Twitter could be expanding into podcasts next

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What you need to know

  • Twitter appears to be testing a new section in its iPhone app that's related to podcasts.
  • A new Podcasts tab has been found in the Twitter app but it isn't clear what it will be used for.

Podcasts are where everyone seems to want to be right now and it looks like Twitter could be the latest to jump in.

Engineer Jane Munchun Wong has been able to uncover a new Podcats app in the Twitter app that appears to be a holding page for something much more interesting. With Apple already big in podcasts and Spotify spending money to catch up, could Twitter be the next to get in on the act.

It's currently unknown exactly what Twitter has planned here, however. While there is undoubtedly the potential for Twitter hosting its own podcasts in a way that's similar to Spotify, it could instead be giving people a way to surface their existing podcasts via a new directory — something more akin to what Apple does already. Twitter has not announced anything yet, of course, but it does seem clear that something is in the works.

How either of these approaches will be received by long-time Twitter users remains to be seen. The feature will only be available via the official Twitter app of course, and while the social network did initially start out life as just a collection of short messages in a timeline, it's expanded well beyond that. Twitter Spaces are a prime example of that, of course, and it seems possible that there could be a link between Spaces and a future podcasting initiative.

Until Twitter announces something we'll just have to wait and see. Whether Twitter will one day be the best iPhone app for listening to podcasts, however, I'm not so sure.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.