Replaces tab icons (favicons) on reddit with icons of subreddits.
// ==UserScript==
// @name Subreddit tab icons
// @description Replaces tab icons (favicons) on reddit with icons of subreddits.
// @version 8
// @license MIT
// @author Andrei Rybak
// @match https://www.reddit.com/*
// @match https://new.reddit.com/*
// @match https://old.reddit.com/*
// @match https://sh.reddit.com/*
// @exclude https://www.reddit.com/account/*
// @exclude https://new.reddit.com/account/*
// @exclude https://sh.reddit.com/account/*
// @icon https://www.redditstatic.com/desktop2x/img/favicon/android-icon-192x192.png
// @namespace https://github.com/rybak
// @homepageURL https://github.com/rybak/subreddit-tab-icons
// @grant none
// ==/UserScript==
/*
* Copyright (c) 2023-2025 Andrei Rybak
*
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
* of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
* in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
* to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
* copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
* furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
*
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
* copies or substantial portions of the Software.
*
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
* IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
* AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
* LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
* OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
* SOFTWARE.
*/
/* jshint esversion: 6 */
(function() {
'use strict';
const LOG_PREFIX = '[reddit tab icons]';
const DEBUG_ENABLED = false;
function error(...toLog) {
console.error(LOG_PREFIX, ...toLog);
}
function warn(...toLog) {
console.warn(LOG_PREFIX, ...toLog);
}
function info(...toLog) {
console.info(LOG_PREFIX, ...toLog);
}
function log(...toLog) {
console.log(LOG_PREFIX, ...toLog);
}
function debug(...toLog) {
console.debug(LOG_PREFIX, ...toLog);
}
/*
* Delay to wait after an error until next attempt, in milliseconds.
* Doubles after every error.
*/
var delayMs = 1000;
const SPECIAL_NAMES = ['all', 'friends', 'popular'];
const DEFAULT_REDDIT_ICON = 'https://www.redditstatic.com/desktop2x/img/favicon/favicon-96x96.png';
let srDataUrl = '';
let srName = '';
function getSrName() {
const srNameRegex = /https:[/][/](www|old|new|sh)[.]reddit[.]com[/]r[/](\w+)/g;
log('Getting subreddit name from', document.location.href);
const match = srNameRegex.exec(document.location.href);
if (!match || !match[0]) {
warn(`Cannot find subreddit URL in "${document.location.href}".`);
return undefined;
}
return match[2];
}
function resetToDefaultIcon() {
/*
* Here we either on a special subreddit as a new page load,
* or as a load-less switch in New Reddit. In latter case,
* we need to reset the icon from whatever previous subreddit
* might have been loaded.
*/
setFavicon(DEFAULT_REDDIT_ICON, () => {
log(`Cannot reset the icon for "${document.location.href}". Aborting.`);
});
}
function replaceOnNewPage() {
log('Replacing on new page', document.location.href);
const maybeSrName = getSrName();
if (!maybeSrName) {
warn(`Cannot find subreddit URL in "${document.location.href}". Resetting the icon to the default.`);
resetToDefaultIcon();
return;
}
srName = maybeSrName;
if (SPECIAL_NAMES.includes(srName)) {
log(`Detected special subreddit "${srName}". Resetting the icon to the default.`);
resetToDefaultIcon();
return;
}
srDataUrl = `https://www.reddit.com/r/${srName}/about.json`;
replaceFavicon();
}
function tryAgain(errorFn) {
log(`Trying again after ${delayMs} ms...`);
setTimeout(errorFn, delayMs);
delayMs = delayMs * 2;
}
function setFavicon(url, errorFn) {
const selector = 'link[rel="icon"], link[rel="icon shortcut"], link[rel="apple-touch-icon"]';
const faviconNodes = document.querySelectorAll(selector);
if (!faviconNodes || faviconNodes.length == 0) {
error('Cannot find favicon elements. Selector =', selector);
info('All link tags for the bug report:');
document.querySelectorAll('link').forEach(t => {
info(t);
});
tryAgain(errorFn);
return;
}
log('Using new URL =', url);
faviconNodes.forEach(node => {
log('Replacing old URL =', node.href);
node.href = url;
});
log('Done.');
}
/*
* For some reason .community_icon is partially HTML encoded.
