Threads targets podcasters with new features, aiming to become the home for show discussions

Threads, Meta’s competitor to X, will now begin targeting a specific type of creator: podcasters. The company said on Tuesday that Threads will focus on bringing more discussions around podcasts to its app and helping creators promote their shows.

Initially, Threads will roll out a couple of new features to help on this front. For one, it will give podcast links in the feed a unique and more pronounced look, with colorful backgrounds and image thumbnails, making them easier to spot.

Creators, meanwhile, will get a dedicated spot in their user profile to add a link to their podcast. Threads says these links, which are similarly designed to stand out, will help podcasters better promote their shows and grow their audiences.

In the year ahead, these features will be followed by others that will also focus on serving podcasters and their listeners, a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Meta explained it’s interested in the podcast community because it sees the potential in becoming the de facto place for people to talk about shows and engage with creators. Today, such discussions are distributed across social media, on places like Reddit, X, Facebook and Instagram, as well as on the platforms where podcasts are streamed, like YouTube and Spotify (the latter added support for comments last year).

The company’s also trying to tap podcasts’ deep ties to culture, which can drive discussions and encourage interactions. Threads currently has more than 400 million monthly active users and 150 million daily active users, less than its rival X, which claims as many as 600 million monthly active users. Capturing the podcast community, or even a portion of that, could help to narrow that gap significantly.

However, while Threads will target the discussions that result from podcasts, the company told TechCrunch it doesn’t intend to be a podcast distribution platform.

Instead, the company will focus on giving podcast hosts more insight and analytics on how the conversations around their shows are resonating with fans. It also intends to develop more features that would help people discover podcasts they might like, and connect podcasters and listeners through conversations.

This isn’t the first time Threads has targeted creators as a way to differentiate its social network from X, Bluesky, and others in the space.

The company in May gave creators the ability to add up to five links in their profile, allowing them to promote their broader presence across the web, including on other social media sites, video platforms, blogs, and portfolios. The company more recently also began allowing creators to share longer thoughts and perspectives through a text attachment feature.

Meta says users can expect to see Threads explore more features focused on podcast discussions in the months ahead.