Twitter has announced that will integrate a podcast directory within Spaces, its live audio feature for real-time conversations. The tab will be redesigned to accommodate the new features in the iOS and Android apps. It will reach all users in stages, starting with Anglo-Saxon speakers.
Within Spaces, you can see a selection of live programs or already produced content classified according to theme: News, Sports, Music, Cinema, etc. An algorithm will be in charge of selecting content specifically for each user. For example, if he follows journalists covering the conflict in Ukraine, he will be shown live conversations on this topic or related programs.
“Studies we’ve conducted internally show that nearly half of the people who use Twitter in the United States listen to at least one podcast a month, so we want our users to be able to find new podcasts on Twitter that they might find interesting.” interest”.
Why podcasts are integrated into Twitter
Twitter’s strategy is to add podcasts to increase the time each user spends within the application and, therefore, to see more sponsored tweets and ads, which is the main source of income for the company. It is working very well for Spotify, and it has served to create a new source of income that is more profitable than music playback.
But the one that covers a lot, squeezes little. Twitter has already flirted with the idea of users writing articles directly within the platform. This idea, which makes sense because the only way to write without character limitation is threads or linking articles, has been neglected since its launch. The same goes for Spaces, a nice feature that was given special importance within the interface, but has been abandoned without being updated until now.
The possibility of recording live conversations, which arise in Spaces and their subsequent listening and cataloging, could make the function more popular. Usually, interesting and spontaneous conversations of value arise. Y it helps numerous users to dare to expose their ideas without having to resort to a previous investment of money and time to publish a podcast.
What do you need to compete with the benchmarks in the sector?
More confusing is the ability to listen to podcasts hosted on other platforms within Twitter. Most users already use Apple Podcasts, especially in North America, or Spotify. But it can be a proposal that helps a user’s followers learn more about the content creator outside the platform.
For Twitter to even compete with Spotify, Apple Podcast or any other podcast playback application, it will have to offer the string of functions that the user already assumes as basic; how to download episodes for listening offline.
However, Twitter has a great advantage: you can link the conversation in real time with a specific content. The user who listens to a podcast that he likes goes to Twitter to share his impressions of it. So why not listen to it on Twitter while reading other users’ comments on the episode? The possibilities are numerous, but if we look at the history of the latest changes in Twitter, most likely another wasted function.