* Seems like a Reddit bug. Work around the bug by HTML decoding
* the string.
*/
function cleanUpCommunityIcon(url) {
if (!url || url.length == 0) {
return url;
}
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/34064434/1083697
function htmlDecode(input) {
const doc = new DOMParser().parseFromString(input, "text/html");
return doc.documentElement.textContent;
}
const res = htmlDecode(url);
log(`Converted community_icon from "${url}" to "${res}".`);
return res;
}
/*
* I couldn't figure out a simple way to _reliably_ determine
* if a website on www.reddit.com is Old Reddit or New Reddit.
* So that's why there is this weird ping-pong error handling.
*/
function replaceFavicon() {
/*
* For old.reddit.com
*/
function replaceFaviconOld() {
function useSrData(data) {
if (DEBUG_ENABLED) {
debug('Received JSON:', data);
}
/*
* Not every subreddit has all these different images
* defined in their style/theme/look-and-feel/whatever.
* Therefore, try several different options.
*/
const communityIcon = cleanUpCommunityIcon(data.community_icon);
const options = [communityIcon, data.icon_img, data.header_img];
if (DEBUG_ENABLED) {
debug('Options for', document.location.href, options);
}
for (const img of options) {
if (img && img.length > 0) {
setFavicon(img, replaceFaviconNew);
return;
}
}
/*
* If we loaded "about.json" and it come up empty for
* all three options of different fields for the icon,
* it means that the subreddit likely doesn't have
* the icon defined in the settings at all. Abort in
* such cases.
*/
warn(`It seems that subreddit "${srName}" doesn't have its own icons defined. Resetting the icon to the default.`);
resetToDefaultIcon();
}
/*
* Download data about the subreddit from Reddit API.
* https://old.reddit.com/r/redditdev/comments/dot8tn/how_can_i_get_the_icon_of_a_subreddit/
*/
log(`Loading from "${srDataUrl}"...`);
const srDataPromise = fetch(srDataUrl);
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/43175774/1083697
srDataPromise.then(res => res.json())
.then(json => useSrData(json.data))
.catch(err => {
error(`Got error while getting ${srDataUrl}`, err);
tryAgain(replaceFaviconNew);
});
}
/*
* For new.reddit.com
*/
function replaceFaviconNew() {
const srIcon = document.querySelector('img[alt="Subreddit-Symbol"], img.shreddit-subreddit-icon__icon');
if (!srIcon) {
warn("Couldn't find the icon in HTML of New Reddit.");
tryAgain(replaceFaviconOld);
return;
}
info("Using the icon from HTML.");
setFavicon(srIcon.src, replaceFaviconOld);
}
/*
* Users of Old Reddit are more likely to use explicit URL
* old.reddit.com than users of New Reddit, so check for
* "old" first.
*/
if (document.location.hostname.includes('old')) {
replaceFaviconOld();
} else {
/*
* Here the user is either using www.reddit.com or
* explicit new.reddit.com. Users of www.reddit.com are
* more likely to be using New Reddit (i.e. the default),
* so try it out first.
*/
replaceFaviconNew();
}
}
replaceOnNewPage();
/*
* Clicking on a link on New Reddit doesn't trigger a page load (sometimes,
* at least). To cover such cases, we need to automatically detect that
* the subreddit in the URL has changed.
*
* For whatever reason (either limitations of userscripts, or trickery of
* New Reddit, or both), listener for popstate events doesn't work to
* detect a change in the URL.
* https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/popstate_event
*
* As a workaround, observe the changes in the <title> tag, since most
* subreddits will have different <title>s.
*/
const observer = new MutationObserver((mutationsList) => {
const maybeNewSrName = getSrName();
log('Mutation to', maybeNewSrName);
if (maybeNewSrName != srName) {
log('MutationObserver: subreddit has changed:', document.location.href);
replaceOnNewPage();
}
});
observer.observe(document.querySelector('title'), { subtree: true, characterData: true, childList: true });
log('Added MutationObserver');
})();