Twitter’s Podcast Tab Might Not Spell Disaster

Twitter is trying to soar on the podcasting bandwagon, however it would not actually appear to be the place to take heed to long-form audio exhibits.

Twitter is the drive-by of social platforms. You drop in for a fast hit, perhaps hearth off an ill-considered and, frankly, fairly impolite reply, then get the heck out. If you come throughout a link to one thing with just a little extra depth or context, you would possibly reserve it to learn later. But what Twitter shouldn’t be is a spot to get deep into one thing with out distractions. It’s like settling in to look at a Paul Thomas Anderson film in a McDonald’s lavatory.

“Twitter has always struggled to be anything more than a micro-blogging site,” Andrew Selepak, social media professor on the University of Florida, instructed Lifewire through e-mail. “Twitter podcasts is another attempt to add something to their platform that is already more successful somewhere else.”

Podcast Gold Rush

Developer Jane Manchun Wong posted a screenshot of a brand new podcast tab, discovered hidden in Twitter’s cellular web site. Wong’s Twitter account has since been deleted, which can or might not have one thing to do with the invention.

But what would possibly Twitter plan for podcasts? It already has an audio chat room within the type of Spaces, though that doesn’t appear to be getting practically as a lot buzz because the service it copied, Clubhouse. 

If Twitter plans to go deep into podcasting, then it’ll have some work to do. Just including a tab to the app to play podcasts received’t be sufficient. How would that be any higher than simply launching one other podcast app? And devoted podcast apps come with out the added distraction of a Twitter timeline.

“When I’m looking for the kind of honest, well-formed, in-depth, and thought-provoking conversations which long-form podcasts are so well suited to, I definitely think of Twitter first,” stated Verge reader ahlam99 in a feedback thread, confirming that sarcasm on the web remains to be removed from useless. 

Podcasting is undoubtedly enormous and solely appears to be growing in recognition. We solely have so many hours in a day, and each a type of we spend listening to podcasts is one fewer hour accessible to waste doom scrolling, trolling, or cat movies.

But that does not imply Twitter ought to change into one more silo for podcasts. It’s already unhealthy sufficient that Spotify is attempting to lock podcasts into its ecosystem; we danger having to make use of a distinct app for each podcast we take heed to. It might find yourself like streaming TV, the place each community has its personal app, and all of these apps are optimized to not be good TV streaming apps, however to maximise engagement, even when it actually, actually annoys customers. 

But perhaps there’s an alternative choice? 

Core Competency

The drawback is that Twitter has struggled to do something that is not microblogging. But that is one thing it does higher than anybody else, so why would not it stick to creating that much more compelling?

“Twitter’s acquisition of Vine was a failure once Instagram added video, and Twitter’s acquisition of Periscope was also a failure once Facebook added Instagram Live and Facebook Live to its platforms. Twitter’s brief offering of temporary content with Fleets also died a quick, although easy to predict, death,” says Selepak. 

By their nature, podcasts aren’t actually suited to real-time dialog. We obtain them to have them prepared for listening at a time and place of our selecting. Some podcasts supply stay, members-only chat rooms the place you possibly can take heed to the stay recording and typically work together with the hosts and different listeners, however these aren’t podcasts at that time.

But what if Twitter permits you to subscribe to a podcast? Not to take heed to it, however to speak about it. If a dialog have been tied to an episode, it wouldn’t matter once you dropped in. That goes towards Twitter’s customary strategy, the place nothing lasts for greater than a minute or two earlier than dropping off your timeline, by no means to be seen once more. But Twitter is already experimenting with long-form articles, which additionally don’t match its regular format.

Twitter might add a useful additional dimension to podcasts, giving followers someplace to return collectively. I take heed to a bunch of podcasts I’d love to speak about, however the place would I do this?

A Twitter podcast group could be an effective way to start out.