One of the biggest changes is the new “Following” feed. Spotify admits that finding the latest episodes from your followed podcasts hasn’t always been easy, so this dedicated feed will now sit right inside your main Podcasts tab on the Home screen, giving you a single place to catch everything new.
The new Following feed should already be live on your device.
Spotify is also bringing podcast and video podcast recommendations straight to your Home feed. These suggestions will show up right below your shortcuts, making it easier to find new content to listen to – or watch – without digging through menus.
Recommendations are now in your Home feed.
Creators can add these links themselves, so you won’t have to go searching for them later. Honestly, this one sounds pretty useful – how many times have you wanted to save a song or book a host mentioned but forgot to write it down?
Soon, you should also see a new “In this episode” section on podcast pages.
And Spotify is also giving podcast comments a light refresh. Based on user feedback, the company is adding threaded replies and emoji reactions. Creators will still have full control over whether comments are allowed, either for the whole show or individual episodes, through Spotify for Creators.
These updates might feel minor, but I think they are clearly part of Spotify’s bigger plan to stay competitive with Apple Podcasts and YouTube. YouTube, in particular, has been going all-in on podcasts lately – it even launched a weekly top podcast chart this month.
And honestly, its push is working. YouTube hit 1 billion monthly active podcast users earlier this year, which is a massive number and shows just how dominant it’s become in this space.
Still, I’m not totally convinced that following YouTube’s playbook is the best move – at least not for every Spotify fan. If Spotify is your main podcast app, the new Following feed could be a nice upgrade. But if you are like me and don’t want videos popping up all over your app, you might not be thrilled with where this is going. It was nice having a podcast space that wasn’t overloaded with videos everywhere.
