Reader regression — links open in new tab instead of staying in Reader
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Subject: Reader regression — blog links now open in new browser tab instead of staying in Reader
Hi,
I’m writing to report a behaviour change in the WordPress.com Reader that appeared today (18 June 2026) and is significantly degrading my workflow.
Previously, when reviewing like/comment notifications in the Reader, clicking a link to another blog would open that blog within the Reader interface (in-window). As of today, those same links are spawning a new browser tab and opening the external blog site directly in the browser, bypassing the Reader entirely.
This is a major regression for anyone who works through notifications in the Reader, as it breaks the in-app flow and forces constant tab management.
Expected behaviour: clicking a blog link from a like/comment notification in the Reader should open the linked blog within the Reader, as before.
Actual behaviour (as of today): the link opens in a new browser tab, leaving the Reader.
Please reinstate the previous behaviour. This appears to be an unintentional change rather than a deliberate redesign.
Thank you.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi Stephen,Thank you for the detailed report.I can understand how disruptive that would be, especially if you’re regularly working through notifications in the Reader and relying on the ability to move between sites without leaving the Reader experience.I haven’t seen any recent announcements regarding an intentional change to this behavior, so I’d like to gather a bit more information to help determine whether this is a bug, an experiment, or a browser-specific issue.Could you please let us know:- Which browser and version you’re using?- Whether the same behavior occurs in an incognito/private browsing window?- Whether it happens for all Reader notifications or only specific types (Likes, Comments, Follows, etc.)?- If possible, could you share a short screen recording showing the workflow and the new-tab behavior?Additionally, if you haven’t already, please try clearing your browser cache and temporarily disabling any extensions that might affect link handling to see whether the behavior persists.If we can confirm that this represents a change from the previous Reader experience and reproduce it consistently, we’ll be able to pass the details along to the appropriate team for further investigation.Thanks for taking the time to report this and for providing such a clear description of the issue.
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This appears to be part of a newly rolled out design change of the notifications area in Reader, e.g.
– font / white space layout changes in the notification items
– change in position and style of Like button, comment-reply box etc (these are now at the bottom of the screen rather than in-context in the item itself
– etcThe change in link behaviour is therefore obviously part of a larger UI re-design and likely a deliberate design choice rather than being some transient browser-specific/cache issue
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