Have you ever wished you could respond to a podcast as easily as you can comment on an online story or reply to a tweet? Anchor is an iOS app designed to allow for these kinds of two-way conversations; it is essentially audio blogging.

Anyone can pose a question or start a conversation with a “wave”. Responses are annotated to the wave to form a conversation. Plenty of high profiles podcasts and stations like RadioLab, WNYC and NPR are already on Anchor starting conversations with their followers.

If used creatively, Anchor could certainly grow in popularity: one clever user started a “DJ with me” wave, asking people to reply with snippets of their favourite songs.

It is an interesting concept if only for the potential to cultivate civil conversations online because it seems less likely that trolls will derail an audio debate than a text-based one. Contributing a voice recording, after all, takes more effort and seems much more personal.

https://anchor.fm/