smaller audiences. Like I find a bit ironic that you focus on growing people that are already "big." Although, I guess I can understand why you would want to double down on people generating a certain level of revenue to generate more, but still..
12) Community Leader Board & Rewards. So put a little bit of gamification to increase engagement and motivate readers positively. These guys do it really well: https://getmakerlog.com/ ; Facebook also does this by "rewarding" people who contribute with badges like "Rising Star" and stuff like that
Chat option would be great for an AMA with subscribers or an open thread.
Oh yeah, I forgot a few more: 13) Last updated (so sometimes I write a post and then update it many months later, but it only shows the original published date making it seem out of date, hence I would like to be able to display a last updated date on my posts and select whether to display this for a particular post or all) 14) Last updated posts should automatically move to the top, since they are the most recent ones, so the algorithm should consider publication date and last updated date, both
p.s. Providing all of this feedback for Substack was something I worked on today, hopefully you will find it valuable: https://trello.com/c/8XhJv6Tg
The "Likes" feature is one I have been looking for and didn't know to ask for it. Here I was just dealing with it or thinking I missed some setting somewhere. Thank you for this update and for giving me confidence that you're aware of these oddities and are working on fixing them!
As a newbie I’m really digging the update emails. Keep at it! Very helpful!
Ooh, one more thing ! Someone pointed out that the Settings page is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and maybe needs to be broken up into other pages. For myself, I live in utter terror of those red buttons. I can see myself chucking my phone in my purse, an accidentally deleting my entire Substack. AIEEE!
Looks fantastic! Can't wait to try these one out in the future article releases. Well done Substack team!
I never thought I’d use the TikTok embed cause I never am on there, but I just realized I had planned in my calendar to share a TikTok that made me extremely happy so that’s perfect! Haha. Thanks for all these amazing updates and keeping the writer first!
Any chance you could add a way to watermark our images? And/or a plug in to put on our website to send people here to subscribe to our newsletter?
Are you working on localization or option to translate manually? (E.g. subscribe embed)
I'm excited for the Android release. Hopefully, at the same time as the app release, we can write on the app as well.