Meta’s social media platform Threads is shifting its focus to podcasters, aiming to create a dedicated space for discussions surrounding podcasts. Threads now has 400+ million monthly active users and 150+ million daily actives. That is rapidly becoming a serious competitor to legacy social networks such as X, which shoots for the moon by saying they have 600 million MAUs.
Threads will provide podcasters with new avenues to promote their shows. Creators can now add up to five links to their profiles. Plus, any podcast links that show up in the feed will be highlighted with special formatting. These improvements will add colorful artwork backgrounds for each podcast, along with visually rich computer-generated image thumbnails, further inviting and helping users interact with engaging podcast content.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the company would continue to release new features. This will serve as the primary guide for our updates, prioritizing the needs of podcasters and their listeners. This program gives us hosts more context and data to inform what discussions around their shows and IPs are hitting home with fans. Using these data-driven tools might help podcasters not only be more in tune with their audience, but create a more captivating dialogue.
Sarah Perez, long-time reporter at TechCrunch since August 2011, has been on the beat closely covering these developments. With a history in I.T. spanning multiple industries—from banking to retail to software—Sarah offers a wide-ranging perspective on technology. Before that she spent more than three years at ReadWriteWeb prior to coming to TechCrunch. She’s available on encrypted email and signal at sarahperez.01.
Threads now faces the challenge of carving out its own niche in the increasingly-busy social media landscape. Most importantly, it will be interesting to see how both creators and listeners adapt to the new features. Threads differentiates itself from competitors such as X and Bluesky by prioritizing podcast conversations. This method is a notable departure from the trend of social networks only dipping into the audio landscape.
