Twitter Gives Podcasts An Official Space In Its App To Fuel Audio Conversations

Twitter grew to prominence with a focus on short text content, but it has been expanding into audio in recent years with features like Spaces voice chat. Now, Twitter is jumping into podcasts, which will be accessible as part of the revamped Spaces tab. This isn't some "in the coming months" change—Twitter says that podcasts will be live in Spaces for English-speaking users starting today.

According to Twitter, 45% of its US-based users are already listening to podcasts on a monthly basis, so the addition of this content to Spaces is an easy win. Twitter says this is just another way it is continuing to invest in audio creators. Within Spaces, users will see multiple personalized hubs that Twitter calls "Stations." These will be based on general interests like news, music, and sports. The selection of content in each station will take into account the accounts you follow on the service.

The new Spaces tab will have three sections, with Stations taking the top spot. Under that is the Spaces Spotlight, which brings you recommended live conversations. At the bottom, you get a list of upcoming scheduled Spaces. Twitter has been spotted testing podcast functionality in recent months, but these feeds had a dedicated section of the app in these trial runs. Twitter's final podcast rollout blurs the lines between pre-recorded podcast content and the ad-hoc Spaces chats. In addition to podcasts and live Spaces, the redesigned tab will include pre-recorded Spaces… which are essentially podcasts without the RSS.

There does not appear to be a way to simply subscribe to or follow a particular podcast like you would in a podcast app, but you can thumb up or down a podcast to tell Twitter how you feel about it. This data will feed into the algorithm, affecting what audio content Twitter shows you in the future.

Twitter gives Spaces prominent placement in the app—right in the middle of the navigation bar. If you're not interested in audio content in the app, you'll have to stare at that icon every time you open it. Unless, of course, you have a Twitter Blue subscription. The $4.99 monthly service includes ad-free articles, an undo Tweet button, additional app icons, and the option to customize your app navigation. For example, you could remove Spaces from it entirely. The feature will arrive today for both Android and iOS. There's no word yet on podcast support in the web version.