A team within Google has reportedly been developing a new app called Shortwave which will let users discover and play podcasts. A trademark filing has been discovered for the app which describes Shortwave’s core feature as allowing “users to search, access, and play digital audio files, and to share links to audio files.”
The trademark filing doesn’t specify which kind of audio will be accessed through the app but a representative for Google has told The Verge that Shortwave will be focused on spoken word content.
No further information about the app has been revealed at this point in time. The app’s features are unknown but Google has tried its hand with translation and smart captioning in previous podcast products.
There’s already a podcasts app for Android from Google that was launched in June. It offers deep integrated with Google Assistant and supports cross-device syncing. Shortwave is being developed in Google’s Area 120 incubator and it’s not related to any current Google products.
“One of the many projects that we’re working on within Area 120 is Shortwave, which helps users discover and consume spoken-word audio in new ways,” confirmed a spokesperson for the company, adding that “Like other projects within Area 120, it’s a very early experiment so there aren’t many details to share right now.”