Twitter seems to be pretty serious about developing its audio-based Spaces feature which they started beta testing this December. They have now acquired social podcasting app Breaker and will be using the team to help develop Twitter Spaces. The bad news for users of the podcasting app is that it will be shutting down by January 15, 2021. There is no further information about the deal except that Breaker founders will be transitioning to Twitter as a result of this deal.
The announcement was made by the Breaker team on Twitter (of course) and in a blog post. Breaker CEO Erik Berlin said that they are passionate about audio communication and they are inspired with how Twitter “is facilitating public conversations for people around the world.” The post further explains why they believe the team will be a perfect fit at Twitter. CTO Leah Culver tweeted that she’s joining Twitter to help build Twitter Spaces.
In work news, I’m joining Twitter to help build @TwitterSpaces! 🥳 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
Twitter Spaces is a feature that would let users chat in real time but using voice instead of text. They have started beta testing last December but they need to work out some issues like technical ones as well as how to host live audio including how people would be able to moderate these audio chats. The addition of the Breaker team may be the missing piece to the puzzle as they are bringing years of experience not just with the podcasting app but their previous involvement with tech companies as well.
As for the current Breaker users, they will have to start finding a new podcast listening app, which there are a lot more good, even better ones right now. Users can export their subscriptions by generating an OPML file in the settings. They can then open the file in other apps like Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or Pocket Casts to import the subscriptions. Those who are hosting podcasts on Breaker can transfer to other services like Anchor, Simplecast, or Transistor by using RSS feed.
You will have to do this before January 15, 2021 as the app will be shutting down officially by then. The teams says they are doing this to be able to “focus on building what comes next.”
