Threads is targeting podcasters with new features, aiming to become a home for show discussions

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

Initially, Threads will be rolling out some new features to help on this front. First, it will give podcast links in the feed a unique, clearer look, with colorful backgrounds and image thumbnails, making them easier to spot.

Meanwhile, creators will get a dedicated place on 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.

Next year, these features will be followed by others that will also focus on serving podcast creators and their listeners, a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Meta explained that she is interested in the podcast community because she sees the potential for it to become the de facto place for people to talk about shows and interact with creators. Today, such discussions are distributed across social media, in places like Reddit, X, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as platforms where podcasts are broadcast, like YouTube and Spotify (the latter of which added support for comments last year).

The company is also trying to capitalize on podcasts’ deep connections with culture, which can spark discussions and encourage interactions. Threads currently has over 400 million monthly active users and 150 million daily active users, which is lower than its competitor X, which claims up to 600 million monthly active users. Capturing the podcast community, or even a portion of it, can help narrow this gap significantly.

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

Instead, the company will focus on giving podcast hosts more insight and analysis into how conversations about their shows resonate with fans. It also plans to develop more features that will help people discover podcasts they might like, and connect podcasters and listeners through conversations.

This isn’t the first time Threads has targeted content 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 on their profiles, allowing them to boost their presence more broadly across the web, including other social media sites, video platforms, blogs and portfolios. The company also recently started allowing creators to share longer ideas and viewpoints through a text attachment feature.

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