Twitter launched June 2020 introducedAudio tweets allow you to record your voice and send it as a tweet. A perk? These can also be listened to while you multi-task across other day-to-day activities including checking email or working on a document — comparable to a micro podcast. There’s a lot that can go unsaid or uninterpreted via text, so the platform’s goal with the offering is to bring a more human experience to conversations.
The company then follows suit. announcedIn December, it launched its own audio-based social network product. ClubhouseCompetitors Spaces, was entering beta phase. This allowed users to communicate in real-time with each other using voice, instead of text. While the product is still in beta, the platform continues to work on technical issues and bugs, as well as the more complicated issues that can arise from hosting live audio, such as moderation.
Fast forward to today: Twitter announced the acquisition of a community-focused podcast app. Breaker. Here’s a breakdown of the latest.
What is Breaker?
Since its inception in 2016, Breaker’s mission centered around influencing the perception of audio and disrupting the norms of podcasts as audio feeds and podcast apps as productivity tools. Breaker portrayed podcast apps instead as a community building platform. Breaker users have the ability, among other things, to comment and like their favorite episodes, find new podcasts that match their interests, follow friends with similar tastes, and share their favorite shows to other social media platforms in order to spark conversation.
The future of audio
Breaker co-founder Leah CulverTwitter, where she shared her desire to create the future of audio and to build out Twitter Spaces during her tenure as CEO Erik BerlinHis vision was to help the podcast industry redefine and reimagine old podcasts.
In work news, I’m joining Twitter to help build @TwitterSpacesThank you! 🥳 While I’ll very much miss @breaker, I’m so excited to help create the future of audio conversations. https://t.co/0Y8fkbCIFm
— Leah Culver (@leahculver) January 4, 2021
“We’re truly passionate about audio communication and we’re inspired by the ways Twitter is facilitating public conversations for people around the world,” shared Berlin in the official announcement. In his own MediumPost he shared, “We’re now inspired to go even further in re-imagining how we communicate with each other, beyond the scope of traditional podcasts.”
In a separate thread, the Twitter engineering lead Michael Montano, reiterated his excitement to leverage Berlin and Culver’s backgrounds to help “improve the health of public conversation on our service.” He added, “both Erik and Leah have founded and sold startups previously and will bring an entrepreneurial spirit to our engineering organization.”
🚨🚨🚨We are thrilled to share some exciting news. The @BreakerTeam @sferik? @leahculver @emma_lundin, is joining Twitter., is joining Twitter. 👋
— Michael Montano (@michaelmontano) January 4, 2021
According to TechCrunch, Berlin was previously the founder and CTO at social advertising company 140 Proof — which sold to Acuity — while Culver previously founded Pownce and Grove and co-authored web technologies OAuth and oEmbed.
“As an entrepreneur she’s been out front, testing ideas on several waves of online conversation and publishing. Pownce and Convore were exciting and in many ways ahead of their times,” said Montao of Culver’s efforts to push for more open standards over the past several years.
Podcasting: The new tech battlefield
There are certain areas that seem to get targeted attention despite the tech industry’s ebbs. Podcasting is one such space. Look no further than the greats Amazon? Google? Apple Spotify.
Amazon’s $300 millionAcquisition Wondery? SiriusPurchase StitcherFor $300 million, not to mention Spotify’s purchases of Anchor? Gimlet? Parcast? Megaphone, Joe Rogan Experience — one of the most popular shows on the scene to date. Unakin to these deals, however, Twitter’s play is unique in that its sale doesn’t center on strictly podcasts themselves and the content, rather Breaker’s sale is made up of staff and technology with the larger objective of cementing Spaces as a viable offering for marketers and users.
Feature image credit via Breaker.
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