How do you join or leave a community?

Joining and leaving Reddit communities is a simple, reversible action that affects your feed composition and sidebar navigation without any other consequences. The mechanics are identical across desktop and mobile, though the interface elements differ slightly. To **join** a community on desktop, navigate to its page and click the "Join" button, which appears prominently at the top of the community page near the community name and description. On mobile, the same Join button appears when you view a community's page. The button immediately changes to "Joined" (or "Leave") to confirm the action. Once joined, the community's posts begin appearing in your Home feed and the community is added to your sidebar list under "My Communities." There is no approval required for public communities — joining is instant and immediate. To **leave** a community, the process is the reverse: visit the community page and click the "Leave" or "Joined" button (which toggles to confirm you want to leave). On mobile, leaving is sometimes done through the community's overflow menu. Once you leave, the community no longer appears in your sidebar and its posts stop being included in your Home feed. Your previous comments and posts in that community are not affected — they remain publicly visible even after you leave. According to the r/modnews announcement when Reddit updated this terminology, Reddit specifically changed "Subscribe/Unsubscribe" to "Join/Leave" to make the actions feel less formal and to eliminate the confusion new users had about whether subscribing implied any cost or commitment. Joining a community has no cost, requires no approval for public communities, and creates no permanent obligation — it is purely an organizational choice about which communities' content you want in your feed. It is also worth noting that you can participate — read, comment, and in most communities post — without being a formal member. Joining is primarily about feed integration and navigation convenience, not about permission to engage. The reversibility of joining means there is no meaningful downside to joining a community provisionally while you evaluate whether its content and culture are a good fit for your interests.