It was two-year-old Clubhouse that showed us the immense scope of social audio during the pandemic, and since then, leading social media platforms globally have worked to roll out their own social audio features. Spaces was one such feature, rolled out by Twitter as an answer to Clubhouse, and now, it will be integrated with podcasts.
Starting Thursday, a redesigned Spaces tab will include an integrated podcast display, which the company said was another way it was “continuing to invest in audio creators.” In pursuit of this objective, the Spaces tab has been redesigned to provide users with a simple and intuitive audio experience.
Note that the addition of podcasts to a revamped Twitter’s Spaces will only be visible to a group of global English-speaking audience on both iOS and Android, following which the company may roll it out to the general masses in the future.
“We know that some discussions need more than 280 characters, and bringing people closer to the ideas, content, and creators they know and love is core to Twitter no matter where the conversations take place,” Twitter wrote in a blog post.
With the redesigned Spaces tab, users will have access to personalized hubs, or Stations, that will organize content by specific themes (such as News, Music, or Sports), thus giving them a better audio experience. These topic-based podcasts will contain both live audio rooms and recorded podcast episodes, and will be at the top of the Spaces tab.
Additionally, Twitter will recommend podcasts to users based on their activity on its platform. So, you are likely to find podcasts related to topics you follow and interact with regularly, more easily on the new Spaces tab.
” Our internal research indicates that 45% of people who use Twitter in the US also listen to podcasts monthly, so we’ll automatically suggest compelling podcasts to help people easily find and listen to the topics they want to hear more about,” the blog post added.
The more users listen and engage, the more personalized and tailored these Stations will become. If they do not find the content interesting, all they need to do is give a “thumbs down.” In the opposite case, the “thumbs up” is the one they should choose.
These personalized hubs, which will let users have a more personalized selection of audio content, will be followed by Spaces spotlight, which will list some of the top curated audios. By combining podcasts and Spaces, Twitter will be able to better categorize the audio feed and help users discover more Spaces.
