Android

There is currently a huge imbalance between podcast consumption on iOS devices and Android devices. Zack’s team aims to address this.

“At a high level, most people in the world who have smartphones have Android phones. And at the same time, the majority of people who listen to podcasts do so on an iPhone. It’s actually so egregious that on a device-by-device basis, the average iPhone listens to over ten times more podcasting than the average Android. Most of the reasons for that don’t make sense. The fact that when you open up an iPhone, it has a podcast app and your iPhone-having friends probably have been listening to podcasts plays a big role. So we want to create an environment on Android where it’s just as easy to get started, and it’s actually the best experience possible for discovering and listening to podcasts.”

Zack observes that the Android / iOS imbalance extends to members of the podcast industry, too.

“I was recently in a room with a lot of podcasters, and I polled the room of about 60 people, ‘who here uses an Android phone?’ And only three people raised their hand. If I had been walking down the street in Chicago, 35 people might have raised their hand. And in Mumbai, it would have been 50. So there is a mismatch between people in the world at large, and people making podcasts. As more Android users join the fold, I think we will see more investment in diverse content that resonates with new listeners. There will also be more financial incentive for people in the podcast industry to understand and empathize more with these newcomers, which I’m excited about. And of course, iPhone users are a diverse group as well, so this extra demand for and creation of new content will also be a great outcome for them. If you told me 15 years ago about some of the shows and accounts that would be popular on YouTube and Instagram in 2018, I would have been surprised. I hope the same thing happens for audio, where people are making podcasts about all sorts of different things you never imagined. We’re excited to be surprised by all the creativity.”

What should podcasters ask themselves?