Podcasts now support comments on Spotify; should Apple do the same?

Today Spotify is debuting a big change for podcasts on its platform: comments. Now listeners can comment on any episode inside the Spotify app and creators can respond to their audience with ease.

Comments rolling out now on Spotify podcasts

From Spotify’s announcement post:

Our new Comments feature expands on the Q&A and polls functionality we introduced in 2021 as a way to bring interactivity into the podcasting industry for the first time. And interactivity is a feature that already has listeners and creators buzzing: More than 9 million unique Spotify listeners have interacted with a Q&A or poll just this year, and there’s been 80% year-over-year growth in the number of total Q&A responses and votes from listeners.

Comments will work just like you’d expect, and just like they do on other web platforms such as YouTube. Replies and likes will be enabled for comments, and podcasters will have the option to hold comments for review before they’re published.

A newly updated Spotify for Podcasters app is also debuting today as the place where creators can manage and interact with comments on their shows.

Will Apple Podcasts be next?

As podcasting has grown on YouTube, comments have been one of the main ways that podcasts on the platform have been differentiated from services like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Now, with another major platform adopting comments, the question is: will Apple follow suit?

There are no major changes coming to Apple Podcasts in iOS 18, just some minor tweaks, but perhaps in a future point release update, Apple will follow the example of their competitors and enable podcast comments.

Do you hope Apple Podcasts supports comments in a future update? Let us know in the comments below.