Shuffle, the app that wants to be the TikTok of podcasts

The Shuffle app allows users to edit audio clips from podcasts and share them on social networks. Image: screenshot via Shuffle

How can we discover new podcasts? How can you recommend podcasts to your friends? The new application created by Ada Yeo and Gilbert Leung aims to respond to questions like these.

“At Shuffle, we’re focused on helping people discover the best ideas and stories locked up in long podcasts,” writes Yeo on the app blog.

To do so, you need to import your podcast libraries via your usual platforms like Spotify or Apple Podcast, then edit an audio clip, excerpted from the whole program that you want to share. The app automatically generates subtitles, then offers to add text, images or background videos. You end up with an audio file of up to one minute, perfect for sharing on social media.

The TikTok influence

A beta version of the app came out in July 2020 and an enhanced public beta has been available on the App Store since October. The Android version, although announced on the app’s website, is still in development. The community of beta users allows the creators to enhance the app’s features and user experience.

Shuffle has ambitions of becoming a social network. Some users have already compared it to the “TikTok for a podcast,” revealed Yeo to Fast Company. “It’s a little bit simplistic, but I would say the idea is there.”

The application offers a content feed on its homepage where you can “scroll” through already edited videos. The design is quite similar to TikTok, as are the like, comment and share buttons. Even the tutorials for using Shuffle have been created via TikTok. NVG

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