Spotify is testing new podcast discovery feature, says report

Music streaming service Spotify is reportedly adding vertical scrolling to podcasts on the audio platform similar to a newsfeed or Reels on Instagram.

According to a new report from TechCrunch, the new interface is said to provide a vertical scrolling feed that features 60-second clips from various podcasts and uses technology that was developed by the startup company Podz.

The feature will employ a machine learning model that has been trained for over 100,000 hours of audio to make it capable of automatically suggesting selected audio clips to the individual users.

"At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests in an effort to improve our user experience," the report quotes a company's spokesperson as saying.

"Some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others serve only as an important learning. We don't have any further news to share at this time."

Spotify is also reportedly letting some Android users test a new, voice-focused car mode after it removed Car View last year without any obvious replacement. Car Mode is less like the hyper-simplified Car View that came before it and more like a version of Spotify's usual interface that's tweaked to make quick actions easier, citing 9to5Google, The Verge reported.

While the current version of Car Mode that Spotify's testing does have a tab that lets you access your recently played music, the search screen has been replaced by a voice control feature.

The interface for controlling what's currently playing has a similar layout to Spotify's regular mode, which should let you use muscle memory (without a lot of the visual distractions that are on the standard screen).

--IANS

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