Twitter acquires podcasting app Breaker

Hemai Sheth Updated - January 05, 2021 at 04:02 PM.

Breaker to shut down on January 15

FILE - This April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Twitter app icon on a mobile phone in Philadelphia. A tech-focused civil liberties group on Tuesday, June 2, 2020, sued to block President Donald Trump's executive order that seeks to regulate social media, saying it violates the First Amendment and chills speech. Trump's order, signed in late May, could allow more lawsuits against internet companies like Twitter and Facebook for what their users post, tweet and stream. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Twitter has acquired Breaker, a popular podcasting app.

The announcement was made by Breaker on its company blog. “We’re excited to announce that the Breaker team is joining Twitter!” wrote Breaker CEO Erik Berlin.

The company will be shutting down the Breaker app on January 15 “to focus on building what comes next.” The team will be joining Twitter to help build the microblogging platform’s new audio-based networking project, Twitter Spaces.

Leah Culver, co-founder of the breaker will also be joining the Twitter team.

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“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,” Culver tweeted.

Twitter Engineering lead Michael Montano also confirmed that Berlin, Culver and Breaker designer Emma Lundin will be joining Twitter after the deal.

Berlin in his blog post detailed the team’s future plans and also provided recommendations for hosts and listeners to move their content from the platform before it shuts down.

“When we started Breaker, podcast apps were productivity apps, similar to feed readers and to-do lists. Breaker added a social community element with features such as liking and commenting on episodes. We’re now inspired to go even further in re-imagining how we communicate with each other, beyond the scope of traditional podcasts,” he wrote.

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Listeners on Breaker can transfer their subscriptions to another podcast listening app by exporting them in an OPML file from Breaker and open that file in another app.

The Breaker CEO recommended Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or Castro for iOS and Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or Pocket Casts for Android.

Users who host their podcasts on the platform can transfer their podcast to another hosting service by using the RSS feed.

“You can find your RSS feed link on the Distribution tab. We recommend trying out Anchor, Simplecast, or Transistor for your podcast hosting depending on your specific podcast hosting needs,” explained Berlin.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Published on January 5, 2021 10:20