Podcasts are new to Twitter. The company has been working on it for the past several months as it looks to expand its social audio features beyond Spaces. Towards the end of August, the social network announced that podcasts will be available within the Spaces tab in its app. But the tab itself is getting redesigned to make dedicated rooms for additional content, including themed audio stations. Twitter doesn’t want to replace the dedicated podcasts apps, though. Instead, it is looking to make it easier for users to find podcasts that they may like. “If someone regularly interacts with Vox content on Twitter, they’ll probably see a Vox podcast in a Spaces hub,” the company said last month. Users can also browse through topic-wise arranged podcasts and like/dislike the podcasts to tell Twitter more about their interests. The app will hide the content you dislike while showing more of what you like.
Twitter rolls out podcasts to Blue subscribers
During its announcement last month, Twitter said it is testing this redesign among a small group of English-speaking users. The company planned to iron out bugs and other issues based on the feedback from those testers before making it available widely. It appears the development has progressed smoothly over the past few weeks. The podcast-integrated Spaces tab is now available to Twitter Blue subscribers. For the uninitiated, Twitter Blue is a subscription service that gives you access to some exclusive features that aren’t available on the free version of the social network app. For $4.99 a month, you get custom app icons, a custom navigation bar, a bookmarks folder, undo tweets, and ad-free articles. It doesn’t remove ads from the platform itself, though. Additionally, Blue subscribers get early access to new features that Twitter is working on currently. These users already have access to features such as longer and higher quality videos and NFT profile pictures. The company is now giving them access to podcasts with the redesigned Spaces tab. Twitter doesn’t tell when it plans to make podcasts available to all users. We will keep you posted with developments around this feature.