Twitter is officially delving into the world of podcasts. The social network announced today that it’s integrating podcasts into its platform as part of its newly designed Spaces tab. The revamped Spaces tab and the addition of podcasts will be visible to a group of global English-speaking audience on iOS and Android starting today.
“Integrating podcasts into Spaces, where audio conversations happen on Twitter, is another way we’re continuing to invest in audio creators,” Twitter said in a blog post. “To do this in a simple and intuitive way that allows listeners to simply hit play and go, we started with a redesigned audio experience in the Spaces Tab.”
The company says the redesign introduces personalized hubs that group content together based on different topics, such as news, music, sports and more. Twitter users will now be able to access a personalized selection of live and recorded Spaces. The hubs will also feature the most popular podcasts from around the world. Once you come across podcasts, you can give a podcast a thumbs up or thumbs down to let Twitter know if the content is interesting to you.
Twitter says its internal research indicates that 45% of people who use Twitter in the U.S. also listen to podcasts monthly, so the now the company will automatically suggest podcasts to help users discover content based on the topics they’re interested in.
Today’s announcement isn’t exactly a surprise, given that the social network has been spotted testing a podcast addition for the past couple of months. However, initial tests indicated that Twitter was working on a dedicated podcasts tab, but today’s launch shows that Twitter is instead interested in making podcasts a part of Spaces, as opposed to giving them their own home on the platform.
This story is developing…