TL;DR To make messaging on Reddit faster and more reliable, we’re replacing Private Messages (PMs) with Reddit Chat and inbox notifications. This transition is necessary to maintain and improve Reddit’s messaging infrastructure. We aim to make these changes with minimal disruption while improving the user experience.
Timeline: Starting at the end of March, we’ll roll out these changes in phases over the next three months to ensure everything goes smoothly
Yup, pretty much.
And, as usual, advertisers are to be blamed: they’re the ones interested on “engagement”, and indirectly siccing platforms to artificially inflate their engagement numbers.