Popular podcast app Breaker has been acquired by social media giant Twitter. The podcast app is expected to shut down its services on January 15.
The move will see Breaker’s team joining forces with Twitter in hopes to help create new experiences for the Twitter community and also work on the companies new audio-based networking project feature called ‘Twitter Spaces’.
The company announced the acquisition on its blog post, stating that they were truly passionate about audio communication and were inspired by the ways Twitter is facilitating public conversations for people around the world.
“We’re impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit at Twitter and enthusiastic about the new experiences that the team is creating,” said Erik Berlin CEO of Breaker.
The app was founded in 2016 by Leah Culver and Erik Berlin. At the time of launch, podcasts were considered as audio-only feeds and many people would not have thought that podcasts will be dominating the media landscape.
Breaker helped change the podcast landscape by adding a social twist to its app. It offered its users to leave comments on specific podcasts, follow each other and share their favourite podcast with their friends.
Berlin added that the company was proud of the apps and services they have built over the past four years.
“We’re now inspired to go even further in re-imagining how we communicate with each other, beyond the scope of traditional podcasts,” said Berlin.
The co-founder of Breaker Leah Culver also shared the news on Twitter saying she will be joining Twitter to help build ‘Twitter Space’.
“While I’ll very much miss Breaker, I’m so excited to help create the future of audio conversations,” reads the tweet.
Lead engineer at Twitter Michael Montano also confirmed and praised both Berlin and Culver on their move to Twitter as a result of the deal. He tweeted that Both Erik and Leah have founded and sold startups previously and will bring an entrepreneurial spirit to their engineering team.
“I've followed Culver’s career from a distance for many years. 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,” reads the tweet.
The company has suggested that its Breaker users move to other podcast apps. This can be achieved by exporting an OPML file from the Breaker app and opening that file in another podcast app such as Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, and Pocket Casts.
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