Tumblr reverses its changes to reblogs after user backlash

Update 5PM ET: Tumblr has reversed the changes, saying “strong” user reactions “made clear that the rollout created problems we need to address before moving forward.” The company says it still believes “there’s a better version of how reblogs can work,” but it wants to do so with more community input and will share more in the coming days. Original article follows below.

Tumblr has overhauled its reblogging feature to add new options for interacting with chained posts, and it hasn’t gone down well with many of the platform’s users. The update announced by Tumblr on Monday enables users to like, reblog, and reply to any post nestled within a reblog chain, with subsequent reblogs having their own note counts instead of a single aggregated figure for every version of the post.

Visually speaking, the changes break up Tumblr’s iconic collapsed reblog chain UI — something long considered to be a part of the platform’s core user experience — into separate posts. In its announcement for the update, Tumblr even acknowledges that “the reblog chain is one of the things that makes Tumblr unlike anywhere else.”

The new experience looks closer at how reblogs behave on X, Bluesky, and Threads. And the similarities haven’t gone unnoticed by many Tumblr users who are now pushing back against the platform becoming “another Twitter look-alike,” and say the updated reblog chains are harder to follow. Users have also flagged that the changes may impact how creators interact with their audiences on the platform because they won’t be notified of any comments, likes, and shares on the reblogged versions of their posts.

“I have been on Tumblr for 16 years and this may be the worst change you have ever introduced,” one user on X said in response to the update. “It breaks a fundamental way the community works. Who asked for this?”

Tumblr has since acknowledged the backlash, but still plans to roll out the update. On its Changes account for platform updates, Tumblr said its “very clear that you all have strong feelings” about the new reblog system, and that user reactions will be monitored “as this rolls out over the next few days and you explore it.”

With more than 35,000 overwhelmingly negative comments on the Tumblr announcement, I’d say users are making their “strong feelings” known.