Spotify is expanding its podcast discovery and engagement features with a new global update designed to improve user experience and boost visibility for creators, including a redesigned podcast discovery feed and a streamlined following system.
One of the key updates is a new podcast recommendation feed located directly on the app’s Home page. Positioned below the user’s shortcuts, the section offers curated recommendations for podcasts and video podcasts, occasionally including brief explanations for why a show might be a good match.
The platform is also addressing a long-standing complaint from users – difficulty tracking updates from shows they follow. The redesigned Podcasts Following feed brings new episodes from followed shows into a single, centralized space within the main Podcast tab. Spotify indicates this improvement will continue to evolve based on user behavior.
Spotify is also launching a new “In this episode” feature that allows creators to link to other content mentioned in their podcasts, such as songs, audiobooks, and playlists, within the episode’s detail page. The feature is set to roll out globally over the coming weeks.
For increased interaction, the company is expanding its comments function. Creators now have access to threaded replies and emoji reactions, with settings to manage or opt out of episode comment visibility via Spotify for Creators.
This comes after the streamer adjusted how it displays podcast episode performance after backlash to its new “Plays” metric, which was introduced to offer faster insight into listener engagement.
Originally intended to mirror YouTube-style “Views,” the public-facing “Plays” count aimed to help users discover popular episodes and provide creators with quicker performance data. But critics, especially from the independent podcasting community, warned it could unfairly favor big shows and shift focus from content quality to popularity.
In response, Spotify will now only show public play counts once an episode surpasses 50,000 listens, with milestone labels like 50K, 100K, and 250K replacing exact figures. Episodes below that threshold will not display any play data to listeners.
